the national attention span

Is it lengthening? Surprisingly, a WSJ/NBC News poll finds a

high level of public interest fully 20 months before Election Day. About three in four Americans say they are following the campaign “fairly” or “very” closely; that’s not far below the proportion that reported paying close attention to the president race in October 2000 — one month before the election.

So I guess Feiler Faster is out the window for this election. Or maybe we are all just dying for a new cast of characters to follow after the Bush crowd and the Republican Congress … wore out their welcome.

The same poll finds that Giuliani has a 21-point lead over McCain for the Republican nomination. (The poll was taken March 2-5—after the little Mo for Rudy and before the knifing he took this week over his dysfunctional family. And also before that Southern Baptist declared today that not only the fact of Giuliani’s divorce but especially the style of his divorce made him a no-no for evangelicals.)

The war on terrorism, highlighted by the war in Iraq, is much on the mind of the American people, the poll finds.

Americans’ mood about the conflict hasn’t improved since Mr. Bush announced his new policy of sending another 21,500 troops to improve security in Baghdad and the rest of the country. Just 20% of respondents characterize themselves as “more confident” the war will conclude successfully, while 69% say “less confident”; that’s essentially unchanged since January.

Nor are Americans feeling positive about the war against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Just 28% say that conflict is going well, while 69% say it isn’t.

No surprise there, because it isn’t going well.