June 22, 2004
Losing His Religion
Well, not quite his religion so much as his advantage over Kerry on the of terrorism - Bush is finally reaping the rewards of making the one-to-one equation between Iraq and the war on terrorism.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - Bush's framing apparatus, or whatever you want to call it, is in serious need of a replacement. In terms of his run of the presidency, Bush has failed to successfully augment any public perception of his policies, and the only thing they stuck to Kerry (flip-flopper) still hasn't sunk him with relation to Bush. Kerry's also up by four to eight points (depending on if Nader's in the race.
I'm continually amazed at how this year is going for the Bush campaign. They pretty much negated the impact of their own ads (the strategy to overwhelm Kerry with negative ads, I think, just flooded people's living rooms with ads way too early, and turned them off to whatever message they contained - plus, it just put Kerry everywhere), and whatever policy apparatus they've decided to use has been either invisible or nonsensical.
If a similar movement is shown across multiple polls, it may be time for Bush's campaign to go into desperation mode. His approval rating's also at 47%.
In fact, other than Iraq (a narrow edge), Kerry leads Bush in every major policy category. Including, to my surprise, taxes. If Bush can't fall back on his major domestic initiatives after being unable to rely on his foreign policy...what, exactly, does he have?
Posted by Jesse Taylor at June 22, 2004 09:24 AM | TrackBackSure Bush isn't exactly lighting it up when it comes to countering terrorism, but Kerry would be better? How the hell would anyone know that? What evidence does anybody have to back that up? I will believe it if I see it.
Posted by: Earl Turner at June 22, 2004 09:40 AMWell, Kerry does take very expensive vacations. That's got to count for something.
Posted by: Gordon at June 22, 2004 09:40 AMwhat else does he have?
don't count out the bounce he'd get from bringing OBL's severed head to the RNC convention as an encore to his acceptance speech. (not that i'd mind the idea of OBL's head without its neck, of course)
Posted by: cleek at June 22, 2004 09:46 AMEarl Turner said:
" How the hell would anyone know that? What evidence does anybody have to back that up? I will believe it if I see it."
Well Earl - it looks like you might get a chance to see it.
Check out Krugman's piece today. It exposes the Bush Administration (via Ashcroft) for its dangerous treatment of domestic vs. foreign terrorism.
There is no possible way that a Kerry Administration could do worse than Ashcroft...
Posted by: jeffrey at June 22, 2004 10:04 AM"What evidence does anybody have to back that up?"
None, but that is kind of the point of being the challenger. Incumbents have a record, good or ill, of exactly what they will do as president. Challengers don't because they haven't been president yet.
Duh.
Posted by: chris at June 22, 2004 10:07 AMwhat, exactly, does he have?
Rightwing talk radio stirring up nuts with guns.
what, exactly, does he have?
Ummm...Karen thinks he looks hot in a flightsuit?