Why listen to the innane and duplicitous drivel of
Bill Schnookerd and Jeff Greenfold (SeeNotNews' lead
propapunditgandists) when you can revel in the
insights of the incomparable Gene Lyons...
Enjoy this reality-check from the campaign trail, and
keep the DNC exhortation of another great
American from Arkansas (Bubba) in your consciousness,
"Remember the Scripture, Be Not Afraid."
Gene Lyons, Arkansas Democrat Gazette: As the
incumbent, Bush is conducting one of the oddest
campaigns in American history. Because he can’t easily
run on vanishing jobs, humongous budget deficits and
the mess in Iraq, or say much about the future, what’s
he going to promise, bigger tax cuts? Bush preaches to
the converted at invitation-only events limited to
campaign volunteers, congregations from conservative
churches and people willing to sign party loyalty
oaths. Anybody wearing a John Kerry T-shirt is hustled
off the premises. Avoiding the national press, he
holds so-called "Ask President Bush" sessions at which
preselected voters toss him verbal bouquets. Miss
America contestants face tougher cross-examination...
Meanwhile, the Kerry-Edwards duo are drawing large, volatile crowds. It’s not news that Democrats are energized, but the big turnout may tell more about the race’s momentum than Kerry’s steady climb in "swing state" polls.
Restore the Timeline, Show Up for Democracy in 2004:
Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.nwanews.com/adg/story_Editorial.php?storyid=22035
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Playing not to lose
Gene Lyons
Posted on Wednesday, August 18, 2004
As the presidential campaign drifts
through the August doldrums,
President Bush appears to be playing not to lose. In
sports, the phrase is used to criticize teams that
play too timidly. In politics, it means waiting for
your opponent to make a blunder. As the incumbent,
Bush is conducting one of the oddest campaigns in
American history. Because he can’t easily run on
vanishing jobs, humongous budget deficits and the mess
in Iraq, or say much about the future, what’s he going
to promise, bigger tax cuts? Bush preaches to the
converted at invitation-only events limited to
campaign volunteers, congregations from conservative
churches and people willing to sign party loyalty
oaths. Anybody wearing a John Kerry T-shirt is hustled
off the premises. Avoiding the national press, he
holds so-called "Ask President Bush" sessions at which
preselected voters toss him verbal bouquets. Miss
America contestants face tougher cross-examination. In
the aptly named Niceville, Fla., one fellow announced,
"I’m 60 years old and I’ve voted Republican from the
very first time I could vote. And I also want to say
this is the very first time that I have felt that God
was in the White House."
Blessedly, Bush did appear uneasy with the notion he
might actually be God, cleverly diverting attention to
his brother, Jeb, the Florida governor. When a woman
in Beaverton, Ore., asked him to pray for the state
because of its high proportion of "unchurched"
citizens, Bush awkwardly reminded her that "people can
choose church or not church, and they’re equally
American." Thank God for that.
Besides avoiding skeptics and collecting warm fuzzies,
such rallies hold another advantage for Bush: Slimy
insinuations by GOP dirty-tricks ops like the Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth come from other people’s
mouths. Also at Beaverton, Bush took a question from a
guy, who claimed to have served six tours in Vietnam,
who questioned Kerry’s Purple Hearts. "We’ve got a
candidate for president out here with two
self-inflicted scratches," he said, "and I take that
as an insult."
Actually, Kerry earned three Purple Hearts during his
second tour in Vietnam and carries shrapnel in his
leg. Bush, whose own Pentagon records show no evidence
he drilled with his National Guard unit in 1972, had a
swell chance to repudiate the Swift Boat calumnies
paid for by Texas Republicans, contradicted by
voluminous military records and publicized by Merrie
Spaeth, the widow of his 1994 gubernatorial running
mate, the late Tex Lezar. "Thank you for your
service," he said. "Six tours? Whew. That’s a lot of
tours."
If Bush had a rock band, he could dub his campaign the
"No Class" tour and sell T-shirts. Which, come to
think of it, illuminates his dilemma. The purpose of
Bush’s restricted-access events is to generate
feel-good images on local TV. But ask anybody who’s
seen the Rolling Stones live if it was more
stimulating than an HBO concert. There’s a visceral
excitement at live campaign rallies that can’t be
matched by TV.
To prevail, Bush needs to win over voters who didn’t
support him in 2000 or didn’t vote at all. Campaigning
in his own traveling White House Rose Garden won’t get
it done.
Meanwhile, the Kerry-Edwards duo are drawing large,
volatile crowds. It’s not news that Democrats are
energized, but the big turnout may tell more about the
race’s momentum than Kerry’s steady climb in "swing
state" polls.
Even Kerry’s convoluted speaking style may be turning
to his advantage. Two recent attempts by Bush and Dick
Cheney to portray him as a "flip-flopper" may have
awakened a slumbering press corps. From inside the
bubble, Bush claimed that Kerry had voted for the Iraq
war, morphed into an "anti-war" candidate, then
flipped back.
But a careful analysis by Slate’s Will Saletan showed
that Kerry’s stance hasn’t changed: It was right to
give the president authority to threaten force to make
Iraq admit United Nations arms inspectors, wrong of
Bush to alienate U.S. allies and stampede to war. On
MSNBC’s "Hardball," Chris Matthews confronted a Bush
spokesman with repeated showings of a video clip GOP
imagineers had twisted to distort Kerry’s meaning. If
that kind of journalism becomes trendy, Bush may have
to appear at country clubs only. Meanwhile, Cheney
went on rightwing talk radio to mock Kerry for backing
a more "sensitive" war on terror. Laughing, he said,
"It strikes me the two words don’t really go together,
sensitive and war. If you look at our history, I don’t
think any of the wars we’ve won were won by us being,
quote, ‘ sensitive. ’" Same show, minutes later: Why
weren’t U.S. troops storming the Imam Ali shrine in
Najaf where Shiite militiamen are holed up? "Well,
from the standpoint of the shrine," Cheney said,
"obviously it is a sensitive area, and we are very
much aware of its sensitivity."
• Free-lance columnist Gene Lyons is a Little Rock
author and recipient of the National Magazine Award.