Bush aims to dodge tough poll issues

[radfringe]

Bush aims to dodge tough poll issues
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1115946,00.html
President seeks second term with a 'soft-focus' campaign
Lawrence Donegan in San Francisco -- Sunday January 4, 2004 -- The Observer

There may be a conflict raging in Iraq that is killing US soldiers on a daily basis. There may be the threat of an economic crisis, too much unemployment and political debate infused with vitriol levels unseen for years. Yet President George W Bush is planning to win re-election by turning reality on its head.

Bush is drawing up a positive, soft-focus and upbeat campaigning platform portraying him as the candidate of national unity.

---snip---

Senior figures close to Bush have spent months examining previous presidential campaigns in an effort to shape a winning strategy against a potentially tricky electoral backdrop. They have settled on an approach echoing Ronald Reagan's dreamlike 'morning in America' re-election campaign of 1984, which successfully portrayed another divisive Republican President as a moderate 'father of the nation' in a series of television adverts which were light on actual politics but heavy on soft-focus camera work.

=========================

no new ideas or approaches here - just alot of recycling - all hat and no cattle

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. its also in GD

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=988307

[La_Serpiente]

2. ha

he's not going to get a free pass

[onebigbadwulf]

3. All the death of our soldiers means we're doing good.

It means they're desperate.

[leftchick]

4. it will be a cinch for him too....

given the corporate whore media enablers in this country..... :puke:

[Melodybe]

5. All the Dem commercials will have to say is, are you better off

than you were four years ago?

[leftchick]

7. or the future draft....

I feel that is the major topic for them to bring up NOW!

[Robb]

17. But then

...the media will all say "Well, * said we were, and I trust him." :eyes:

[unblock]

6. as dangerous as it is to call a texan yellow ...

he sure is cowardly ....

[snippy]

16. True.

[Spirochete]

20. He's not a Texan

He just plays one on TV. He's a Connecticut carpetbagger.

[hobbes159]

8. Well, this part is true...

"Bush is drawing up a positive, soft-focus and upbeat campaigning platform portraying him as the candidate of national unity".

Yup. We're all united. Against Bush*.

[izzie]

9. He will go for the Emotions

You can see it coming. He already knows the race card is in it and he does that so well. Just tune into the South, and all this who is taking the jobs from these people.It is hard to believe that the working man would vote his class down ward but he has and maybe will keep doing it. We are voting in a ruling class with our eyes wide open.Almost 100 years of moving up and now we move down. The one thing this country had that no other country had, The large middle class.All those great people with brains will now play second place to a third rate thinker like Geo Bush and co. Sad days.

[Judi Lynn]

10. How obnoxious is this?

From the article:

(snip) 'Voters don't normally vote for an angry, pessimistic person to be president of the country. They want someone, even if times are not great, to be forward looking and optimistic,' Matthew Dowd, a senior Bush campaign aide said.
(snip)

What colossal nerve. We really need these guys outta there.

[Racenut20]

11. How can he do the Nixon "Rose Garden" campaign when he never stays there?

[dbt]

12. What leftchick said in #4!

No president (elected or otherwise) has EVER had the unquestioning, ass-kissing support of the entire Media Borg the way bu$h does. TV will be doing its (brain) dead-level best to convince Murkins that bu$h walks on water.

:argh:
dbt

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Voters don't normally vote for an angry, pessimistic person to be pres?

I think they are right. But who has been the angriest and most pessimistic president if history? I think Georgie Boy wins the prize easily.

For the last 2.5 years Georgie Boy has been all war, all terror, all the time.

Now Georgie Boy is looking for to dodge his record, just like he dodged going to Vietnam Nam? Just like he dodged doing his job on 9-11? Yeah, George, that's the ticket. Go for it. LOL

[bspence]

14. I don't like the Guardian

Way too unbiased for me. Sure, I AGREE with it, but I wouldn't promote anything in it as a reliable source because of its bias.

[ixion]

15. ah, so you'd prefer something fair and balanced, eh?

;-)

[bspence]

18. yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. Fox ain't it either. n/t

[PATRICK]

19. The Artful Dodger

was a pickpocket too- and was hung I believe. Of course there is that other kind of dodging that he did when he was almost a veteran pilot.

This only works if events and his photo ops(which have been routinely sappy or dramatically horrible) overwhelm the coverage given to the Dem. This is one place where the Dem must not ever play by the media script of squeaky shadowboxing and rigid campaign rituals that create an impression of utter absence in the national media forums. Closet interviews portraying frustration and anxiety and failing enthusiasm. We know the drill, why do we follow it? Saw that with many former candidates, especially losers. First the excuse was they were scrambling for funds and preparing a media blitz. Then angrily trying to drum up spectacles and rallies in the last weeks posing as the populist liberal. If there were no debates frankly I don't think we ever would have had a Dem President after Truman. That is too many eggs in one basket, especially one both sides over-manage and spar over format. It is likely all over after the first debate as far as any positive effect anyway. The people want to judge by seeing a reassuring leader, especially if they desire change or are troubled. Fantastic details about policies and programs, while needed to a degree, are not what people will use as prudent criteria- no matter what the focus groups say.

What we can do better. A barn storming of the nation with record crowds. And we can beat them at protests too, if they want to buy their goons more pre-fab glitzy signs with memes. The same with news ads. Sure they can outspend on ads and target more locally than we can afford. But we can parry and counter quickly and briefly with sharper(and truer) ads on the big market where it really counts.

Our organization at the roots has far more potential than all that the GOP war chest can buy. Of course they will target key zones to make every region a challenge, a major goal of course being to fashion the illusion of coattails. Local organizations, besides doing the grunt work should have a very large and noisy response machine for rapid response. Parting the red Sea of money and media can only come from mammoth and timely consumer response that is pro-Dem instead of the intimidation of bullying freepers.

And the message must be brighter than the dismal glamor of the fake Bush administration, never letting them feel on top or that they have gotten under the skin or have "a good point", never stopping the national sense of momentum that will make past whistle stops or Clinton's bus look like a lonely night watchman making his night rounds. And- as dean makes his best and most incredibly strong point-go on foot precinct after precinct- knitting together all the party races as a real "Crusade", a real national unity of the sane. Their soft focus only works in so far as lulling people. In the face of real quality positive excitement it would be a moldy paper flower on Bush's campaign grave. And if they risk getting caught by the CIA or others for a desperate wag the dog or real LIHOP, catch them hard.

He can stay in the Rose Garden and be hit by the avalanche there or elsewhere or bungle some other bloody crisis and call it genius or resurrect some dirty tricks and send all GOP election officials to cheating 101. We will watch and record every incident everywhere and publish it and if necessary- prosecute.

Really rallying the party(always saved for a hail Mary play in the closing weeks) is better than trying to prove in detail to swing voters we are better Republicans. People tire of that long drone, that repetition that is the cautious staple of so many campaigns, where the celebrating and enthusiasm is left to small pockets of activists and appearances. And who will remember the superior nature of Gephardt's health bill over Kerry's or Edward's? I think the people get the joke instinctively(if not consciously) that unless the Pres has some real smarts and heroic moxie those details don't have the chance of a snowball in hell in a GOP Congress. So the idea of rewarding who is best on issues with the standard is likely to actually kill the real acceptance that is needed.

We are well prepared in that we have at least three top candidates that can demolish anything Bush throws at them short of live ammo.

[lovedems]

21. candidate of national unity?????

I needed a great laugh this morning and just got one. That has to be the funniest thing I have heard all year!

[DemoTex]

22. My sentiments exactly! What a joke!

I guess we will hear the Chimp-in-Chief say "I'm a uniter," ad nauseum. :puke:

[CBHagman]

23. Yeah, that along with "I want to change the tone in Washington, D.C."

He certainly changed the tone. Now they send the Capitol Police into congressional MEETINGS, for crying out loud, and the focus is on getting a bare majority to pass legislation just to say they've done something. The legislation could be a ticking time bomb (like the tax cuts, like the Medicare prescription drug benefit), but by golly, they DID something.

Throw the Chimp out!

[Hobarticus]

24. Is this America?

I mean, who recognizes their country, anymore?

9/11 or no, there's no reason why we've become what we are these days. We lock citizens up with no charges or counsel; we lie in order to invade another country then half-ass do the job; education, health care, justice, and the enviornment have become afterthoughts...who the hell have we become?!?

Unifier, my ass. We're under occupation.