Comparing Bush to his daddy really gets him -- and it should.

[gulliver]

I really hope to see Kerry compare Bush to Bush's daddy. Voters deserve that perspective.

George H.W. Bush was an actual active service fighter pilot during WW 2. Junior avoided Vietnam.

George H.W. Bush landed on carriers during WW2. Junior ordered a real fighter pilot to land him on a carrier and then pranced around in a flight suit under a Mission Accomplished sign.

George H.W. Bush was a better man in every way than his sorry offspring, and George H.W. Bush lost reelection. What happens when people realize that the Bush they rejected in 1992 makes his son look like an ant by comparison?

[MatrixEscape]

1. True!

Plus ...

Boy in the bubble #1 bred boy in the bubble #2. Like Father like Son.

The major difference I see between them is that the Son wants us all to see the World by gazing at the interior surface of his precious, protective bubble.

No sir. It's not gonna' happen. Wouldn't be prudent.

[von Staufenberg]

2. I agree

W has a raging Oedipal complex going. Framing him against Poppy seems to tick him off like few things can. I've even read that one of the main reasons behind his animosity toward Jacque Chirac is that during their initial meetings, Chirac kept bringing up Poppy.
I think Kerry's references to the senior Bush in the first debate were a deliberate ploy to get under W's skin. I'm sure his researchers are aware of this very powerful button. He should resume that tactic tonight.

[newyawker99]

7. Hi von Staufenberg!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[grace0418]

3. Now THAT is sad

Of course it will work because it almost worked last week (when Kerry talked about Daddy Bush I thought my much-prayed-for meltdown might just happen!). However, how sad is it that your record sucks so bad that it makes George H. W. look good by comparison? Yeesh!

[michigandem2]

4. that is when it all fell apart for * last week...

if he even references Daddy it will burn * up....I think he started some banter (hostile banter) with Kerry after that was brought up last week....

[Crunchy Frog]

5. I think Maureen Dowd got it right on this one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/07/opinion/07dowd.html

Even though the president, waving off any attempts to put him "on the couch," refuses to acknowledge any Oedipal sensitivities, John Kerry artfully drilled into the sore spot in the first debate.

Senator Kerry evoked the voice of Bush 41 to get under 43's thin skin. The more Mr. Kerry played the square, proper, moderate, internationalist war hero, the more the president was reduced to childish scowling and fidgeting, acting like a naughty little boy who refuses to sit in his seat and eat his spinach and do all the hard things a parent wants you to do.

"You know, the president's father did not go into Iraq, into Baghdad beyond Basra," Mr. Kerry said, as W. blinked and burned. "And the reason he didn't is, he said, he wrote in his book, because there was no viable exit strategy. And he said our troops would be occupiers in a bitterly hostile land. That's exactly where we find ourselves today. There's a sense of American occupation."

<snip>

In their '92 debate, Bill Clinton used the same psychological trick to rattle Bush 41. Objecting to the Republican pinko innuendo about a trip he had taken as a young man to Moscow, Mr. Clinton reminded the first President Bush that his father, Senator Prescott Bush of Connecticut, had stood up to Joe McCarthy: "Your father was right to stand up to Joe McCarthy. You were wrong to attack my patriotism."
The Bushes get very agitated when confronted with the specters of fathers who made them feel that they never measured up.

[giant_robot]

6. Great way to push Chimpy's buttons

I hope Kerry does it again.

[DinahMoeHum]

8. and that's just his Poppy! Babs is even worse. . .

...the old beeeyatch.

A pair of shitty parents. Both should burn in hell.

:evilgrin:

[caledesi]

9. gulliver...i tota;lly agree. This is the key to the * meltdown. nt