Posted on 07/18/2004 8:13:19 AM PDT by Libloather
By Rove's rationale, Kerry boxed in on Iraq
Carla Marinucci
Sunday, July 18, 2004
Presidential political adviser Karl Rove, racing up and down California last week ahead of the Democratic convention, said Sen. John Kerry is going to hear a lot more about his vote to approve military action in Iraq -- because the Republicans are ready to throw it right back at him.
By the time the American people vote in November, expect the Bush campaign to try to box the Democratic presidential candidate in like this: Kerry had the same intelligence information as President Bush on Iraq, made statements to indicate he believed in the same threats, and voted to support Bush's position. So either he made a big mistake himself or the president made the correct decision.
"If Sen. Kerry now wants to come out and say, ' I looked at the intelligence ... I said (Hussein) was a danger. I said he had weapons of mass destruction. But the president is a liar for saying the same thing?' That's going to be a hard sell to the American people,'' Rove said in an interview during a stopover in Sacramento on Friday.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Vote for it again - before voting against it?
Click on the link above for a really great story...
Time for Rove to deliver. This guy has waited a little too long, and has let Bush slip in most of the polls for the entire summer. Vacation's over, Karl.
Not just the IWR but his vote AGAINST the Gulf War resolution in '91.
We had the entire world on our side, practically, like Johnny wants, and he still voted against driving Saddam out of Kuwait.
Winning an election is like winning a horse race. Where you are at the finish line (Election Day)is all that counts.
Any one who has ever been at a horse race or a presidential election knows that the horse or candidate ahead in the back stretch rarely wins.
Dukakis was 16 points ahead of George HW Bush at this point in 1998. Bush was ahead of Clinton in June of 1992. Carter was ahead of Reagan in the late summer of 1980.
It doesn't take a lot of experience to know that if you shoot your ammo in the summer, it will be spent before the last days of the Election.
Gore waited until a week before the Election in 2000 to release the Bush DUI. If he had done it in the summer it would have had little effect on the election.
Nothing has less effect on an election than yesterdays news. If a candidate wants to win, he saves most of what he has until the last 6 weeks before the election.
Most of the swing voters who decide elections don't even pay attention until the final weeks of a campaign. The candidate that shoots his wad now will be in big trouble in November. Rove hopes to keep Bush within 10 or 15 points of Kerry until the end of August. Then pull even in September and move ahead in October to win in November.
But at this point Bush is within 5 points and that is a lot better than Rove expected or needs.
This is what I am talking about, when I told alot of the pessimistic people on this forum that Karl Rove has plenty of cards that he hasn't played yet.
There is no reason for Bush to run up and pull away ahead of the DNC convention..
Rove has the next 4 months mapped out in his head, and it's soon time to execute the plan.
Perfect analysis Common.. What I've been trying to say for months.
I think if the Gore Campaign would have waited until Monday before the election, he might have won. After the dust settled, Bush picked up alot of sympathy votes for getting bashed like that at the end.
The long-time ago skeletons like Bush's DUI are single shot pistol blows, they aren't long-lasting effective strategy.
Rove has alot of cards to play. It's one of the reasons why Senators don't get elected to the Presidency, they have a whole history of votes and comments that are going to be exposed.
Bush is in good hands.
Rove has allowed the Dems to seize the premise on too many issues: no WMD, Iraq is a mess, Bush lied about X Y Z, etc. Now, he has to go back and unravel all of that in a 10 week period starting with the convention. a tall order. Cheney's unfavorable numbers will never recover, he has allowed the lies and distoration to go unrefuted for too long.
If Bush wins this election - it will be because of him alone, he's the only guy pulling the wagon right now.
I posted something similar to what you said regarding the irrelevance of the summer polls. You may take a look at the following post:
Excellent point. The DUI had significant impact on that election because it was released the weekend before. It didn't win Gore many votes but many would-be Bush voters (who have strong feelings about alcohol) stayed home and that almost cost Bush the election.
The good news this time around is that our candidate has been fully vetted. We need not worry about any last minute dirt on GWB because the Dems shot their load in 2000. Chances are that many of the fundamentalist Christians who sat on their hands in 2000 over that DUI are over it now and in fact realize that GWB is as close as they are going to get to having a true Christian in the White House. They would be fools to stay home again.
You have been very pessimistic and negative for long time my fellow freeper. Do not pay attention to the polls and refer to my post # 10, and you will know why polls do not really matter until Mid October.
Before Election Day will come the majority of voters will realize that John Kerry is an ultra liberal flip floper from Massachusetts who does not fit to be President.
The majority of voters will re-elect President Bush.
Sounds like they are FINALLY going to hit Kerry on this. He was pushing for 'boots on the ground' in Iraq back in '98. He and Edwards both have both made quotes that will be great to hit back at them. And it is not going to work for them in saying how they wouldn't have gone to war without a coalition, when Kerry voted against the '91 Gulf War and the fact that Kerry and Edwards make the big issue in saying how 'Bush lied' which has and always has been a lie within itself and Kerry and Edwards can't continue to push their attack on this President for bringing us to war for 'fictitious reasons and lies' when they were saying and believed the same things. Rove would be wise to continue to confront the Kerry team with this.
Great posts. I've been thinking the same thing--it should get very interesting once the fall rolls around.
Great, now all we need is Karen Huges back in the saddle and we're all set.
no one is close to lee attwater, but kr is certainly close.
I strongly recommend
"bush's brain" the kr story
Speaking of Kerry, they don't call him 'FUBAR' for nothing.
How about KUBAR?
Out Freeping standing, CT!
Kerry is known as 'FUBAR', because, euphemistically, he will 'Foul Up Beyond All Repair'. I know, there is a more colorful term, but in keeping with the rules of decorum, I will not use it here.
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