MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“It's the economy, stupid”

The phrase became famous in the early nineties when United States president George Bush Sr., the victorious commander of the allied troops that liberated Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's occupation was running for a second term.

An unknown governor from a poor southern state, Bill Clinton, emphasizing on the state of the US economy and the feeble pockets of US consumers, finally frustrated Mr. Bush's ambitions.

Now a similar scenario seems to be building up even when current president George W. Bush Jr. hasn't been so victorious in his defeat of Saddamn Hussein's regime and occupation of Iraq.

According to the latest public opinion poll published by Newsweek, a majority of Americans would not vote again for Mr. Bush, but not because of the frustrating Iraq situation but rather because of the economy.

Newsweek poll indicates that 49% are against a second term for Mr. Bush while 44% support him.

Further more 48% pointed out that the recovery of the economy and employment must be the priorities of the government, while only 23% considered that national security should absorb all efforts. Actually 69% believe the US is heading for a quagmire and will be unable to reconstruct Iraq and 40% are particularly concerned about "how long the troops have to remain".

A growing 66% believes that spending a billion US dollars per week in Iraq is "too much" while 34% support the Bush administration decision. But 47% of those interviewed stressed that keeping troops in Iraq is ballooning the budget deficit and will harm the economy.

"It's the economy, stupid".