GOP nervous, wants Swift boats story and Iraq to go away

[quinnox]

Nervous Republicans are urging President Bush to unveil a robust second-term agenda at his convention next week to shift voters' focus from the unpopular war in Iraq and other issues that are a distraction to his re-election drive. Some contend the party should ditch the GOP-fueled controversy over rival John Kerry's combat record in Vietnam.

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Many voters have soured on the war in Iraq, and their discontent has hurt Bush's approval ratings. With the death toll of U.S. troops nearing 1,000, several of the Republicans said Bush's political team doesn't realize how angry and anxious Americans are over Iraq. Each death dominates local news, often in a battleground state. Bush acknowledged Thursday in an interview that he miscalculated the postwar scenario in Iraq.

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The tactic helped Kerry narrow Bush's advantage on who would best protect the nation, but polls show those gains have eroded amid unproven allegations, leveled by a Republican-funded veterans group, that the Democrat exaggerated his combat record.
Several Republicans said they'd rather see the issue go away.

"My hope is that, come Monday, the Vietnam thing will be submerged and voters will be focusing on the president and his agenda," said Charlie Black, a Republican strategist in Washington.

Republicans had reason to worry: A new poll suggests that almost half of Americans think Bush's campaign is behind attacks on Kerry's war record. The numbers spiked after the campaign's lead attorney, Benjamin Ginsberg, resigned after it was revealed that he also gave legal advice to the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=694&ncid=694&e=2&u=/ap/20040827/ap_on_el_pr/republican_jitters

[agates]

1. Funniest paragraph

"There has been a lot of noise out there, with Iraq and even this Vietnam stuff," said Terry Grosenheider, a delegate from Madison, Wis. "He hasn't been able to talk about his accomplishments or, more importantly, his solutions to the problems people are facing."

And just WHAT accomplishments would those be? What solutions? If he had accomplishments or solutions, his campaign wouldn't be creating the "noise."

[rockymountaindem]

2. Attention panickers and ney-sayers...

This is for you...

I panicked once, but I got over it, apologized, and moved on. My confidence is in Kerry.

[realFedUp]

3. Maybe that's why this Israeli spy thing came up today

to change the Sunday talking points...