General vs. General: Powell, Flynn feud over hacked email slams. The latest fallout from Colin Powellâs hacked emails is pitting general versus general. While much of the attention so far regarding the leaked messages has focused on Powell's swipes at Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, he repeatedly disparaged retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a top Trump military adviser.
These three issues -- jobs, economy, and government -- have been at the top of the most important problem list since the beginning of the year. Mentions of government and politicians rose sharply to 33% in October amid the partial government shutdown, but have dipped back down.
The term issue sometimes is used more generally to refer to anything that is a source of conflict or contention, but that is not its meaning here. We are referring to public policy issues, meaning questions of what the government should or should not do. Policy issues involve conflict over the direction of government policy. Some policy issues in an election may be quite specific, such as the conditions under which abortion should be legal.