"I thought it was a pretty deft move," said Charlie Cook, a nonpartisan political analyst.

How to Cut Costs There are nonpartisan analysts who object to spending limits on other grounds.

Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan analyst, sees "an edge to Chapin."

Some Republicans and nonpartisan analysts said her performance seemed defensive and did not help her cause in Washington.

Hers will be an underdog campaign; Charles Cook, a nonpartisan political analyst, rates this race as "likely Republican."

Some nonpartisan analysts agree that the Democrats face some risk in criticizing the costs of postwar operations.

But nonpartisan analysts still give far more credence to the business survey, which polls 400,000 establishments, compared with the 60,000 families in the other survey.

The answer for nonpartisan analysts who study elections, such as myself, is that unemployment does not mean a whole heck of a lot.

"If it is discussed in at all a reasonable way, that may add to its credibility," Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan political analyst, said.

"To be honest, they are both kind of flat, cold personalities," said Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan political analyst.