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> Nixon has pre-empted the Viet Nam issue. Last spring the war in Viet Nam seemed to be the linchpin of McGovern's campaign. So sure was he of his support in that area that he sought to broaden his base and find new issues. But the TIME poll clearly indicates that it is Nixon and not McGovern who is now winning points on Viet Nam. In fact, it appears to be one of Nixon's key strengths and one of McGovern's most serious weaknesses. The war continues to be the No. 1 issue among voters, but 64% feel the President is "doing everything he can to end it." In the first Yankelovich poll, 47% picked Nixon as the "real peace candidate" compared with 39% for McGovern. This time round, 55% of the voters chose Nixon and only 30% McGovern, a net loss of 17 points in the spread.
> In spite of the voters' obvious concern over the economy, McGovern's efforts to spell out his own solutions seem to have backfired. Voters in the sample list the economy as their main concern after the war. But in the same breath, 48% say that Nixon has done everything he can to keep prices down. Asked to choose between the candidates, 52% picked Nixon and only 21% McGovern. Those figures represent a 13-point gain in the spread for Nixon over the previous poll. On which candidate can best close tax loopholes, McGovern led Nixon in the previous Yankelovich poll, 40% to 21%. In the current poll, voters astonishingly picked Nixon, 35% to 31%, even though the President has yet to spell out his tax reform proposals (see THE ECONOMY). McGovern fares no better on welfare and unemployment. Asked whose welfare proposals most resemble their own views, the voters gave Nixon a 25-point spread over McGovern. By a margin of 18 points, they judged him better able to provide jobs for everyone.
>At the beginning of the campaign, McGovern clearly hoped to draw on a deep well of dissatisfaction and bitterness among American voters—and that may have been his biggest miscalculation. To be sure, American voters are angry, but what they seem to be angriest about are attacks on their country. Asked if they were sick and tired of hearing people attack patriotism and American values, 75% of the voters sampled, including 59% of McGovern sympathizers, responded yes. Asked their view of the state of the nation, 9% said that they thought things were going "very well" and 50% said that things were going "fairly well," showing a majority relatively content with the status quo. Those twin moods—satisfaction with their own life and fear of those who would change it—surfaced in other responses. Asked whether the country "has to change a lot faster," a majority of blacks agreed, but a plurality of whites (49% to 46%) did not.
By constantly appealing to people's fears and dissatisfactions and demanding change without articulating a lofty vision of his own, McGovern may well have alienated many of the people he was trying to reach.
>McGovern has lost his populist appeal. One month ago, voters picked McGovern over Nixon 47% to 25%, as the man most likely to deal fairly with "the little man." Now those same voters give a 2-percentage-point edge to Nixon on the same question.