Bredesen Job Approval Ratings out - Twilight zone time....

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Wow -  Governor Bredesen (D-TN) got 65% approval in the most Republican part of the state, and 49% approval in the most Democrat.  His worst demographic was people making under 50k.

Go figure.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

In an update, I found a new quote from Bredesen...

"Democrats had their roots in small government."  He has also referred to Medicaid as "socialism"

Whoaaaaaaa

[Moooooo]

Smart man, he's doing what he needs to do in order to be re-elected in a conservative state.  He'll move left if he runs for president.

[Rob]

I hope Bredesen runs.

[The Duke]

Bredesen needs to hold his base a little better.  Republicans may like him, but he could face a third party liberal candidate that takes liberal votes away and the Republcians who like him will still vote GOP because the Republican will always be more liked by Republicans and they'll want him out of the Presidential running.

[Rob]

Bredesen needs to hold his base a little better.  Republicans may like him, but he could face a third party liberal candidate that takes liberal votes away and the Republcians who like him will still vote GOP because the Republican will always be more liked by Republicans and they'll want him out of the Presidential running.

That's true. He'd be a great VP, though.

[Erc]

This is why I'd vote for Bredesen in '08.

This is also why I won't get the chance to vote for Bredesen in '08.

[Notre Dame rules!]

Yeah, he's a great Governor.  He could lose his entire Democrat  base of support here in TN, and still win the election.  The Republicans of the state will re-elect him if the Dems won't.  He has turned out much better than our last Republican Gov.  Sundquist was a total disaster.

Hopefully, he'll come to his senses and switch parties, giving him a decent shot at winning the Presidency.

[TomC]

He's cutting 320000 people off of our health care safety net. He's cut workers comp payments by 40%. He's about to start pushing for tort reform. He has given a 2% then 1% raise to state employees over 3 years.

He has spent more on schools and is beginning to spend lottery proceeds on PreK, in addition to the mandated college scholarships.

I don't see a ton of Republicans voting for him, although some definitely will. He is much like an urban, business-friendly Republican, not a rural, social conservative. The GOP base here will vote for the Repub, if one is serious enough to challenge him. He does have a problem with his base; he almost needs a semi-serious republican to run against him so the liberal wing of the Dem party has something that scares them into seeing Bredesen is not all that bad. He avoids social issues altogther, which doesn't make him a darling of the left or right. He's a competent manager after an incompetent Republican who was fairly liberal on tax and spend, Don Sundquist. I voted for Sundquist in his reelection, mainly because the Democrat that ran against him was a joke. The Dem Party gave up on statewide races from 1995-2002 and I felt if they weren't more serious than that, they didn't really want my vote. Bredesen made the Dems hopeful again.

Personally, I'm glad Bredesen is "reforming" (read: cutting) TennCare, because it would eat the rest of the budget, especially K-12 ed and higher ed. I'm disappointed he was so aggressive cutting the workers comp amounts, I'm nervous about tort reform, although a moderate reform is probably due. But the thing that really bugs me about Bredesen is he doesn't even acknowledge social issues.