the republicans are talking about the economy and inflation. they are talking about crime they are talking about the border and democrats are talking about abortion, threats to democracy and climate. and these things don't intersect. and so each party is out there talking to a different segment of the electorate. problem for the democrats two fold. one is the republican issues are more important to the voters. we saw that with issue of 451% think the economy and inflation is the number one issue. so, their issue set is not as important. second of all, problematic for them, independents in this election are looking more like republicans. that is to say their concerns are more like the republican concerns than the democratic concerns. and finally, the interesting thing to me is one of the issues that democrats are put a lot of emphasis on is threats to democracy. and, yet, there is a new abc, "the washington post" poll that showed that their lead on this issue is 47-43. that is to say they are thought by 47% of the people to be better able to handle that issue than the republicans who got 43. and why? because each side has its own