April 6, 2004

QUOTABLES:

"This country immediately went on war footing, and we went to war against al Qaeda. It took me very little time to make up my mind," he said. "Once I determined al Qaeda [did] it, [I said], 'We're going to go get them.' And we have, and we're going to keep after them until they're brought to justice and America is secure," President Bush said.

"I'll put out a positive message, define myself to people — there's plenty of time here," said John Kerry.

"Someone recently asked my opponent why he had voted against the $87 billion funding bill to help our troops in Iraq. Here's what he said -- he actually said this: `I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it.' End of quote. The president must speak clearly," President Bush said.

"…a vote for Ralph Nader is the same as a vote for George Bush," said Howard Dean.

But here's the surprise: The misery index for George W.'s administration is lowest of all six of those worthies. George W. inherited the Clinton misery index of 8.4 percent and has shaved it (so far) to 7.7 percent. You just wouldn't know it from the coverage of the economy. The Wall Street Journal calls it "the Rodney Dangerfield recovery" because, as Rodney might say, "it don't get no respect." -- writes Wesley Pruden of the Washington Times.

"Even if, let us say for a minute that Iraq was a mistake, as some people are trying to argue," he continued, "I'd rather have a president who errs on the side of defending this country, and going after our enemies, than somebody like John Kerry, who wants to sit on his butt and does nothing while Americans die. And I think that's the key issue here," said Alan Keyes.

"The brouhaha about whether the new Bush administration treated the threat of al Qaeda as 'important' versus 'urgent' is history almost as ancient as whether FDR did enough to avert Pearl Harbor," writes William Safire.

JUST POLITICS

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Clinton document damning

The Washington Times reports that the final policy report by the Clinton administration in December of 2000 shows national security was lacking in references to our nation’s greatest threat:

The final policy paper on national security that President Clinton submitted to Congress — 45,000 words long — makes no mention of al Qaeda and refers to Osama bin Laden by name just four times.

The scarce references to bin Laden and his terror network undercut claims by former White House terrorism analyst Richard A. Clarke that the Clinton administration considered al Qaeda an "urgent" threat, while President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, "ignored" it.

Kerry-Nader summit?

The Boston Globe reports that Sen. John Kerry has made the statement that there could be a meeting between Ralph Nader and himself:

"I'm going to talk directly to people who in the past have been inclined to support Ralph Nader," the Massachusetts senator told reporters. "I'm not going to attack him in any way. I'm just going to try to talk to his people and point out that we've got to beat George Bush." 

Stop 527’s

Marc Racicot, Chairman of Bush-Cheney '04, is asking supporters to inundate the Federal Election Commission in support of bringing unregulated expenditures such as the Media Fund, and MoveOn.org under control. The Bush campaign has set up the following site to expedite the sending of messages to the FEC: http://www.georgewbush.com/getactive/writefec.aspx.

Currently, these 527 organizations continue to take unregulated soft money and use it towards the goal of defeating President Bush. The Republicans have been waiting for a ruling from the FEC as to whether the actions by these 527 organizations are legal under the McCain-Feingold campaign reform act. The Republican Party has taken the position that such organizations are illegal and required to file with the FEC and abide by the $5,000 contribution limit of Political Action Committees.

The political ground war

The NY Times reports on the fact that one of the deciding factors in who wins the Presidency will be grassroots campaigning:

"It's funny; it's in vogue," said Steven Rosenthal, a former labor organizer now directing America Coming Together, one of those new tax-exempt groups in pursuit of a large Democratic turnout. "Some of us have labored in the trenches of grass-roots politics for a lifetime and fought with the party leadership for more resources," Mr. Rosenthal said. "Now it's the thing to do."

With seventeen states being key to who becomes the President, it has enabled national campaigns to focus immense resources into what is normally only capable by smaller more closely connected campaigns. One reason is its effectiveness:

"In a world where there is a wealth of information, there is often a poverty of attention," said Ken Mehlman, Mr. Bush's campaign manager. "A face-to-face communication is most often the most credible and effective way to reach somebody."

These campaigns are concentrating on voter registration, identification, persuasion and turn-out. If you’re in one of the battleground states, you can expect a knock on the door and a phone call in the future.

Democrats appeal to Hispanics

The Washington Times reports on a new ad campaign by the Democrat National Committee to shore up the Hispanic vote:

"In this country's history, Democrats have always fought for peace and prosperity for all. Democrats like President Roosevelt, who was the hero of World War II; President Kennedy, who returned hope to a nation ... President Carter, who fought for human rights in Latin America, and President Clinton who engineered the largest economic prosperity in half a century," reads the full text of the English version of the ad.

George W. Bush received 35 percent of the Hispanic vote against Al Gore in 2000.

 

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