Bush close to victory
The
Washington Times reports that President Bush is close
to an electoral victory:
"Bush is in the ascendancy as we speak, both nationally and in several
big battleground states," says independent pollster John Zogby. "While
I might quibble with some of the margins, I have no doubts that Bush
leads in those states."
Seven weeks before Election Day, the state-by-state review of how the
electoral contest shapes up shows Mr. Bush leading across the South,
the Western and Plains states and in several major Midwestern states,
including Ohio and Missouri. If he actually wins these states, he
would have 269 electoral votes, one vote shy of victory.
Kerry fails to boost own staff
morale
With the drop in the poll numbers, Kerry campaign staffers’ morale has
understandably dropped as well. In an attempt to boost the mood,
campaign director Mary Beth Cahill gathered the Washington staff
together so Kerry could talk to them by speaker phone. Here’s an
account of that, written by The American Spectator/The Washington
Prowler:
"He [John Kerry] actually said that he felt the campaign had turned
the corner," says a Washington-based staffer. "Some of us couldn't
help but laugh given that he's made fun of Bush for saying the same
thing. You hear stuff like that and you just feel sick. You look over
at people like [Joe] Lockhart and Cahill and they seem
to understand it too."
Kerry further undercut his own efforts, when he hung up his side of
the call before any questions could be asked by staff members.
"[Kerry] doesn't seem to want to acknowledge that he has problems,"
says the staffer. "I'm low level, but there are a few people here who
have stopped coming in to work or to volunteer. We've got some issues,
and the guy who should be trying to help fix it doesn't seem to care."
Cahill seems to understand this. On Thursday, since the candidate
wouldn't face his own staff, Cahill pulled out the big guns. She
invited her old boss, Sen. Ted Kennedy down to the Washington
offices to further raise the morale of Kerry's staff.
Kennedy actually said little about Kerry, beyond the fact that he was
a fighter who would continue fighting. After mentioning Kerry, Kennedy
then went on a 10-minute diatribe about President Bush. "His face was
turning red, he was really getting into it," says the Kerry staffer.
"Then the next day we saw him make the same speech on the floor of the
Senate. Guess we were the dress rehearsal."
Kerry campaign implicated
as memos source... again
Rush Limbaugh said it last week, and now a CBS producer is saying it,
too – the memos came to CBS via the Kerry campaign. According to an
article by The American Spectator/The Washington Prowler, journalists
from around the country were attempting to track down the original
source of the documents this past weekend:
"We're having a hard time tracking how we got the documents," says the
CBS News producer. "There are at least two people in this building who
have insisted we got copies of these memos from the Kerry campaign by
way of an additional source. We do not have the originals, and our
sources have indicated to us that we will not be getting the
originals. How that is possible I don't know."
Top target: Bill Burkett. Burkett is a former Texas National Guard
officer used by the Democrats in prior Bush Guard smear attempts. He
has medical compensation issues with the Guard stemming from illness
in 1998, lost a lawsuit to collect medical damages, and is reported to
have suffered two nervous breakdowns. Burkett claimed in the past that
he was at National Guard headquarters in Austin 1997, when he
overheard Guard officials and a representative of then Governor Bush
discuss how to sanitize Bush's files. Even though that story was fully
discredited, Burkett has been interviewed by CBS News three times –
one of which was with Dan Rather’s producer, Mary Mapes.
"There are rumors here that if there are any real documents, they are
hand-written notes from Killian that someone like Burkett was holding,
and that instead of using the hand-written notes, someone typed them
up to look more official," says the CBS News producer. "They would
look better on TV and posted on line if they were typed, but on a
number of levels, that story just doesn't hold up. There are too many
inconsistencies factually with what is in the memos."
Another fellow being scrutinized as a possible original source:
Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and his staff. Harkin was the first attack
dog out the gate last Thursday morning after CBS News aired the memos
story and used it to called Bush a liar.
"Harkin has been pushing this story for a while," says the CBS
producer. "Not this specific story, but the 'Bush is a liar about his
record' story. His people seemed particularly interested in making
sure they could keep their boss up to date on what was going on."
That Harkin was the individual selected to be the attack dog on this
particular issue was an interesting one, give that Harkin himself has
a checkered history about telling the truth about his involvement in
the Vietnam War.
And this lament from the CBS producer would seem to show Dan Rather’s
confidence that the memos are legit is not resonating throughout CBS:
"Some 60 Minutes staffers have been working on this story for
more than three years off and on," says the CBS News producer. "There
have been rumors about these memos and what was in them for at least
that long. No one had been able to find anything. Not a single piece
of paper. But we know that a lot of people here interviewed a lot of
people in Texas and elsewhere and asked very explicit questions about
the existence of these memos. Then all of a sudden they show up? In
one nice, neat package?"
This CBS New producer went on to explain that the questions 60
Minutes folk were asking were specific enough that people would
have been able to fabricate the memorandums to meet the exact
specifications the investigative journalists were looking for. "People
were asking questions of sources like, 'Have you ever seen or heard of
a memo that suspended Bush for failing to appear for a physical?' and
'Have you heard about or know of someone who has any documentation
from back in the 1970s that shows there was pressure to get Bush into
the National Guard?' It was like they were placing an order for a
ready-made product. That is the biggest problem I have with this. It's
all too neat and perfect for what we needed. Without these exact
pieces of paper, we don't have a story. Dan has as much as admitted
that. Everyone knows it. We were at a standstill on this story until
these memos showed up."
Guys in Pajamas bust CBS?
John Fund of the Wall Street Journal opines today about what he
considers to be “a watershed media moment” [LINK.]
Referring to the CBS/Bush memos debate last Friday on FoxNews between
former vice president of CBS News Jonathan Klein and The Weekly
Standard writer Stephen Hayes, Fund writes:
Mr. Klein dismissed the bloggers who are raising questions about the
authenticity of the memos: "You couldn't have a starker contrast
between the multiple layers of check and balances [at '60 Minutes']
and a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing."
He will regret that snide disparagement of the bloggers, many of whom
are skilled lawyers or have backgrounds in military intelligence or
typeface design. A growing number of design and document experts say
they are certain or almost certain the memos on which CBS relied are
forgeries.
Fund writes of a ‘defensive’ Dan Rather going on the air last Friday
and claiming a counterattack from partisan political operatives. And
says that ‘in reality, traditional journalism now has a new set of
watchdogs in the "blogosphere."
Liberals target Blacks
The Kerry campaign has not inspired the Black community to vote for
him. So, a 527 group is going to see what they can do to improve
Kerry’s numbers among Blacks.
The Media Fund plans to spend about $5 million between now and Nov. 2.
The ads will be on television, radio and print and run mostly in
presidential battlegrounds of Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Ohio, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The following is the kind of appeal the group plans, "Bush has a plan
for America. But you're not part of it," says one television ad being
released Monday. Another claims: "Bush said prosperity was right
around the corner, but he wasn't talking about the corners in your
neighborhood."
Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman said the ads are "divisive
and baseless," and said they are "produced from a position of
weakness."
The politics of crime
Sen. John Kerry picked up the police union endorsement and lambasted
Bush for the lapse in the assault weapons law. Congress failed to act
before the assault weapons ban expired. Supporters of the ban stated
that manufacturers got around the bill by changing gun’s names and
modifying their guns.
President Bush said that he would sign the bill if Congress passed it.
Kerry said, "Today George Bush made the job of terrorists easier and
made the job of America's law enforcement officers harder and that's
just plain wrong."
Kerry outlined his own $5 billion plan to fight crime and picked up
the endorsement of the National Association of Police Organizations, a
coalition of more than 2,000 police unions and associations.
Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said that was "another false
attack from Senator Kerry." Bush believes the best way to curb gun
violence is to enforce laws that are on the books, McClellan said, and
he added that violent crime was at a 30-year low.
Kerry’s $5 billion in new spending would go to:
·
Fund the COPS program to the full amount authorized by
Congress.
·
Ensure that state and local law enforcement agencies get
access to the national terrorist lists, and simplify those lists.
·
Increase scrutiny of purchases at gun shows.
·
Enforce existing gun laws and help U.S. attorneys battle
interstate gun trafficking.
·
Crack down on gang violence and increase former gang
members' access to jobs, job training, school and drug rehabilitation.
·
Increase federal aid to local governments fighting
methamphetamine and ban bulk purchasing of over-the-counter drugs used
to manufacture methamphetamine.
·
Hire 5,000 new community prosecutors over five years.
·
Expand DNA testing and remove the statute of limitations
on some DNA evidence.
·
Provide money for jobs and technology to improve
probation and parole systems.
Kerry’s attack
Sen. John Kerry continued to try and portray President Bush as weak in
fighting terrorism and himself as strong. Kerry’s latest attack comes
after the disclosure that a large unknown cloud appeared in N. Korea.
Secretary of State Colin Powell spent Sunday explaining that the cloud
was not a nuclear explosion.
"During his administration, North Korea has advanced its nuclear
program and a potential route to a nuclear 9/11 is clearly visible,"
Kerry said
"As North Korea makes these provocative statements, and if they take
any provocative action, it's not going to be something that's just
going to be of interest to the United States; it's going to be of
interest to China, to Russia and Japan," Powell said on ABC
television's "This Week."
Edwards: Terrorism narrow
The Kerry-Edwards campaign continues to promote the idea that
terrorism against the West is a narrow war.
"Today, Secretary of State (Colin) Powell made clear that there is no
connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks on September the
11th," Edwards said before an AFL-CIO rally. "From this day forward,
this administration should never suggest that there is."
The Kerry campaign continues to advance the concept that only al Qaeda
is the target of terrorism against America. This, despite French
journalists being kidnapped and threatened execution because of
France’s ban of head-scarves in French schools.
The Sept. 11 Commission reported on contacts between Saddam's regime
and al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, but said there was no
"collaborative operational relationship" and said there was no proof
that Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes.
There are reports of a mid-level officer in Saddam’s Guard who was at
the planning meeting for 9-11.
The Kerry campaign continues to try to portray the war in Iraq as not
related to the war on terrorism despite critics who link the move as a
key strategic action against Islamic extremists.
Both Kerry and Edwards voted to authorize President Bush to invade
Iraq. Both also voted not to fund the troops after authorizing the
war.
Steve Schmidt, a Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman, offered the
campaign’s response: "This attack by John Edwards is typically
baseless and flailing and there is no contradiction," Schmidt said.
"The reason for the attack is that John Kerry took his eighth distinct
position on the war in Iraq this week and their position has receded
into complete incoherence."
Poll watching, 9/13
Indiana
Research 2000 for South Bend Tribune-WSBT-TV, Sept. 7-9,600 LV, MoE
+/-4
(two-way)
George W. Bush-Dick Cheney, 54 percent; John Kerry-John Edwards, 38
percent; and
Unsure, 8 percent
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