OP-ED COLUMNIST
For Bush, Bad News Is Bad News
By BOB HERBERT
Published: October 25, 2004
Here's George W. Bush's problem. How does a president win re-election when all the news the voters are seeing is bad?...
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Unable to counter the bad news with stories of major successes, the Bush campaign has turned almost exclusively to the so-called war against terror. The message in a nutshell: be very afraid....
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At the same time, the Republican Party is doing what it can in key states to block as many Democratic votes as possible. Party officials have mounted a huge organized effort to challenge - some would say intimidate - voters in states like Ohio and Florida, in a bid to offset the effects of huge voter registration drives and a potentially heavy turnout of voters opposed to Mr. Bush and his policies.
Election officials in Ohio said they'd never seen such a large drive mounted to challenge voters on Election Day.
Voter suppression is a reprehensible practice. It's a bullet aimed at the very heart of democracy. But the G.O.P. evidently considers it an essential strategy in an environment with so little positive news.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/25/opinion/25herbert.html?hp