Category: 2004 Election

I think it will. I have been among the eldest citizens for years (though my attention has drifted lately). I have felt it was a unique dialectic of candor that would turn out to be redemptive for the United States. The OG’s (“Original Gangstas”) of my own generation are on tour right now for the…

It’s been a pretty solid 20 hours (and counting) for John Kerry. But the Cheney/Bush team are industrious folks. We don’t know exactly what’s brewing. Not yet. But you can hear the shouting behind closed doors at the White House. And the clippity-clop clippity-clop in the evening fog. Something nasty this way comes. Brace for…

I just took a Pew Center online poll designed to gather the views of people involved in the Dean primary campaign. It seemed like a decent polls but when we were asked for our opinions on some key issues, I felt that the either/or choices offered were subliminally slanting the issues in a media-inflected way…

In the spirit of balanced analysis, let me offer this counter-point to xian’s crafty post-debate “spin.” Yes, fine, I’ll grant his central thesis: Sure. OK. Bush was off. But leave us not forget: Kerry was on. Really, the guy had a job to do, and dang if he didn’t nail it. He was smart, strong,…

Watched the debate tonight. Bush seemed to be off his game. His timing was off. I had the distinct impression he was waiting for the audience-response he gets at his handpicked rallies and was nonplussed when his repeated lines and that hangdog mugging he does were met with silence. Kerry did good. Tonight was important.…

Bush bringing Allawi from Iraq to the US to do a joint press conference with him: Not politicizing the war. Kerry accusing Bush of misleading the country about the true scope of problems in Iraq, and disputing statements made at the Bush/Allawi joint press conference: Politicizing the war. Any questions?

“That’s why I said to the Taliban in Afghanistan: Get rid of al Qaeda; see, you’re harboring al Qaeda. Remember this is a place where they trained — al Qaeda trained thousands of people in Afghanistan. And the Taliban, I guess, just didn’t believe me. And as a result of the United States military, Taliban…

and we fisk them with extreme prejudice (when we’re bored).

A little down about the state of the election? There’s a nifty collection of current polls plus some comparisons to a few prev. elections, here. Puts things in some helpful perspective. And really, given the fantastic month Bush has had and the mess that we’re told the Kerry campaign is, given all those heart-tugging John…

From Thursday’s Bush/Allawi press conference: Q: do you believe, given the situation on the ground and Fallujah and other northern cities in the Sunni triangle, that elections are possible in four months? BUSH: I do, because the [Iraqi] prime minister [Allawi] told me they are. He’s interested in moving this country forward. And you heard…

From today’s press conference with Allawi (quoted in a Daily Kos diary): Secondly, I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America. (Chuckles.) Bush could retroactively earn that honorable discharge by volunteering now to serve in country.

Russ Baker reports on the fortunate son/black sheeps’ doings in Houston and Alabama that surrounded his apparently incomplete service in the Air National Guard in the Nation. Apparently he was having trouble flying the planes he was trained on, getting into trouble, and unwilling to take a physical exam: One middle-aged woman whose general veracity…

It’s not who did or didn’t go to war, who did or didn’t support Vietnam, who was or wasn’t injured abroad or defending the homeland. It’s the trail of lies in the form of memoirs, advertisement, and puffed-up resume line items (Daily Kos :: New US NEWS undisputed analysis: Bush was AWOL): Some experts say…

You know, I don’t think we should be using the word “conservative” to describe right-wing extremism. Too many people, even people with a fair number of progressive, even liberal political views, see themselves as conservative, and see conservatism as a good thing that means something like preserving what’s good and not changing things too fast.…

Brokentype: So Long RNC (via Ftrain linky love).

Jeez if Whitewater billing records were fair game, doesn’t selective leaking of military records in response to media requests while continually claiming that everything has been released warrant a closer look? (The Washington Monthly): Obviously they’ve had these sitting around for a while, and just as obviously they’ve held them back even though they claimed…

Remarkably, Dick Cheney lifted up a stoop today with his bare hands. And then he actually stooped beneath that stoop. That’s how low this is. Short version: a vote for Kerry is a vote for a major terrorist attack on the United States. Well, that’ll help me make up my mind. Cuz, you know, I’m…

…I meant it was tied. Rasmussen gave Bush a commanding lead of 4 points after the convention, back on September 2nd and 3rd. How tied is it today? They’re showing 47.3% to 47.3%. I mean, that’s just nuts. See for yourself, here.

If it’s a character issue, that makes it fair game, right? (George W. Bush: AWOL in Alabama)

Sure he started slow, but I think you really have to say, Bush did a pretty good job Thursday night. No, wait, that’s not fair. I’ll go farther. He was fantastic. Really, he did about as great a job as a human being, made in the image of the almighty God could possibly have done.…

Here’s the press release: