NYT,Nagourney,Bumiller: Bush Takes Direct Role In Shaping Election Tactics

[DeepModem Mom]

He's engaged!


Bush Takes On Direct Role in Shaping Election Tactics
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and ELISABETH BUMILLER

Published: August 29, 2004


....Several aides said Mr. Bush viewed this as the campaign of his life and has intervened on matters as large as the themes it should strike and as small as particular shots of him in his television advertisements. While making sure Mr. Kerry is challenged at every opening, they said, the single most consuming concern for Mr. Bush is that there is an elaborate get-out-the-vote operation in November in anticipation of a contest as tight as the one in 2000....

***

....aides say that while Karl Rove continues to dominate the campaign as the top White House political adviser, the president's involvement and interest is far deeper than is widely known. Mixed in with the updates on national security by Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and Vice President Dick Cheney that Mr. Bush receives in his daily Oval Office morning briefings is a quick campaign overview from Mr. Rove.

Mr. Bush's role in his own campaign was described in extensive interviews with aides and party leaders as Republicans gathered in New York to nominate Mr. Bush for a second term. They arrived buoyed by three new polls suggesting Mr. Bush's standing has improved at least somewhat against Mr. Kerry....

***

Beyond the involvement of the president himself, aides say the strategy that has brought Mr. Bush to this point is quietly being directed not from the Oval Office, or even his campaign headquarters, but by what his inner circle privately calls the Breakfast Club - a small group of advisers who gather on weekends at Mr. Rove's home in northwest Washington, where, over eggs and bacon cooked by Mr. Rove, they measure the campaign's progress against a detailed plan devised 18 months ago....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/politics/campaign/29elect.html?hp

[demgrrrll]

1. I took the time to read this entire article and what impressed me was

that Bush is up at 5 and by 7 am he has read them newspaper and made calls to his staff to call journalists and "complain" about articles he does not like. I am not sure what to make of this article. This must be what Rove wants people to think about Bush right now because both of these writers tend to be stenographers.

[Born Free]

11. dimwit morphs into curious george

It's morphing season again, where athe right wing morphs into all theose theings they believe will get them votes...

[napi21]

12. Up at 5 to read papers and correct them by 7?

I didn't read the entire article, but I find this comment very interesting. I heard that exact same comment made yesterday about ED KOTCH! On c-span, a guy who used to be his aid described that exact same situation. Now I believe this about Kotch, but I suspect it's a pirated comment just said to make shrub look better.

[DeepModem Mom]

13. You have a keen eye, napi21!

[sandraj]

16. Good catch

n/t

[Rose Siding]

2. So was he lying when he said he only read "headlines" or

is he lying now?

[demgrrrll]

3. Good Point. n/t.

.

[dumpster_baby]

15. yup. caught him in a lie

from the article:
"On weekdays, aides say, the campaign essentially begins in the White House residence, where Mr. Bush rises at 5 a.m. to read the newspapers and check on the political news."

Yet, he was interviewed on tv saying he did not read newspapers; laura read them for him

[Kimber Scott]

4. I'm struck by how they make the point of how interested he is in the

campaign, the strategy, etc. to the point of showing how he wakes up so early to read the paper every morning. Then they go on to say, Rove says, when they discuss the different strategies, Bush starts out engaged, but essentially gets bored fairly quickly. It's also amazing his "intelligence" is evidenced by him knowing the names of little towns in Ohio. Weird.

But, this is the most telling paragraph in the article:

"Two weeks ago, after learning that Mr. Kerry said he would have voted to authorize the president to invade Iraq even if he had known that Saddam Hussein was not armed with weapons of mass destruction, the president jumped at what he described as a political opening, aides said. "That was a mistake - we need to seize on it," Mr. Bush said, according to aides. The next day, he began hammering Mr. Kerry on the issue, and has not stopped."

Bush laid this trap and he knew it was a mistake for Kerry to have said what he said, why? Because, it was wrong to vote for the IRR? Interesting that later in the piece Bush claims he doesn't remember making that statement.

I think Kerry saying he would still have voted for the IRR, knowing what he knows now, was THE blow to his poll numbers not the SBVT smear. It was devastating to me and I'm a hard-core supporter. Imagine the effect on the swing voter. This situation needs to be remedied. Period.

[Teaser]

8. There is no "blow to his poll numbers"

This race has been tied all along. It will remain so for the foreseeable future. The brief Kerry blip we saw early this month was simply an artifact of the convention.

[mbperrin]

5. Like THIS Breakfast Club?

Claire: You know why guys like you knock everything?
Bender: Oh, this should be stunning.
Claire: 'Cause you're afraid.
Bender: Oh God, you richies are so smart, thats exactly why I'm not heavy in activities.
Claire: You're a big coward.
Brian: I'm in the math club.
Claire: You're afraid that they won't take you. You don't belong so you just have to dump all over it.

[kskiska]

6. Maybe these people will all drop dead from heart attacks

For nearly a year, that small group of senior aides from the White House and campaign headquarters has assembled for what Mr. Rove calls "eggies" - cholesterol-laden concoctions of eggs, butter, cream and bacon fat. He serves them with slabs of bacon. There, they discuss a schedule of attacks on Mr. Kerry, speeches by Mr. Bush, and forthcoming television advertisements and strategic thrusts, according to several aides.

The group typically includes Mr. Rove; Mr. Mehlman; Mr. McKinnon; Mr. Dowd; Ms. Devenish; Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director; Mary Matalin, a senior adviser to Dick Cheney; Ed Gillespie, the national Republican chairman; Mr. Dowd's deputy, Sara Taylor; and Steve Schmidt, the campaign press spokesman.

[napi21]

7. I hope he takes a real BIG role in shaping his campaign!

That way we know it'll be screwed up!

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Good point!

[DeepModem Mom]

10. WP Rove-sourced story: leadership -- NYT, same source, W Shapes Tactics

Oh, the spin that must be spun to portray this completely inadequate imposter as not only "engaged," but a LEADER! If that's the message, I'd wonder if Madison Square Garden is in danger of spinning so wildly it takes off above NYC like Auntie Em's house and ends up in the Land of Oz --

[Name removed]

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