[Austin aides have their focus groups too, and they claim the vice president's aggressiveness only rankles, reminding voters of the ugly noises from the past four or five years in Washington, the showdowns and shutdowns. The less partisan voters, says the campaign, like Bush's happy soundings of cooperation.] Among swing voters, they don't care about the party labels, ... They want things solved. |
[Bush-Cheney raised expectations for Edwards, saying the main reason Kerry chose him as his running mate was because of his oratorical skills. Calling Edwards a] professional debater, ... was picked because he was a successful personal injury lawyer that's had an unbelievably good record of winning personal injury awards. This is not a person that was a senator that was good at debates; this was a person who was basically paid to debate in front of juries. |
[Republicans inadvertently tipped their hand on this point yesterday. During a conference call, Bush pollster-strategist Matthew Dowd said they're also airing a 60-second radio ad that resembles the anti-Kerry spot.] But ... it actually has a positive element to it as well. |
a chorus of 'the sky is falling.' |
After the Democratic nominee is all but certain in the late winter/early spring, it would not be surprising for us to fall behind for a bit, |
All of that makes it harder on the Democrats. That's a benefit we have that we never had before. |
Among swing voters, they don't care about the party labels. They want things solved. |
As the inevitable discussion proceeds in the months ahead, this memo should provide both perspective and a reality check. President Bush's approval numbers will again fall back to more realistic levels fairly quickly. All were quite successful on Election Day. |
bad news for the Bush team and declared 'the sky is falling' once again. |
Democrats have a problem if they go one way and don't emphasize the rule of law and only have compassion. The Republicans have a problem if they only go with the rule of law. There has to be a balance. |
Every incumbent president in the last 25 years has been behind the opposition in the latter part of his first term -- the sky is not falling. |
Feingold represents the largest share of the Democratic base and how they feel about this issue. |
Former President Bush's approval on the economy at this same time in 1991 was 28 percent and fell to the mid-teens in 1992. |
It reminds me of what (Howard) Dean did . . . knowing the intensity of the Democratic base on Bush, that whoever took on Bush directly in a vociferous way was going to get a big bump. |
It shows the public rewards leaders. If you lead and say 'this is what we want to do,' even if you don't succeed in the short run, the public will support you. The public supports infrastructure improvements and they see the governor leading. |