The Democrats, driven to desperation by Bush’s double-digit convention bounce (unprecedented for an incumbant’s convention) are now following Susan Estrich’s disgusting embrace of the politics of mass destruction and doing whatever they can to smear the President.
Democrats should be hanging their heads in shame at this. Not only is it juvenile and beneath contempt, but it isn’t even effective.
Everyone knows that George W. Bush was out of control in his early years. Even he has admitted such. He smoke too much, drank too much.
But what made George W. Bush different is that he quit cold turkey. As Newsweek tells this week:
He dated his own turnaround to 1972, when he began jogging regularly. Charlie Younger, a Houston friend, recalls his running flat-out to win in 117-degree heat, whether he had been drinking the night before or not. Terry Johnson, an old Texas and Yale friend, recalls a memorable golf game with Bush shortly before the ’88 election. Before they teed up, Bush told Johnson, “Guess what? I decided to quit smoking. Chewing tobacco, too.” Johnson asked, “When did you decide this?” Bush answered, “This morning.”
“About halfway through,” Johnson remembered, “he just starts shaking. It was pretty clear he was going through some bad withdrawal symptoms. He was spraying the balls all over the place. I told him, ‘Maybe we should stop.’ He wouldn’t hear it. ‘No, we’re gonna keep moving, we’re going to finish’.” Johnson said: “I’ve never seen anything like that, ever.”
The innuendos, the smears, the lies, about George W. Bush won’t stick. Unlike John Kerry, Bush has not made this campaign about his past – and when he has mentioned his past it has always been in contrast to the person he is now. If anything, it will remind voters exactly how tough and resolute he is. Anyone who can drive himself to quit smoking and drinking cold turkey through nothing less than sheer force of will is not someone to be trifled with.
I predicted the Democrats would pull something like this, and I shouldn’t be surprised that they did. Here’s a hint – the reason you’re losing has nothing to do with the Swift Boat vets, and it sure as hell has absolutely nothing to do with the Democrats not being mean enough. You’re the ones making the comparisons to Hitler here.
The Democrats problem is that they are a party that is motivated by hate, berefit of new ideas, and standing on the wrong side of history. What is Kerry’s plan for Iraq? Where does Kerry stand on the issues? What proposals did he elucide when he had the attention of the entire nation in Boston? The only message that came out was that Kerry is not George W. Bush and he served in Vietnam. The Democrats’ anger and vitriol will be their undoing – and it won’t happen to nicer people.
No one gives a damn about what happened 30 years ago. What matters is who will stand up to the murderers and savages now? Bush is up by a wide margin – if the Democrats keep this smear campaign up, it will be a lot wider soon.
Sorry Jay, but I gotta give it to the Dems on this one. Not that I approve what they are doing, but you can’t have a double standard. You can’t be against “anger and vitriol” and resoundingly endorse Zell Miller’s speech at the RNC. You can’t talk about honesty and follow the Swift Boat charges like they were the sequel to Watergate. This is karma, pure and simple.
The Zell Miller speech was hard hitting, but focused on Kerry’s voting record. It was fair game.
There is no comparison between that and the numerous comparisons of Bush to Hitler, accusing Bush of mass rape, of plotting a war for financial gain, etc.
The Swift charges are due to the focus that Kerry himself made on his Vietnam record. He’s the one to blame for that…and the fact that he really did betray the American soldiers in Vietnam upon coming home. Again, it is very legitimate, and shows much about Kerry and his character, or lack thereof.
Kerry is an amazingly self centered man, and that is why he is always whining about the attacks on him, instead of worrying about protecting America from future terror attacks. It is interesting that he found time this week to worry even more about the so-called attacks on him, yet didn’t make one statement…not even one word…on the terror attack in Russia. That says a whole lot about Kerry.
Kerry deserves to be vomited out of the collective mouths of American voters…he not only is a man totally unfit to be president, and dangerously so, but is a repugnant human being who imagines the world as revolving around himself.
Kerry thinks he is above criticism…As Jim Wooten put it in the AJC:
The Republican convention, and U.S. Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) and Vice President Dick Cheney in particular, were devastating in filling in the blanks, in defining Kerry’s 20-year Senate career. As is now the pattern — we saw it with his response to the swift-boat veterans — his approach is to ignore the charges and charge the chargers. They’re all liars, conspirators or unworthies daring to question his record. Has he not already told us that he’s inoculated against impertinent questions?
Well, I have word for you, Mr. Kerry…we don’t care what you think, quit your immature whining and learn to live with criticism.
Bush has not made this campaign about his past
You’re absolutely right about this. He’s working as hard as he can to make Americans forget that he’s already the President.
I know Bush wants to run as far from his record as he can, and I’m glad to see that you do, too.
But Kerry does have a strategy on Iraq: work with the international community, get them invested in the process, and pull the troops out.
It won’t work, and I wonder if even he believes it, but it’s there.
He also has a plan for the economy, except that he won’t tell us what it is beyond some vague proposals. Actually, this is not different from what Bush pulled in the last election, and previous candidates before that.
The difference is that, this time, voters are not in any mood for what once was acceptable campaign behavior. Nor are they interested in what Bush did in his youth, if only because we’ve already heard this before. Now (and worse for Kerry), we’re remembering those times, plus what he’s done since, and what he’s done over the last four years is far more important than what he did 35 years ago.
Unfortunately, Kerry can’t make the same claim, especially since he’s based his entire campaign on what he did then, then complain when we ask for the details.