Results Do Matter

2 August 2004



Bush Begins Counter-Attack

The confetti had yet to be swept off the convention center floor in Boston when Mr. Bush left his ranch to begin campaigning for election to the office he now holds thanks to the Supreme Court. It has been a very frustrating time for the White House with Mr. Kerry and the likeable Mr. Edwards not putting a foot wrong while going through the nominating formalities. Apparently, the Bushies are so frustrated that they aren't thinking straight. Their latest efforts to slam Senator Kerry may blow up in their faces.

Part of the president's address to voters over the week-end included the statement "results matter." The idea is to portray Senator Kerry's 18 years in the Senate as bereft of achievement. And it is true that there are other legislators with more bills and laws attached to their names. But this approach is flawed strategically. The Bush family excels at running against an opponent, but the weakness of the clan in is defending its own record. As an incumbent, Mr. Bush must focus on his record, not that of Mr. Kerry.

"Results matter." That will become a Kerry campaign slogan before long. The Bush administration will be the first since the Hoover years to lose jobs -- results matter. The Bush administration has seen more Americans than ever go without health insurance -- results matter. Almost 1,000 dead Americans in Iraq (probably more by election day) and no weapons of mass destruction found -- results matter. America is disliked and even detested throughout the world less than three years after having the sympathy of the human races in the wake of the Al-Qaeda attack -- results matter.

Mr. Bush is in a great deal of trouble if this is his campaign approach. The attack will become the basis of a defeat. There are more promising strategies that the White House should consider. "A nation at war shouldn't change leaders in mid-stream" may resonate (FDR). "A secret plan to end the war in Iraq" could work (Nixon). "God, guns and gays" may be the alternative employed here, using social intolerance to split the nation -- one might call it the Malcolm X strategy, "by any means necessary."

In the face of this more plausible victory strategy, the Kerry-Edwards campaign has inoculated itself by putting on a happy-face convention that even President Reagan would have found too upbeat under the circumstances. But that is the only response to hate-mongering that has a hope of winning.

In the end, this campaign is Senator Kerry's to lose. While Mr. Bush will rally in the polls, and probably lead after his convention, the body count in Iraq and the slowing economy in America create a constellation of conditions that favors the challenger. However, Al-Qaeda still may have a card to play in the election. No attack against the US fatherland in 34 months suggests that they will attack elsewhere if at all. The Olympic Games in security-poor Greece begin in two weeks.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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