Excellent points, esp. about the Dem voters response to failure.

Which means that if Kerry spends September losing to Bush, then in October he should start doing even worse among "likely voters", because expecting Kerry to lose is just going to rip the heart out of his supporters.

:-)

I agree. For all the wild antics we've seen from DNC stalwarts like Susan Estrich, the finest entertainment is still ahead. I just hope none of the MoveOn-Moore Kool-Aid drinkers go so far around the bend they do something criminal.

Re: Kerry doesn't perform well when challenged.

Isn't that his Vietnam service all over again? Imagine what it might have come to if he'd been told to take his bandaid boo-boos away and not be a whiner when he applied for some of those Purple Hearts. We might have seen some really serious self-inflicted wound action if he got desperate for that early release from his tour of duty.

Ace, you'll love this: Your Mr. Lipid man cries wolf yet again concerning the questioning of patriotism.

Excellent!

I think you have summed up the state of the Democrat Party quite well. It's sad that they have come to this. It's sadder still that they are dragging the rest of us into their mudpit too.

I'm wondering whether or not the donks are regretting the decision to throw Howard Dean to the side because Kerry was perceived as more "electable."

I mean, the "Dean scream" was pretty much the final nail in the coffin, but at least Dean was idealistic and had a passionate following of liberal followers. Kerry, by comparison, is an empty suit. Furthermore, his campaign would be dead in the water if not for the 527's--the exact people who were backing Dean in the first place.

It's almost sad to see these people conducting a rah-rah campaign for a guy who they probably would've booted if W hadn't been the opponent. Almost, but not quite.

Just brilliant commentary. Add to it that political parties, with few exceptions, don't keep trading their star players, so loyalties can run deep for years. A few more Zell Millers running for the wrong end-zone, and fans are gonna lynch the coach.

And if the MSM referees keep making bad calls, our only recourse is to become "digital referees." (It sounds better than "brownshirts").

Be careful, Remy. Some of us here are in our own mudpit, needing as much vindication from a Bush victory as they need from a Bush defeat. It's a wise man who tempers these kinds of thoughts with self-reflection. "There, but for the grace of God, go I" as the old saying goes.

I think Dick Morris did an excellent job dismissing the "Kerry's base is united meme." I think it was on RealClearPolitics yesterday.

Otherwise, politics in this country (and others) has alway been a contact sport. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson held extreme personal animus for one another. I don't think we've devolved to some lower form of politics so much as I believe the stakes are higher in this election that they've been in a while. That really ramps up the sides more than some attachment of self to a particular presidential nominee. The stakes were high in the 1790s and feelings were hot. Ditto 1850s politics. It comes with the territory.

Regards

You know, for the last year I have been wanting the Bush administration to fight back against the scurrilous accusations that have been flying around out there. But they mostly haven't responded-- they've just let the windbags expel their poisonous hot gases. And you know, I am becoming somewhat converted to this method. For one thing, it means that George W. Bush doesn't seem like a whiner, while Kerry is sounding more and more like a whiner the longer this campaign drags on. Campaigns have their ups and downs, and I expect to see Kerry take the lead in the polls again at some point. But we already know what Bush does when he is behind, because he has been since April or so. And he never panicked.

And where is the left's concern for America in all this? For our safety and well-being?

If we fall, what happens to the rest of civilization?

That's why I hate the left. Because they refuse to grow up, to take responsibility for even themselves, let alone for the larger sphere of human influence.

I live in the OKC area. That 78% number isn't that hard to believe. We've got our lefties here too, but most people on either side aren't buying into that hyper liberal ticket the DNC is pushing.

I still think though that when you look at the issue polling, the country is a lot more united than we are being led to believe. Image the different political climate we would have right now if the media was pushing that fact rather than peddling "the country is more divided than ever before" every time you turn on the news. The media is the only beneficiary of a rabidly partisan battle and their collaboration with the liberal 527's and their own desire to paint Bush in a bad light have caused them to make this race look more extreem than it is. Maybe the humiliation of their boy will finally let some of the wind out of their bag and the country will figure out what a bunch of lying, manipulative scum they are.

That analysis is absolutely dead-on Ace. In fact, I think you just gave me my Ph.D. thesis topic.

Of course, I'm not actually *in* school for a Ph.D. right now, but I like to plan ahead.

Again, like a broken record, I still think this comes down to the debates. Why? Because Bush can't be allowed to "win" against Kerry. The media won't accept the RNC as the nail in Kerry's coffin. Kerry has to destroy *himself*, and do so publicly, for the media to acknowledge he's done for. I'll grant he's off to a splendid start thanks to his faux-drunken "I know you are, but what am I" midnight tirade the other night.

From here out, however, the only national stage on which he can self-immolate himself like some Boston buddhist is in the debates. Bush is a known quantity to the American people, he can play for a tie. If Kerry, however, comes across as a desperate arrogant jackass (Vegas odds of this happening at least once during three debates: >95%), then he's in for the trouble you forecast.

I only question the timing of Kerry's crackup, and not its inevitability.

The good news is, the harder his crazy base pushes him to be crazy as well, the more likely he is to become overeager to paint Bush as BushHitler, and have that come across in the debates. I can't believe that ALL the Democrats hate Bush that much. They'll never vote for the man, but an awful Kerry performance in the stretch may be enough to keep enough home on election day to make the difference for Bush.

Of course, that strategy will be bemoaned by the Democrat/Media access as "Republicans again denying the franchise to poor and ethnic voters."
Oh well, tough cookies.

Cheers,
Dave
Arlington, Virginia

'Campaigns have their ups and downs, and I expect to see Kerry take the lead in the polls again at some point.'---HOP

Actually if that were to happen,I would be forced to re-examine my underlying assumptions for this campaign.I firmly believe that this is not analogous to being on the beach and watching the tide coming in and going out.That would imply that the winner of the election is at least in part,dependent on the exact 'timing'of the election as the opponent might be able to win at some other point in the cycle.
I view this situation as being in a seaside house and experiencing a raging storm which has collected up all the flotsam and jetsome in existence and is now trying to demolish that house.It has raged for days but your house is still there,and it had begun to punch itself out.Then as suddenly as it arrived it left.Not gradually but ALL AT ONCE.A few scattered showers remain but the back of it has been broken.
This campaign is not a real conflict from this point on.It will much more closely represent a 'mopping up' operation.Just my biased opinion,but the signs are all there in plain sight.Just 1 as an example.Where did Bush & Cheney go IMMEDIATELY after the convention? Not to 'red'state to desperately shore up support but to 'blue'states to finish off the democratic survivors ( Wisconsin,Iowa,Penn.,Oregon).If the rout becomes worse you will see them in places such as NY,Californis,Washington,etc.
It will be interesting to watch but I have total confidence in the results.
This is an important election and I believe it has 'suddenly'dawned on the voters that serious issues are involved and a serious candidate must be supported.

Yep.

Ace, you may think Bush is up by 4-5, but Newsweek thinks he is up by 11.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=5&u=/ap/20040904/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_rdp_11

Out here on the left coast, there's a feeling that Babs Boxer is vulnerable. The GOP, in my view, has understood all along that this campaign is a marathon (more sports analogy!) and has only now begun its kick toward the finish. Ah-nuld will begin campaigning for Bill Jones soon and I think there's a real chance that Bill wipes the floor with Boxer. If that happens, and I were Kerry, I'd be very, very concerned about a previously "safe" state.

THe Democrats should have taken 2002 as a warning. Instead they kept McAuliffe as titular head, kept the Clintons and the clintonoid staffers, let Nancy Pelosi tell them they needed to "differentiate themselves from the Republicans", and kept up the (proved as a loser) drumbeat of doom and gloom/Bushitler/stolen election/Halliburton!Halliburton! nonsense. Kerry was a mistake, but he was a mistake in keeping with their previously plotted strategy. There is nothing new here.

Football teams:

You still rooting for the NYGiants?

If so, gonna be a long year

Manning-Warner....Warner-Manning

heh, *titular*

Not much I can add, but it's getting harder NOT to give in to conspiracy theories. I mean, I thought Kerry would be a bad candiate, but THIS BAD? Can his internal judgement and external advice be THIS BAD? Stunning, really.

I still have to hand it to Bush. After months of relentless bashing from so many sides and media, he played this pretty damn cool. Count me also as one who wished he would have countered the barrage more forcefully, but, damn, he is one cool customer.

And where is the left's concern for America in all this? For our safety and well-being?

If we fall, what happens to the rest of civilization?

You don't understand. In the minds of Leftists, they *are* civilization. They think they're leading humanity to a glorious paradise of perfection; and we would all get there much more quickly if all these annoying Conservative knuckle-draggers didn't keep getting in the way.

Radical Islam is a minor skirmisher in the larger war against the great god, "Progress." The Conservatives, since they appeal to a wider audience, are the truly dangerous opponents.