HEATING UP


The 2004 presidential race is finally entering the key stage which will determine not only our next president, but also the direction of the country in the next four years.

Elections are two-way propositions: yes, the people learn about the candidates, but the candidates, too, learn from the voters what they want and what they do not want. Only this way can the president who takes the oath next January 20th lead the country effectively. He must get guidance and direction from the people - and so, too, must the Congress.

This past week the campaign took an important turn: we stopped talking about the past - Vietnam, Swift Boats, National Guard records - and began the most important debate of the decade: how will we proceed in both Iraq and the War on Terror - which ought to be called the War on America by Radical Islamic Fundamentalists?

This debate is long overdue because either GW Bush or John Kerry is going to be running our foreign policy next year - and they need clarification from the American people over what our real goals are. There have been so many shifting rationales for the Iraqi invasion - and so many lies, exaggerations, misrepresentations on both sides that it is time the nation focused on Iraq and made some crucial decisions.

Thursday’s debate will, indeed, serve to help the American people learn more about these two men, their views - and all the awful things they have heard about them from 30-second commercials.

This debate begins a national debate over the war on Iraq and the efforts against Al Qaeda.

Bring it on!



1) GROUND GAME:

Here is some campaign news you haven’t heard much of on TV or in the papers: the Democrats - fueled by a white-hot hatred for GW Bush and worry over the direction of the country and paid for by billionaire George Soros - have quietly gone out and registered new voters in the key battleground states at an astounding rate. According to the New York Times, in Florida and Ohio, Democrat groups have registered up to 250% more new voters in 2004 than they did in 2000; conversely, the GOP has registered new voters at a much more modest rate.

What does this all mean?

Well, it might very well turn out to be the key in a close race. The Democrats clearly intend to vote each and every one of these new voters. So, in a close race, just that increased turnout - as opposed to a more static Bush/GOP vote - could make the difference.

No wonder that GW Bush daily harangues Karl Rove and his senior campaign staff with the same question, “How are we doing on get-out-the vote operations for Election Day?”

2) Every weekend the Kerry campaign and the Democratic National Committee are busing volunteers into battle ground states to do walk-throughs, more voter registration and door-to-door canvassing.

A recent participant reported that many of these volunteers are ‘first-time’ political workers who have joined up due to an intense dislike of GW Bush and a fear for the direction of the nation. (The mirror opposite of this would be if Hillary were the Democratic nominee for President, anti-Hillary political ‘novices’ would come out of the woodwork to stop her from getting elected.)

So far this anti-Bush passion is not matched on the GOP side. There is a lethargy among the grassroots about this race; perhaps many conservatives read the polls and believe Bush “can’t lose.”

The risk is that, if the polls get close at the end, that Ground Game turn-out by the Democrats could turn enough ‘on-thefence’ states into Kerry states - and he could score a narrow win.

This Ground Game operation is old fashioned politics at its best. It may be the ultimate key to this race.

MORONS


Have you ever noticed that the supposedly smartest - and best educated - people are often the absolute dumbest dopes you have ever heard?

And that these supposed brains are, in fact, totally devoid of any common sense whatsoever?

Well, it is true. And it is chronicled perfectly in a brand new book - INTELLECTUAL MORONS; How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas by Daniel J. Flynn. (Dan previously wrote Why the Left Hates America.)

This book details incident after incident of ‘over-educated’ fools who think they know more than the average American but, in fact, are so off-base as to almost make the reader cry. From ‘sexual liberation’ to ‘Environmentalism’ to outright ‘Anti-Americanism,’ the intellectual class has led this country down the slippery slope of anarchy.

Mr. Flynn details case after case. For example, how sexual researcher Albert Kinsey unleashed a torrent of perverted sexual concepts and practices - almost all demeaning and degrading to women - including violence and ‘rough sex’ - that are now sanctioned, taught and sometimes even advocated on college campuses.

Or, on race relations, Mr. Flynn carefully traces the case of the oft-cited hero of the Left: W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the founders of the push for civil rights. But, in fact, Mr. Du Bois - the first black to earn a doctorate at Harvard and thus a role model for thousands of successive Harvardians - actually devoted himself to racial separatism and communism. Of course, Harvard downplays this even though it has spurned an African-American Department rife with radical philosophies.

And who can ever forget the still-discussed case of the Soviet spy, State Department mole Alger Hiss? Long a fave of the Left, Hiss was actively selling out the United State to Stalin during and after World War II.

To this day, the American academy and the ‘intelligentsia’ stick by Hiss, denying that he was a spy.

Even after the end of the Cold War and the opening of Russian archives proved the direct tie of Hiss to Moscow, the intellectual class has chosen to stick with Hiss. (Perhaps their loyalty remains to the ‘perfect utopian system’ they always saw being created in Mother Russia.)

Facts and proof just get in the way of the leftist ideology.

You would think that well-educated people revere facts and proof; instead they ignore them when convenient.

Mr. Flynn’s powerful book is a sad indictment of the Educated Left in this country. This well-positioned - and financially well-compensated class - often is actively trying to undo the very system under which they are prospering! Only they are so hypocritical that they do not want their own personal situation to be affected.

Given their choice, this over-educated, anti-American class of self-elected intellectuals, would like to rip the heart out of this country and create the Utopia that Lenin and Stalin failed to create.

From Du Bois to Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem and many others, their goal remains the same: a Revolution from the Left to bring down America as we know her.

You absolutely must read: INTELLECTUAL MORONS; How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas by Daniel J. Flynn. It is just coming out right now - and can be bought online from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Buy it, read it - and guard yourselves and your families from these out-of-control, over-educated ‘Intellectual Morons’ who want to tear our great country apart.

CIA OSAMA DISGRACE


Yesterday it was publicly revealed for the first time that the CIA now has fewer people manning the special ‘Osama Team’ - that special group begun in the mid-1990's to track and eliminate Osama Bin Laden - than we did before the 9/11 attacks!

CIA operative Michael Scheuer has written a letter to the U.S. Congress which complains that the CIA has actually cut available personnel for the ‘Osama Unit’ - and rotates new people in and out so frequently that they do not have time to become current with all the latest intelligence before they move on to some other assignment.

Wasn’t catching Osama Bin Laden our “highest national priority’ after 9/11?

What of President Bush repeated pledge to “get him dead or alive”?

And what of Vice President Cheney’s repeated promises to “run him to ground”?

Why does our government never even talk about Osama any more?

Why did the President never mention Osama by name even once at the Republican National Convention?

Here - from yesterdays’s New York Times - is the crux of the problem:

“ The bin Laden unit is stretched so thin that it relies on
inexperienced officers rotated in and out every 60 to 90
days, and they leave before they know enough to be able to
perform any meaningful work, according to a letter the
C.I.A. officer has written to the House and Senate
Intelligence Committees.”

How can the Bush Administration allow this to be happening?

Michael Scheuer, by the way, is a hero for repeatedly having the guts to stand up to his CIA superiors on this. During the late 1990's he pleaded with them for more aid - and has cited at least a dozen opportunities to kill Osama. All were passed up for various bureaucratic reasons.

Scheuer - distressed by the direction of the War on Terror - then wrote a book under the pseudonym ‘Anonymous.’ He also is cited repeatedly as ‘Mike’ in the 9/11 Commission Report.

This failure to capture or kill Osama is a national disgrace. He attacked us - and, make no mistake about it, he himself ran the entire mission. The 9/11 Report makes it clear: Osama personally recruited each and every one of the 19 murderers and he personally selected the three targets: the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Capitol.

Those who claim that Osama has been ‘marginalized’ are full of bunk. He is the leader - both operationally and symbolically - of America’s sworn enemy. And he keeps taunting us with new audio tapes that cause us to raise our alert level.

Yes, we are trying to get him. But are we trying as hard as we could to get him?

No, we are not.

We have not expended the money, the manpower and the national political will to get Osama that we spent to get Saddam.

Forget the campaign for a minute: this is a national disgrace and a smear on our national honor.

This SOB must be caught ASAP - and to do anything less is a moral crime.

DEBATES=KEY


The upcoming Presidential Debates are going to be the key to this year’s presidential campaign.

For GW Bush, they will be yet another opportunity to keep the post-convention focus on John Kerry in what has become a relentless and damaging offensive on a surprisingly docile and weak challenger.

For Kerry these debates - especially the first 30 minutes of the first debate when there will be the maximum viewing audience of any political event this year - have become the make or break events in his life-long quest to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

His inept post-convention meandering campaign - and his career of playing both sides of all issues - has put him exactly where a challenger cannot be: on the defensive instead of relentlessly attacking the already-weakened incumbent.

Barring an unforeseen and uncontrollable event - an attack, a civil war in Iraq, a major economic event (Black Monday-ish) - Team Kerry has little opportunity left to turn the momentum around in this race. Commercials and speeches aren’t enough; Kerry needs ‘something’ to shake up the dynamic of the entire race.

His last, best hope is this: in the first debate he walks out onto the stage and proceeds to do two things simultaneously: A) Re-introduce himself to the American people as a strong, competent leader in command of the situation; and B) tear apart GW Bush, get him rattled and ‘off-message’ and provoke Mr. Bush into making a gaffe which will then dominate the campaign for the next week. (There was one two weeks ago when Mr. Bush said “I don’t think we can win” the War on Terror. Such a mistake in a debate potentially could turn the entire campaign around.)

These debates often do little to change perceptions of candidates; usually they serve to harden each side. But a gaffe is a gaffe and we as a nation focus on them with obsessive detail. Remember Ford’s “Poland is free”? That mistake may have cost him a full term! And Al Gore’s sighs? They ruined his chance at the White House!

GW Bush does a good job in his debates by sticking to a disciplined game plan. He is always underestimated by his opponents - at their own peril - and he often comes out ahead. Now, as President of the United States he will have an extra cushion of respect that makes attacking him even more difficult.

However, as a President, he is also more prone to getting lax in his head-to-head debate prep. It is very difficult for White House staff to rehearse with a sitting president and to really tear into him the way they would with a regular candidate. Staff simply cannot speak to a president as frankly as they can to others; many presidents hear little dissent personally while in office. They live in a bubble and are surrounded by staff, family and friends who tell them only good things day and night.

Then - suddenly - the President of the United States is standing on a stage in front of the world and his opponent is not quite as supportive and positive as the White House staff has been. And he is put ‘off’ by the tone and ferocity of his opponent.

Kerry has to tread a fine line: respectful of the office of the Presidency but hard on the Bush record. And he has to attack that record concisely, coherently and quickly; if he drags it out in his normal boring manner, viewers are going to head to other shows and games.

Kerry’s biggest problem? He is ‘un-likeable.’ He is Lurch who flip-flops, dissembles and connives.

That image has to be changed by his debate performances. He has to have voters walk away from these debates saying something like this: “Boy, Bush made some big mistakes and that Kerry...well, he is not as bad as I had heard he was.”

If Kerry can do that - then this race is going to tighten up right away. And then the Passion Differential (the anti-Bush sentiment outweighs the pro-Bush feeling in intensity that will manifest itself in dispropportionate turnout on Election Day).

And, in the other way, Bush is going to try to use the debates to tweak Kerry on his many positions on all sides of every issue to reinforce Kerry’s ‘flip-flopping’ image.

Both camps today are furiously prepping for the debates - and negotiating the terms and conditions of each debate right down to a key question: what to do about Kerry’s six inch height advantage? The White House is afraid of Kerry ‘towering’ over a ‘diminished’ president - and the subliminal message that sends.

Look for talk of the debates to heat up daily now as each campaign focuses on them.

They may be the key to this year’s election.

RAMIFICATIONS


“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Given this immutable law of the Universe, let us examine some ramifications - or reactions - to the latest political events:

1) Bush’s post-convention bounce: while conservatives rejoice that Mr. Bush is finally ahead in all polls, the Kerry Camp’s panic will wake up a complacent campaign. This has always been Kerry’s pattern: blow leads through ‘prevent defense’ and ‘sit on your lead’ conservatism - and then find a last-minute new approach and ride it to victory. Remember: until voters actually vote, they can always change their minds.

Kerry is his most dangerous when he is facing the abyss of an ignomious defeat. And he now - again - faces this distinct possibility this fall.

His well-publicized ‘reach-out’ to Bill Clinton shows something: Kerry knows he is in Big Trouble and he is willing to try something new until he finds something that works. Like a slumping golfer or baseball hitter, Kerry is back in practice mode experimenting with new themes, lines and approaches until he finds something that works. (Eight weeks to go and he still does not have a theme! Amazing.)

Team Bush better not get too complacent themselves because eight weeks is an eternity in politics.

2) GOP - 2008: All the talk here in NYC last week was about which Republican would be our nominee in 2008: Rudy or McCain or Pataki or Frist?

Well, guess what?

This year’s race will determine that. If President Bush wins - and, as of today, he should - then the Bush Political Machine will control the GOP, including their Massive Money Machine, for another four years and will thus be able to select the 2008 nominee. In that case, look either for Jeb Bush or Vice President Cheney to be their choice. The others will have trouble bucking the GOP Establishment and raising cash. Ironically, they were all praising ‘W’ in hopes of currying favor for 2008; but if ‘W’ wins, then they are all placed on the back-burner by the very President they praised!

But if Bush loses this November all bets are off. He will be the second President Bush to blow a presidency in 12 years. The GOP will certainly be thrust into an internal civil war with the ‘paleo-conservatives’ fighting the ‘neo-cons’ and everyone angry about blowing total GOP control on power.

Under that circumstance, the Bush Machine will be weakened and the ‘automatic right of succession’ for Jeb to become the third President Bush will be greatly damaged.

Much rides on this November 2 - including the future of the GOP - and the campaigns of half a dozen Republican wannabes.

3) Russia: The recent spate of bombings, jet attacks and the awful hostage-taking at the school in Belsan show that long-repressed Muslims have declared war on Putin’s government.

What’s to come?

Well, Putin is struggling with the answer. His KGB-trained instinct is to crack down hard in Chechnya but he also knows that that approach may only incite even more jihadists to attack throughout Russia.

Whatever he does, Russia is imploding. Putin’s power will only wane as he becomes a lame duck; a power vacuum will grow and anarchy will spread .

It is going to get much, much worse before it ever gets better in Russia.

4) Blowback Payback: Dan Rather is now back on the story of GW Bush’s National Guard service. Scandal author Kitty Kelly is out with her huge Bush book next Monday which is so incendiary that even NEWSWEEK wouldn’t excerpt it.

The ‘announcement’ of the 1000th combat death is getting huge media attention - aimed at hurting President Bush’s campaign.

The so-called ‘mainstream media’ has had enough of the Swift Boat Vets; they are now going to come agunnin’ for Bush as a sort of payback.

It could get very ugly very soon.

November 2 seems light years away.

RAMIFICATIONS


“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Given this immutable law of the Universe, let us examine some ramifications - or reactions - to the latest political events:

1) Bush’s post-convention bounce: while conservatives rejoice that Mr. Bush is finally ahead in all polls, the Kerry Camp’s panic will wake up a complacent campaign. This has always been Kerry’s pattern: blow leads through ‘prevent defense’ and ‘sit on your lead’ conservatism - and then find a last-minute new approach and ride it to victory. Remember: until voters actually vote, they can always change their minds.

Kerry is his most dangerous when he is facing the abyss of an ignomious defeat. And he now - again - faces this distinct possibility this fall.

His well-publicized ‘reach-out’ to Bill Clinton shows something: Kerry knows he is in Big Trouble and he is willing to try something new until he finds something that works. Like a slumping golfer or baseball hitter, Kerry is back in practice mode experimenting with new themes, lines and approaches until he finds something that works. (Eight weeks to go and he still does not have a theme! Amazing.)

Team Bush better not get too complacent themselves because eight weeks is an eternity in politics.

2) GOP - 2008: All the talk here in NYC last week was about which Republican would be our nominee in 2008: Rudy or McCain or Pataki or Frist?

Well, guess what?

This year’s race will determine that. If President Bush wins - and, as of today, he should - then the Bush Political Machine will control the GOP, including their Massive Money Machine, for another four years and will thus be able to select the 2008 nominee. In that case, look either for Jeb Bush or Vice President Cheney to be their choice. The others will have trouble bucking the GOP Establishment and raising cash. Ironically, they were all praising ‘W’ in hopes of currying favor for 2008; but if ‘W’ wins, then they are all placed on the back-burner by the very President they praised!

But if Bush loses this November all bets are off. He will be the second President Bush to blow a presidency in 12 years. The GOP will certainly be thrust into an internal civil war with the ‘paleo-conservatives’ fighting the ‘neo-cons’ and everyone angry about blowing total GOP control on power.

Under that circumstance, the Bush Machine will be weakened and the ‘automatic right of succession’ for Jeb to become the third President Bush will be greatly damaged.

Much rides on this November 2 - including the future of the GOP - and the campaigns of half a dozen Republican wannabes.

3) Russia: The recent spate of bombings, jet attacks and the awful hostage-taking at the school in Belsan show that long-repressed Muslims have declared war on Putin’s government.

What’s to come?

Well, Putin is struggling with the answer. His KGB-trained instinct is to crack down hard in Chechnya but he also knows that that approach may only incite even more jihadists to attack throughout Russia.

Whatever he does, Russia is imploding. Putin’s power will only wane as he becomes a lame duck; a power vacuum will grow and anarchy will spread .

It is going to get much, much worse before it ever gets better in Russia.

4) Blowback Payback: Dan Rather is now back on the story of GW Bush’s National Guard service. Scandal author Kitty Kelly is out with her huge Bush book next Monday which is so incendiary that even NEWSWEEK wouldn’t excerpt it.

The ‘announcement’ of the 1000th combat death is getting huge media attention - aimed at hurting President Bush’s campaign.

The so-called ‘mainstream media’ has had enough of the Swift Boat Vets; they are now going to come agunnin’ for Bush as a sort of payback.

It could get very ugly very soon.

November 2 seems light years away.

RAMIFICATIONS


“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

Given this immutable law of the Universe, let us examine some ramifications - or reactions - to the latest political events:

1) Bush’s post-convention bounce: while conservatives rejoice that Mr. Bush is finally ahead in all polls, the Kerry Camp’s panic will wake up a complacent campaign. This has always been Kerry’s pattern: blow leads through ‘prevent defense’ and ‘sit on your lead’ conservatism - and then find a last-minute new approach and ride it to victory. Remember: until voters actually vote, they can always change their minds.

Kerry is his most dangerous when he is facing the abyss of an ignomious defeat. And he now - again - faces this distinct possibility this fall.

His well-publicized ‘reach-out’ to Bill Clinton shows something: Kerry knows he is in Big Trouble and he is willing to try something new until he finds something that works. Like a slumping golfer or baseball hitter, Kerry is back in practice mode experimenting with new themes, lines and approaches until he finds something that works. (Eight weeks to go and he still does not have a theme! Amazing.)

Team Bush better not get too complacent themselves because eight weeks is an eternity in politics.

2) GOP - 2008: All the talk here in NYC last week was about which Republican would be our nominee in 2008: Rudy or McCain or Pataki or Frist?

Well, guess what?

This year’s race will determine that. If President Bush wins - and, as of today, he should - then the Bush Political Machine will control the GOP, including their Massive Money Machine, for another four years and will thus be able to select the 2008 nominee. In that case, look either for Jeb Bush or Vice President Cheney to be their choice. The others will have trouble bucking the GOP Establishment and raising cash. Ironically, they were all praising ‘W’ in hopes of currying favor for 2008; but if ‘W’ wins, then they are all placed on the back-burner by the very President they praised!

But if Bush loses this November all bets are off. He will be the second President Bush to blow a presidency in 12 years. The GOP will certainly be thrust into an internal civil war with the ‘paleo-conservatives’ fighting the ‘neo-cons’ and everyone angry about blowing total GOP control on power.

Under that circumstance, the Bush Machine will be weakened and the ‘automatic right of succession’ for Jeb to become the third President Bush will be greatly damaged.

Much rides on this November 2 - including the future of the GOP - and the campaigns of half a dozen Republican wannabes.

3) Russia: The recent spate of bombings, jet attacks and the awful hostage-taking at the school in Belsan show that long-repressed Muslims have declared war on Putin’s government.

What’s to come?

Well, Putin is struggling with the answer. His KGB-trained instinct is to crack down hard in Chechnya but he also knows that that approach may only incite even more jihadists to attack throughout Russia.

Whatever he does, Russia is imploding. Putin’s power will only wane as he becomes a lame duck; a power vacuum will grow and anarchy will spread .

It is going to get much, much worse before it ever gets better in Russia.

4) Blowback Payback: Dan Rather is now back on the story of GW Bush’s National Guard service. Scandal author Kitty Kelly is out with her huge Bush book next Monday which is so incendiary that even NEWSWEEK wouldn’t excerpt it.

The ‘announcement’ of the 1000th combat death is getting huge media attention - aimed at hurting President Bush’s campaign.

The so-called ‘mainstream media’ has had enough of the Swift Boat Vets; they are now going to come agunnin’ for Bush as a sort of payback.

It could get very ugly very soon.

November 2 seems light years away.

RNC- CONCLUSION



Last night’s speech by the President was actually two speeches melded into one: A) A State of the Union type ‘laundry list of new initiatives; and B) a rousing and patriotic political speech to end the convention.

The laundry list was a bit too long and included too many new ideas to expand the role of the federal government. That old ‘compassionate conservatism’ was back; I wish it wasn’t. When the GOP thinks the Federal Government can help people, we have already lost.

The patriotic speech was excellent and invoked the selfless heroism of our troops overseas.

The result of this speech and the four-day Republican National Convention?

A two-point lead for Bush/Cheney in the new Zogby poll: 46%-44% with 9% undecided.

Still unchanged: negative ratings for the President on these key benchmarks: right track/wrong track, job performance and the ever important ‘re-elect’ question. (This is a key determinant in election politics: “Do you think so-and-so deserves to be re-elected? The Cardinal rule in politics is if an incumbent scores under 50% he/she is in Big Trouble.)

The RNC was a success overall for the GOP in the following ways: it united the party behind Mr. Bush, it knocked a few points off Kerry (he is down 4% from a month ago) and it set the stage for the next 60 days.

This morning the new job numbers came out and they also were moderately good news for the GOP: the overall rate dropped a point to 5.4% - the lowest since September 2001. (The problem here is many, many understandedly disgruntled workers and voters scoff at these reports. And when the President claims that “we have turned the corner” these voters just increase their cynicism.)

The economy will continue to be one of the two underlying factors that determines the outcome of this election. The other, of course, being Iraq.

If those two improve - or the perception is that they are improving by November 2 - then President Bush is in good shape to be re-elected. But if the ‘sourness’ about the economy continues or if Iraq continues to seem chaotic and drifting, then John Kerry will be emboldened in the next 60 days.

A note about Kerry: he is at his best as a candidate when he is in the worst shape. When he is ahead he goes into the ‘prevent defense’ that always fritters away his lead; when his back is up against the wall he gets nasty, tough and dangerous. Example: in 2002 and early 2003 he had a commanding lead inside the Democratic Party for the nomination. So what did he do? Sat on his lead while a nobody named Howard Dean soared from last to first in about three months.

With his lifelong dream of the Presidency seemingly slipping away, Kerry rolled the dice. He pulled all his staff out of New Hampshire and DC, mortgaged his own house to the tune of $6.4 million, and threw everything into Iowa.

He destroyed Dean - and Dean self-immolated, too - but the point is that Kerry only sharpened himself up when his political life flashed before him.

The lesson was repeated not long thereafter: as soon as he effectively secured the nomination in March, he got soft, went on too many vacations, had no ‘movement’ in his campaign - and again lost his lead.

Now - with only 9 weeks until the election - John Kerry is going to be tough and nasty and a rough customer to deal with. Team Bush should not underestimate him.

Conclusion: the race is close and Bush has upward momentum.

The deciding factor on November 2: the passion index. Who has more passion to vote: the anti-Bush forces or the pro-Bush forces?

That will decide the election.

RNC- DAY TWO



I call Tuesday at the GOP Convention Radio Day for the significance of three radio shows:

1) Long-time national talk-radio host Don Imus, an eclectic independent, has been a long-time pal of both John McCain and John Kerry. They are often on his show.

Imus does not like President Bush.

He has been ‘pushing’ Kerry for almost two years.

But, after the Swift Boat Fiasco, Imus, a former Marine, has now ‘withdrawn’ his Kerry endorsement and declared himself an ‘Independent’ on the race.

So, guess who is arriving in a motorcade this morning to appear live on Imus’ Show?

Former President George H.W. Bush!

No dummies when it comes to the power of radio, Team Bush is making a move to win over Imus - or at least Imus’ national audience.

Meanwhile, the President - still trying to recover from his “You can’t win the war” flap - suddenly appeared on Rush’s radio show yesterday. And the Vice President went on Sean Hannity in the afternooon.

Bush and Cheney were both trying to calm the GOP base down after the ‘can’t win the war’ flap - and trying to do something else: maintain and even increase the base’s enthusiasm for November 2.

President Bush apparently tells Karl Rove on a daily basis that he is terribly worried about ‘turnout’ and ‘getting out the vote.’ He knows that no such problem exists on the Left: the anti-Bush crowd just can’t wait to vote in November.

But the White House is aware of a bit of a lack of enthusiasm inside the GOP base. And that is why they are always stoking the ‘base’ - and why they put the two candidates on the nation’s two largest and most influential talk radio shows on Tuesday.


One other note: late last night in Nashville, Kerry arrived to speak today at the American Legion Convention. And, as predicted here yesterday, he said of Bush’s “can’t win the war” flap, “We can and we must win the War on Terror.”

Look for this in today’s Legion speech - and on the stump from here on out.

Bush’s mistake will not be allowed to go away by the Kerry forces.