Demosophia

Newsweek Poll Shows Bush Two-Digit Lead

A Newsweek Poll shows a Bush/Cheney lead of 11 points, whether Nader is in the race or not. According to other polls by the same firm (Princeton Survey Research Associates International) this amounts to a 13 point "bounce" from the convention, tossing more egg on the face of media punditry who had bought the explanation posed by Kerry's nonbouncy campaign that the electorate had simply lost its elasticity, leaving little room for a shift in allegiance. It was more wishful thinking than analysis. A theme?

Well, given that the Kerry Campaign was guided by polls and focus groups, while the Bush Campaign by its perception of national interest and intuition about the deeper natonal will, the "bounce" redounds not just to the Republican's perceptiveness and decisiveness, but to the wisdom of voters: their ability to distinguish a genuinely held position from a deceitful one. Because regardless of whether you support the PNAC approach to foreign policy, and the War in Iraq, it's difficult to argue that the Demracts aren't running under two flags, hardly more compatible than the Abolitionists and the Copperheads.

Attempting to camouflage this outrage they were compelled to rest their entire case on the patrician/warrior image of their candidate, and the lack of bounce after their convention signalled a "no sale." The Swiftvets merely capitalized on that lack of credibility; they didn't create it.

And now, after misidentifying the problem, rather than recognize that they've insulted the intelligence of the very voters they intended to influence they show absolutely no sign of the remorse or humility required to rethink that underestimation. Adding injury to insult they've aggressively grasped the rearview mirror, and attacked the Vietnam era record of one of the few Republicans who has unambiguously endorsed the honor of John Kerry's service in Vietnam.

What we have here is a campaign that has run itself into a ditch.

Update: VDH indulges in empathy for John Forbes Kerry.

Posted by Demosophist at September 4, 2004 06:39 PM | TrackBack