Wednesday, September 15, 2004
A slide but not a fall: Mitt's poll numbers are down. No surprise. But they're not significantly off. Mild surprise. And lucky for him. Ignoring the all-politics-are-local axiom when you're not even at the halfway point of a first term is a dangerous game.
‘3.5 predictions ...’: From Reader No. 1:
“3.5 predictions for Kerry's last national media interview of the campaign in 20 minutes on the Imus show:
“1. The headline-making : he'll say Vietnam service should not be an issue in the campaign (and in an aside suggest Bush has questions to answer about his National Guard Service).
“2. He'll blame the administration for North Korea and Iran going nuclear, a fair point. If asked about culpability of the Clinton foreign policy advisors now advising him, he'll try to make a joke about Sandy Berger's socks.
“3. He'll echo his WSJ Op-Ed this morning on rebuilding the economy. He'll use the phrases 'invest' and 'Robert Rubin' a lot.
“Bonus #4: He'll say he doesn't know what a Blog is. That claim is believable...”
Update -- Reader No. 1 listens to Imus and reports back in:
"Well, I got it about half-right. I did hear 'investment' in conjunction with more government spending. Imus was surprisingly snide about the Clintonian influence on Kerry (of course, that's now a safe topic, so maybe not so surprising).
"I'm still waiting for the ultimate Kerry flip-flop: to give up his Vietnam experience. That would actually be the one flip-flop that could get him elected President. The Dems just cannot get past Vietnam. Understandable on one hand, as it was a formative experience for so many of the party's leaders. The idea that it will ever change seems unlikely as the party leaders grow older and more secure in their core beliefs. Call them 'The Lost Generation?'"
The colossal-waste-of-time argument: The National Guard/RatherGate issue is getting so surreal that some are now suggesting the fake National Guard documents may actually reflect once real documents -- which must be the ones hidden with the microfilm in the pumpkin buried on the grassy knoll. ...
OK, Hub Blog has received an avalanche of emails -- three, to be exact -- from worker bees berating my assertion below that the latest National Guard/Swift Boats controversy was truly a ‘colossal waste of time.’ I still believe it’s been a colossal waste of time -- from Swifties pretending they weren’t doing the Bush campaign’s dirty work to a CBS anchor and producers dredging up highly dubious material in obvious retaliation. ... This non-lead Herald editorial roughly sums up many of my views and moods. But I must add: It's been great seeing a Ted Baxter-like TV anchor leading a scalping party and then getting scalped. ...
But that brings us back to my original assertion: This has been a colossal waste of time. I’d make it more specific: It’s been a colossal waste of time for both the media and bloggers. (See Monday's profound arguments below.) Historians will be arguing and writing about today’s war events for literally centuries. Bush’s National Guard service and the fate of a soon-to-be-forgotten hack TV anchor? Please.
Hub Blog has been lately experiencing mental flashes from the movie ‘Mister Roberts’: There are those who dwell on the delivery of toilet paper during a war and those who dream of being on an aircraft carrier. ...
Rising U.S. anti-Semitism: Good CSM article on rising anti-Semitism in the country -- and on the left.
‘3.5 predictions ...’: From Reader No. 1:
“3.5 predictions for Kerry's last national media interview of the campaign in 20 minutes on the Imus show:
“1. The headline-making : he'll say Vietnam service should not be an issue in the campaign (and in an aside suggest Bush has questions to answer about his National Guard Service).
“2. He'll blame the administration for North Korea and Iran going nuclear, a fair point. If asked about culpability of the Clinton foreign policy advisors now advising him, he'll try to make a joke about Sandy Berger's socks.
“3. He'll echo his WSJ Op-Ed this morning on rebuilding the economy. He'll use the phrases 'invest' and 'Robert Rubin' a lot.
“Bonus #4: He'll say he doesn't know what a Blog is. That claim is believable...”
Update -- Reader No. 1 listens to Imus and reports back in:
"Well, I got it about half-right. I did hear 'investment' in conjunction with more government spending. Imus was surprisingly snide about the Clintonian influence on Kerry (of course, that's now a safe topic, so maybe not so surprising).
"I'm still waiting for the ultimate Kerry flip-flop: to give up his Vietnam experience. That would actually be the one flip-flop that could get him elected President. The Dems just cannot get past Vietnam. Understandable on one hand, as it was a formative experience for so many of the party's leaders. The idea that it will ever change seems unlikely as the party leaders grow older and more secure in their core beliefs. Call them 'The Lost Generation?'"
The colossal-waste-of-time argument: The National Guard/RatherGate issue is getting so surreal that some are now suggesting the fake National Guard documents may actually reflect once real documents -- which must be the ones hidden with the microfilm in the pumpkin buried on the grassy knoll. ...
OK, Hub Blog has received an avalanche of emails -- three, to be exact -- from worker bees berating my assertion below that the latest National Guard/Swift Boats controversy was truly a ‘colossal waste of time.’ I still believe it’s been a colossal waste of time -- from Swifties pretending they weren’t doing the Bush campaign’s dirty work to a CBS anchor and producers dredging up highly dubious material in obvious retaliation. ... This non-lead Herald editorial roughly sums up many of my views and moods. But I must add: It's been great seeing a Ted Baxter-like TV anchor leading a scalping party and then getting scalped. ...
But that brings us back to my original assertion: This has been a colossal waste of time. I’d make it more specific: It’s been a colossal waste of time for both the media and bloggers. (See Monday's profound arguments below.) Historians will be arguing and writing about today’s war events for literally centuries. Bush’s National Guard service and the fate of a soon-to-be-forgotten hack TV anchor? Please.
Hub Blog has been lately experiencing mental flashes from the movie ‘Mister Roberts’: There are those who dwell on the delivery of toilet paper during a war and those who dream of being on an aircraft carrier. ...
Rising U.S. anti-Semitism: Good CSM article on rising anti-Semitism in the country -- and on the left.
