Post-terror, Americans moving on

With that shift, partisan differences are again appearing on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers, once confident that Sept. 11 could bring them together on an economic stimulus package, are at loggerheads. Unable to agree on whether the package should stress help for the unemployed or growth through business and individual tax cuts, passage looks doubtful before Christmas - if ever.

Indeed, while Bush wants to accelerate his tax cuts to stimulate the economy, some Democrats are talking about postponing them to avoid deficits.

"Given where we are now with the recession, with the war on terrorism, I just don't think it's in our best interests to go forward with the tax cuts," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) of New York said Sunday.

"It's essentially a return to the politics of 50-50 government. That period in which we had a 100-zip government in dealing with terrorism is over," says Charles Jones, a government expert at the University of Wisconsin. "It's almost inevitable that as the president's [war] effort is successful, then other issues emerge."

But Republican strategists believe Bush is in a better position than some might expect to deal with both the recession and a divided, contentious Congress. Unlike his father, the explosions of war do not appear to have blinded George Jr. to the economy at home. Last week, he flew to Florida to meet with laid-off workers and hold a town-hall meeting on job issues. In his weekend radio address, he used the issue to pressure Congress to get on with his stalled initiatives on the economy, education, and energy.

Democrats like Mr. Greenberg describe these overtures as largely "symbolic," but they seem to resonate somewhat with the public. A just-concluded Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll found that a slim majority of Americans - 52 percent - disagree with the statement that the president is spending too much time on the war and not enough time on the economy.

At the same time, the war is still a powerful tool for Bush. Just look at last week's House vote on trading authority - which cleared by just one vote - in part by appeals to support the war president. It was arguably Bush's most important victory since the tax cut in June.

Ann, a retiree in Texas, is part of that wide swath of Americans who are starting to think about other things. A respondent to the Monitor/Tipp poll, she says Afghanistan is still all that's playing on her cable news. She's also anxious about the safety of her son, who must fly regularly between New York and St. Louis.

But, being on a limited income, she's also watching the economy - and now some movies for fun. "Life does go on," she says, "and you have to look ahead."

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