Josh Benson notes that John Kerry has given the Democrats better polling on the taxes issue than Republicans for the first time in decades: Republicans have "owned" the tax issue for the better part of half a century, but all that may be changing with this election. An ABC News/Washington Post poll from two weeks ago found that, when asked, "Who would you trust more to handle taxes?" Kerry led Bush 49% to 43%. By contrast, when asked a similar question in late July of 2000, voters chose Bush over Al Gore by 15 points. Given the historical advantage of Republicans on the tax issue, John Kerry's ability to claw to parity is remarkable: Bush delivered wildly on his 2000 campaign promises, only to lose ground on taxes to the Democrats. To be fair, I think it's Bush, not Kerry, who deserves the credit for utterly shredding the GOP's credibility on the tax issue, as local and state taxes have shot up nation-wide to accomodate Bush's combination of tax cuts and spending hikes and to compensate for Bush's concurrent spending cuts in the areas that hurt.