The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes examines the upsurge in recent support for the GOP and asks (rhetorically), why the dramatic shift in polling numbers? For Barnes,

the answer is issue inversion. Issues that were paramount in voters’ minds before the attacks–health care, Social Security, the environment–are now peripheral. These are Democratic issues. And issues that were peripheral–terrorism, national security, homeland security–are now central. These are Republican issues. Bush pursues the war and talks constantly about security. Democrats insist they’re with the president on the war, but since they don’t hold the White House they can’t direct the war effort. Instead, they spend most of their time talking up Democratic domestic issues, including the newest one, the Enron scandal.

For the time being and perhaps longer, Americans prefer both Bush’s decisive actions in pressing the war and his tough, patriotic message.

Nicely considered argument, but I think its the “decisiveness” (moreso than any “issue inversion,” say) that’s really done the trick — in particular, this adminstration’s willingness (and here’s the irony for you) to ignore opinion polls! Instead, the Bushies follow their own seasoned instincts and, so far at least, their successes have commanded our trust.

[Update: the above opining motivated Hipster Blogger Oliver Willis to write of yours truly, “[a]nother misguided Conservablogger