GOP Passivity
As I posted below, I believe the single biggest reason Bush will end up losing this election will have been his failure to effectively fight back against the Democrats. They can pretty much say anything about him, Cheney and his administration and there’s next to nothing in the way of rebuttal and countercharge coming from Bush. It’s almost as if he believes the voters are too smart to believe what Kerry and the rest of the kool-aid drinkers are saying about him.
Well, not only has Bush failed to respond to the verbal assault, I can guarantee he’s not going to respond to the tactics the Democrats will use to (putting it politely) ‘boost’ their vote. And just to make sure that he won’t, the Democrats have launched their pre-emptive attack designed to weaken the GOP defenses.
I agree with your assessment of the likely outcome. If the two are tied, which is what the polls show, then Kerry wins. Undecideds break 2-1 for the challenger, plus the Dem appears to have the edge in new registrations and are alwasys better at getting out the vote because of unions. Then there’s fraud as you intimated.
It is simply astounding that Bush could have come off as seemingly clueless as he did. He seemed to be hearing most of Kerry’s criticisms for the first time, even though most of it has been out there, and could only respond with generalizations. Either he’s been isolated and not even aware of a lot of that stuff, or he never bothered to think about exactly what is wrong with it, even on the eve of the debate, and apparently neither did his campaign people. The body armor accusation has been stated previously by Kerry, which Bush should have knocked out of the ballpark since it was in the $87 billion bill.
Then there’s the outright fabrications by Kerry, i.e., WMD’s are pouring across the border into Iraq, they shut down the NY subway for the convention. Either Bush didn’t see them as out and out lies, or if he did, he didn’t know how to respond. While the specific lies by Kerry weren’t predictable, I think the fact he was going to lie was, and they should have anticipated that. I think the lies will be even more extensive in the next two debates – there’ll be phony or misleading economic statistics, such as the page 1 Wash. Post article on 9/20. I predict once again Bush will not be able to respond directly to them.
Gerald A. (061471) — 10/4/2004 @ 7:30 amI think you are slightly wrong. Its not passivity. It a difference in tactics. The dems attack and use a guilt trip to defend against attacks. This is obviously hypocritical but it works. They are the worst of the attack dogs but they do it behind a shield of victimization.
The reps they just attack and try to portray a positive image. Their problem is they have no real defense. They been portrayed as liars and cheaters and meanies and they haven’t defended because they don’t understand the power of the guilt trip. They try to be strong and it plays into dems aura if victimhood.
ctob (70ea26) — 10/4/2004 @ 8:54 amer just thought of something else:
There is a reason the dems hated Reagan so much. He was like a ploitical Tai chi master. He used their soft energy against them. They couldn’t accuse him of being mean cause he was always nice. But he attacked by being nice. He would smile and shrug and say I don’t know where these guys get these crazy ideas. He wouldn’t say they were stupid or negative but he still made them look bad. The dems love to hang on the ropes and rope a dope. Reagan didn’t fall into that trap and they ( well some of them, some were just professionally frustrated by it ) hated him for it.
ctob (70ea26) — 10/4/2004 @ 8:59 ami hope the opinion that bush will lose the election is correct
on the other hand, it seems clear to me that the idea that HE has been the victim of smears overlooks the very substantial amount of lying being done about kerry
god bless america – stand beside her, and guide her, through the night (of the bush/cheney regime) with the light from above
mistah charley (4b5c0b) — 10/4/2004 @ 9:34 amI’m just wating for Edwards to use the “H” word against Cheney. Bush may miss openings, but Cheney doesn’t.
Kevin Murphy (6a7945) — 10/4/2004 @ 9:41 ammistah charley:
Don’t be naive, both sides smear each other. Thats been politics since time immemorial. This issue here is about tactics so save your silly self-righteous indignation. And if you really think that the Dems are any less dirty than the Reps then your just plain sad.
ctob (70ea26) — 10/4/2004 @ 9:52 amI agreed. Kerry really stretched the truth and Bush allowed it by not responding. Kerry accusing Bush of depriving the troops of equipment when it was Kerry voting against funds AFTER the war had started. Clinton funded the North Korean bomb and now Kerry wants to fund Iran’s bomb, yet this is somehow Bush’s fault.
I fear the next debates will be more of the same. Kerry making outrageous claims and Bush not defending himself. Kerry also likes to use words like colossal, monumental, etc.
hrc (bf276f) — 10/4/2004 @ 12:53 pmAnd what’s your rationale for declaring that Bush isn’t fighting back, not seeing it on CBS? CNN? MessNBC? Has it ever occurred to you that there’s a fight happening but you’re just not hearing about it? Before the Swiftboatees started taking out commercials, did you hear a peep about their charges on ANY of the MSM? Face it, unless it’s unavoidable, the MSM isn’t going to give one second of air time to anything that would either A) Make Kerry look bad, or B) Make Bush look good.
Hank Fenster (0730f9) — 10/4/2004 @ 3:49 pm