Silky Pony, in the wake of Christopher Reeve's death, is all, "Bush is Lex Luther." And I'm sure Molly Ivins is all, "Shrub killed Superman." And John Kerry, who humped the Gipper's corpse while it lay in repose in Simi Valley, is doubtless gearing up to hump CR's corpse later in the week.
This is all not good news for Bush, white suburban women -- Security Moms-- think curing diseases is a part of keeping their families safe. Bush has allowed Kerry to paint him as a big fan of debilitating diseases. There is no ban on embryonic stem cell research, but kerry has convinced a plurality of voters that Bush has instituted such a ban. Bush's angry smirk strikes me as not a good enough answer to Kerry's mountain of bogus charges.
Bush's inability to make his case --on both the domestic and foreign policy side-- is why Kerry, an awful candidate, is doing so well. Gallup and Zogby have Kerry up.
Bush did so badly in Miami, his partisans over estimate how well he did in St. Louis. Bush wasn't a slouching bumbler in MO, but he wasn't that good either. Kerry deployed so many reasons not to vote for Bush-- stem cells, outsourcing, no WMDs found, Halliburton, and on and on. The only thing Bush had was the vote on the $87 billion-- a vote that I think should make Kerry's candidacy unviable-- but I suspect Bush has won as many votes as he can on it.
The Bushies need something new. At the very least they need to make the "Kerry sold out the troops in Iraq" charge new. It's easy to do. Joe Biden has said that Kerry was "dead wrong" not to vote for the money for the troops. Why can't Bush say that this Wednesday when Kerry repeatedly uses Hagel, McCain, and Lugar against him?
Kerry's defense of that vote is very thin and highly attackable. He says he did it because he was dissatisfied with the administration's prosecution of the war --particularly its inability to get "meaningful" international help-- and because he didn't want to give Halliburton a blank check. Why doesn't Bush explain that Halliburton has deployed with America's armed forces for forty years? Why doesn't Bush say that Halliburton was in Bosnia under the Clinton administration? Why doesn't Bush use Feingold against Kerry? Why doesn't Bush Frog and Kraut bash when Kerry mentions Halliburton? That's a proven winner with the American electorate. Why doesn't Bush mention the heroics of Tommy Hamil and the KBR guys who died in the line of duty in Iraq? Even Cheney, who destroyed Edwards in Cleveland, fumbled on Halliburton.
Bush will have to do very well Wednesday night in Tempe-- chances are that he won't. Judging from the first two debates, Bush might be unpreparable. In addition, his preparers aren't that great either. Hughes has never been a favorite of mine.
I tend to believe David Frum-- another guy I don't think a lot of-- when he said that Hughes "loathed risk and abhorred ideas . . . rarely read books and distrusted people who did." Maybe it's just me, but I think the President's go-to-girl should be very idea friendly.
Bush is a likable guy. His instincts can be really good. His "Need wood?" quip was a winner, but not enough to get him re-elected. There is a compelling case against Kerry, it just seems that Bush can't make it.
Why hasn't there been lots of hay made about the Heinz-Kerrys' "Leave no loophole behind" approach to paying their taxes? Isn't John "liveshot" Kerry the millionaire dufus chilling by the pool that Silky Pony railed against in the Veep debate? Can't the Bushies amend that to windsurfing in Nantucket and hit one out of the park? What the Hell is the Club for Growth doing with their cash on hand?
CFG might just be remembered in this cycle for torpedoing the very beatable Dean in Iowa and not laying a glove on Kerry in the general.
My sense is that BC04 is in trouble. I live in a critical swing state and had the occassion to visit a part of my state that is a little bit country and a little bit rock n' roll, next to me at a long red light was a a young couple (probably no older than 19-- kinda a Jack and Diane or Billy Joe and Bobby Sue couple) in a Ford pickup (people in Ford pickups are generally bullish on Bush) with an anti-Bush sticker (like these) on it.
I'm thinking it's probably not a good sign that cornfed kids, who don't want Mumia freed, who live in a place that's more of a town than a city, a place with a rodeo arena that's well attended, are that hostile to Bush. How has Rove allowed this to happen? We have twenty days to fix it.
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