GOP strategists: Focus on the economy, not the mosque, in the midterms

Pollster David Winston, who advises GOP congressional leaders, worries that the mosque controversy could overshadow the issues voters care about most. “While this is certainly an issue that has generated a lot of emotion, when it comes to voting, the election is going to be about the economy and jobs,” he said.

Others fear that the party risks appearing intolerant of religious differences…

Strategists in both parties say that they think the issue will be all but forgotten by November.

“The support for criticizing a mosque is half a mile wide and an inch deep,” conservative activist Grover Norquist warned. “And at the end of the process, the only people who will remember it are the people who feel threatened by this — not just Muslims, but Sikhs, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Mormons.”