Bush is looking so bad, how can the race be tied?

[Mountainman]

The pictures of the returning coffins not being shown
The marines retreat in Iraq and the support for Saddam's generals
The pictures of the tortured prisoners
The need to talk to the 9/11 commission with Cheney along side
The walk out of the war by Spain
The pull out of BP from the rebuilding
The publishing of tell all books by White House insiders

Day after day he looks like he is not in control of anything yet 50% of the people are still drinking the cool aide. Why?

[David Dunham]

1. The economy is better now than in 2003, 2002, or 2001.

[Th1onein]

13. Huh?

[Digit]

17. I certainly don't believe it is better

HA! My neighbor, who is a college graduate by the way, applied for a summer job to help make ends meet. The pay? A mere $7.50 per hour and it is a temporary job at that.
I guess that is one of those great jobs counted to make the economy seem better than it is.
:eyes:

[MoonRiver]

30. What a laugh!

Maybe its better for the top 2%, but not the rest of US.

[Joanne98]

2. Willful ignorance

Murkins don't want to be bothered.

[ChompySnack]

3. They keep pretending that Nader is pulling 7%

It's a lie.

[alittlelark]

19. It is most definately a LIE

I know 8 people who voted Nader in '00 - not a single one of them will do so again. I know of NO nader voters. Hell, Nader couldn't even get 1,000 people together in Oregon to make the ballot!!


These polls are a big pile of festering feces...their only purpose is to make it seem as though * 'won' an election through Diebold theft. If the #'s are w/in 6 or so % pts, they are hoping they can declare a Diebold victory w/o a new American revolution.

[Az]

4. Two words: Culture War

We are soaking in it.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. It isn't.

[progressiveBadger]

6. Nader won't even get on the ballot

in most of the places these polls are taking place.

[LisaM]

7. Even a successful diet has plateaus....

If he went down too far now, he'd start bouncing back up. Say he was down to 5%, then somehow got it back up to 10. All the pundits would say, "Bush's Approval Rating Doubles"!

[Steely_Dan]

8. Denial, Extreme Denial

Most Americans do not want to admit that 700+ soldiers died for no good reason. They would rather live in denial, believing that we could not have done something so horrific under the leadership of someone so dim. They are in complete and total denial. It will take a while for all of this to set in.

-Paige

[buddy22600]

10. no it is not 700+

it is more like just over 100,000. That is why we are backing out of fallujah. The extended tours of duty are for soldiers who are already dead. bush is planning a nuclear attack on major US "troop positions" that he can blame on bin laden. That will explain why none of our troops will return

[alittlelark]

20. wow.....

I'll put on my :tinfoilhat:

and contemplate that one.

[drfemoe]

9. Excuses?

By Ron Fournier, AP Political Writer | April 30, 2004

WASHINGTON -- It's a recurring nightmare for Democratic strategist Tony Coelho -- the party's presidential candidate portrayed as a flip-flopping opportunist, ill-served by a strife-torn staff. It happened in 2000, when Coelho ran Al Gore's campaign. Now, it's happening to John Kerry.

Democratic leaders fear he's getting "Gored."

"What the Kerry people don't understand is, it's succeeding," Coelho said.

Scores of Kerry supporters like the former California congressman say their initial response is to remain hopeful, based on polls showing the presumptive nominee tied with President Bush while the Democratic Party is better funded and more united than in 2000. But they are worried about history repeating itself.

"No question, it's a rerun of 2000," said Donna Brazile, campaign manager for the former vice president's 2000 race.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/kerry/articles/2004/04/30/newsview_dems_fear_kerry_looks_like_gore

Makes me a little uncomfortable that these guys are already making excuses for a *loss*.

[Zinfandel]

11. Have you seen Kerry give a speech? He doesn't reek of charisma & excitement

and motivation that Bill Clinton encouraged and had.

For many it's, "anybody but Bush"...that's why I'm voting for Kerry.

[Pepperbelly]

12. Yes and I actually find his style pleasing and impressive...

the Kerry=Boring is just another trot-out of an approved, Conventional Wisdom script that our reporters so dearly love. Kerry sonorous voice, the cadence of his speech, the images ... he does very well.

He does even better in one-on-one interviews.

[Lindacooks]

16. Maybe so, but he can string a coherent sentence together...

which is more than chimpy can do.

I am so sick of pResidents who can't speak extemporaneously. We suffered through that with dimwit Reagan, Bush I, and now the chimp. For eight years, it was a pleasure to hear a President speak when Clinton was in the White House. Now, once again, we've devolved to a dipwad who has the speaking skill of a 4-year-old (apologies to 4-year-olds everywhere) and the reading skill of a 1st grader (apologies to 1st graders everywhere).

[liveoaktx]

22. But Lesley Stahl on Tweety made a good point about this

The Reagan-emulated-by-Bush persona of saying stuff in bold terms. She said that people really like Bush (that's debatable but for the ones that DO haven't you noticed that they seem to love his persona, and we already know he pays inordinate attention to his body language). It's not that people in general can tell you what Bush believes in and Lesley says he's running, basically on his personality and strength, rather than issues. (I also think the media is hugely complicit in shaping him this way since they do not show his failures but rather small sound bites best to show him off).
She further said that what Kerry does not have is a trait called "Hillbillying" (which is NOT, so far as I know, a Texas term, hillbillies are called rednecks down here) but basically the ability to charm others, including the press. She suggested that Kerry cultivate this and I have to say, I agree.
It's a sad situation that such a MORON, far-right radical can rise in the polls due to simply parrotting a phrase for the public while shaking his head, but realistically, Kerry needs to level that personality field a bit and warm up. Heck, even Gore warmed up eventually, it just took him until AFTER 2001 to do it.

[Sparkly]

23. Kerry is who he is

and I'd hate to see him coached into something phoney. He's not without a personality; his personality just isn't "good ol'boy" or "gameshow host" or whatever else people have come to want from politicians. I think it's time to vote for people because they'd be best at the job, period.

Would Kerry be easier to sell to the masses if he were more like Clinton in style? Sure. But he's not. He is who he is, and I think it's our job as supporters to put the idea out there that it's ENOUGH to be a good president!!

[liveoaktx]

26. I don't disagree but realistically

what is being pointed out is that Bush is very deliberately cultivating that image, because he has NOTHING ELSE. He not only is working on his body language and is probably coached to use it to full effect (bet it includes NLP). Suggesting that Kerry simply ratchet up his personality in order to give him an extra edge to add to his running platform is a perfectly legit idea, and one that a lot of people in various walks of lie practice (as in the business world) to get ahead.

I say this because I'd like to see him get a clean 10-20 points on Chimpo. chimpo is hanging himself due to his stupidity but it's NOT because kerry is necessarily pulling ahead strongly.

[Sparkly]

28. I do know what you mean

and I heard Leslie Stahl's remarks, too. I agree that the Chimp has nothing else (and frankly, I don't understand the "likeability" thing -- he affects me like nails on a chalkboard).

I think the best we can get is a Kerry who smiles here and there -- yet he did that with Tweety, seemed quite relaxed, and is getting hammered for "being angry" in that interview.

I just don't want him to get distracted with it the way, in my view, Gore did. Then it just gets fake, and it's worse. It may be unrealistic, but I'd like to think people can look at the "nothing else" about the Chimp and decide having a smart, eloquent president is more important than having one they'd like to invite to their Barbeque.

[liveoaktx]

29. And I'm with you too that I don't want to see a phony

but i keep thinking about how warmed up Gore was AFTER the election, got rid of the stiffness, grew a beard, became more of a regular guy. Those of us that liked him anyway (I voted for him) would have liked him anyway, but suppose he had given himself an edge by cultivating more of that warmth during the election?

Someone from work says that Kerry is not a *common* man. Well, what the heck makes a common man? It's not the money, Bush is rich as croesus, it can ONLY be the mannerisms, the sometimes aw shucks, yuk it up (I saw Bush laughing it up today in an aw shucks way and his whole body was yukking up and down) that make him look like one of the guys. I don't want to see Kerry do that, Bush makes my skin crawl, but i WOULD like to see him do MORE on the warmth and personable stuff, like looking at the camera more, smiling more, stuff like that.

[drfemoe]

25. ho ho

Your post triggered an insight. whoosh* mentioning "body language" . LOL . One of his trainers must have coached him on body language, so now he mentions it as being an important component of testifying. Totally lacking in mature judgment.

whoosh* - the sound of information zooming by overhead

[liveoaktx]

27. With you-I thought it was interesting that NONE of the news media

mentioned his comment in his press conference yesterday about how he wanted the 911 commission to *see his body language*. They simply cut it off, I'm sure because it sounds a little nutty. But when one considers that Bush spends lots of time every day working out in the gym (more time than he spent on the August 6th PDB) and tries through his physicality rather than his brain power to woo voters... as well as the constant stagecraft, he's a created actor (that has trouble remembering his lines but not his mannerims), seeing this has to be more than just acknowledging it but working against THE strong suit of Bush.

[killbotfactory]

14. Because he's treated like a fragile child by the media

And Bush has an effective propaganda machine... though it seems to be running out of gas. You can only make so many excuses for your failures before people start to wake up.

[MsUnderstood]

15. It is the media, stupid. ..

And I am by no means calling you stupid, just pulling in that old catch phrase.

Charles Gibson, attacked Kerry for confusing the words Medals and Ribbons. Charlie is also the nice guy from Good Morning America.

We have tons of shows dedicated to loving Bush, God, Patriotism, the war in Iraq--what is being done for the "Liberal side".

hannity and colmes? The "liberal guy" was attacking Kerry's style last night.

What in the heck is going on when we spend more time talking about the style and ignoring the message.

This battle (the lines clearly drawn by the republicans who continue to feed the media outlets) is like David and Goliath--except we don't have a slingshot.

[indepat]

18. Well, there's the brain-washed, the brain dead, and polls smacking of BBV

peculiarities.

[0007]

21. You forget to factor in the fudge factor

which is around 12% with a -.03% error rate. In reality junior's numbers are about 36% - Kerry is running at 59% with about 5% on the fence.

[LeahMira]

24. Who told you the race is tied?

Day after day he looks like he is not in control of anything yet 50% of the people are still drinking the cool aide. Why?

Who is telling you that 50% of the people are still pro-Chimp? It wouldn't be the media, would it?

Mountainman, I'm so sick and tired of hearing how close this election is going to be that I could scream. No one I know likes the clown prince. I've been actually surprised because I generally don't ask people their political party although I have my suspicions when we talk. But of late, even those I thought were pretty conservative have said they are fed up with Bush. True, I live on the east coast, but even in "slower" Delaware (downstate, where it's much more rural; they like that life's slower there), the people I speak with are ABB.

Sometimes I think the media wants us to think it's going to be close because close would give them a larger audience. If Kerry doesn't pull this one by about 60-40, I'll be surprised.