MSNBC compares Cheney to "the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5412185/site/newsweek

But the loose change at the edges of the Democratic base is crucial. Edwards comes across as a Clinton without the closet, the product of a Piedmont textile town where folks speak with a courtly caution about the ups and downs of local history. As such, Edwards deeply understands something invisible to the patrician Kerry: the lives and values of rural voters who often have a folk memory of Democratic ties. They form the bulk of the swing voters in states such as Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. The Sunshine Boys wasted no time trying to reach them by defining "values" as honesty (read: where are the WMD?), a fair chance for a good job for everyone (read: Cheney's Halliburton, "Kenny Boy" Lay and "tax cuts for the rich") and pride in America's role as the world's moral leader (read: what about Abu Ghraib?).

The GOP and BC '04 mantra is as clear as it is familiar: that Kerry is "out of the mainstream" on a host of issues, among them his votes against "parental notification" laws on abortion, his low official ratings from the National Rifle Association (though Kerry is a hunter and an excellent shot) and his opposition to a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to the union of a man and a woman. Edwards's career as a trial lawyer will hurt him with swing voters in the suburban South, says GOP consultant Ralph Reed, who oversees the Bush-Cheney campaign in the Southeast. "Most of them are small-business types," he said, "and they don't like lawsuits."

Republicans were delighted to see Kerry and Edwards show up at a record-setting fund-raiser in New York City, where Whoopi Goldberg made crotch jokes, John Mellencamp called Bush a "thug" and Kerry called all the performers "the heart and soul of America." The event, far more Manhattan than Mayberry, "undercuts a lot of what was trying to do last weekend and with Edwards," said Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for BC '04.

Perhaps, but Cheney isn't necessarily the man to make the sale in the heartland, either. On a bus trip through Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, he generated local headlines, but seemed ill at ease when not surrounded by security and guaranteed a friendly audience. Urged to speak to the traveling press corps, he emerged like the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil—and quickly saw his own shadow. "I'm not going to say anything significant at all," he barked, "so quit taking notes." White House insiders insist Bush would never dump Cheney, whom they plan to use in laser-guided fashion to bring out the GOP vote. Nor will they bother attempting a makeover. "We're not going to put him in earth tones," said one. But the NEWSWEEK Poll shows that the president would enjoy a 53-44 percent lead if Colin Powell were his running mate, and a 49-47 lead with Sen. John McCain. In Pennsylvania, some Republicans last week touted their ex-governor Tom Ridge, who now heads the Department of Homeland Security. As for Kerry and Edwards, they were still on the road together, tossing a football on a tarmac, this time in New Mexico. Their lineup was set. Now all they have to do is score in November.

[cthrumatrix]

1. that's so "unfair" to Phil.....

[blueknight]

3. the groundhog

is much better looking and probably uses better language

[lovedems]

2. He is more like a cockroach or termite then he is a groundhog.

Groundhogs have some semblence of cuteness about them.

[Don_G]

4. This Is Much More Accurate

[NC_Nurse]

5. It irks me that

they keep bringing up the jokes at that benefit concert when "Mr. Values" went and told someone to Go Fuck Himself! What hypocrisy!!!! He was SERIOUS! Isn't that much worse?

Aren't people smart enough to know the difference?

Why are these a**holes always getting miffed about stupid minor things? Is this really supposed to make a difference to the average American. Are people really too stupid to see the diufference between these two types of vulgarity? Funny vs. vicious?

Am I totally off base about this?:shrug:

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

7. What do you expect from a "base" that...

"defends" or "deflects" Cheney telling someone to go fuck themselves on the floor of the Senate by saying "HEY! Kerry said "fuck" in Rolling Stone! What about THAT?"

The rules of logic do not apply here.

:evilgrin:

[readmylips]

8. Worse: Little bush made jokes about the war....

during a press party, the same day that 20 soldiers were killed. Someone has to come up with those inhumane jokes and make an ad.

[Solly Mack]

6. Born on Feb, 2nd...truly resent the comparison

we groundhogs might be rodents but we're NOT dick cheney...