WP: President Ventures to Democratic Territory

[kskiska]

Bush Is Working to Win Minnesota and Wisconsin

Friday, September 17, 2004; Page A05

ROCHESTER, Minn., Sept. 16 -- President Bush rode his armored, star-spangled bus through the Democratic stronghold of Minnesota on Thursday as his campaign inaugurated a major push to spend more time and money in opposition territory.

Minnesota has not voted Republican in a presidential election since 1972, making it the state with the longest unbroken string of Democratic victories. But winning the Land of 10,000 Lakes, which Al Gore carried by two percentage points in 2000, has become one of the top goals for the Bush campaign.

Bush aides said they plan to move staff and advertising from several states where Bush won narrowly but is now running strong, including West Virginia and Missouri, into ones he wants to make Democratic nominee John F. Kerry defend, notably Minnesota and Wisconsin -- two states in the upper Midwest where churchgoing is heavy and issues of values play well.

(snip)

Focusing on health care for the second time this week, Bush warned: "My opponent wants government to dictate. I want you to decide when it comes to health care." Picking up on an estimate from a report this week by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Bush said Kerry's health care plan would cost "$1.5 trillion -- that's trillion with a "t," and that's big even for a senator from Massachusetts."

Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said Bush's comments were "detached from reality" because the senator's plan is not government-run but is based on tax credits to help businesses buy insurance for their workers.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27182-2004Sep16.html

[dennis4868]

1. If Bush is in Minn.

then it means his internal polls tell him it is close in that state....i have seen a Minnesota state polls and it was a tie....WTF?

[Ediacara]

2. his internal polls (like all internal polls)

are skewed heavily to the poll buyer, meaning that if he has polls telling him he's 5% under, he's really 10% under.

The "tied poll" was a Gallup poll, and Gallup has well, completely gone bananas and is no longer a reliable or reputable polling company.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that Kerry is ahead by nine points. I'd tend to trust them.

[Sheldon Rowan]

6. If Bush's pollsters are lying to him, that's good news.

If Bush's pollsters are lying to him, that's very very very very very good news.

I worry that I'm fooling myself, but I think that things are better than they seem. I think that the media, most of them, systematically lowball Kerry. (The Strib is an exception).

But if Bush is believing that stuff, he could be blown out. God, I hope so, because Kerry needs a blowout plus control of Congress to silence the raving wingers.

[Ediacara]

10. His pollsters aren't lying to him per se

They're just telling them what he wants to hear... internal polls have a knack of painting a rosey picture.

[EthanAllenVt]

3. An interesting report

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/politics/9496709.htm?1c

Who are those swing voters? "If they own a snowmobile and a dog, both parents work, if they moved out there for cheap land where they can afford to own a house and are struggling to make ends meet, they're probably independents," Barkley said.

"They like to hunt and fish and have a beer once in awhile. They're hard-working, middle- to upper-middle-class persons who don't have a lot of time to devote to politics."

On the issues, he said, they're disgusted by partisanship, wary of the Bush's budget deficits, fearful that Democrats would increase their taxes and nervous about rising college costs. Mostly they want government to stay out of their lives.
-snip-

Three items here: snowmobiles, hunting and taxes.

Are these three items better supported by bush or Kerry (and DU for that matter)?

[blondeatlast]

4. We're a big tent website; go to the Gun Dungeon if you don't

believe me. No trolls there, though.

[Carolab]

5. Snowmobiles? Hunting?

Puhleeze. Why not reduce us Minnesotans to a bunch of Sven and Ole rubes?

This is a very cosmopolitan state, and rest assured, it is concerned with the critical issues.

Large graffiti on one of St. Paul's (and the metro area's) biggest and busiest overpasses: "REDEFEAT BUSH".

Our BIGGEST problem here is Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer, who is a friend of Katherine Harris' and is doing her level best to PREVENT Dem voters from getting to the polls.

[EthanAllenVt]

7. How are the snowmobilers and hunters leaning?

Here in Vermont the snowmobilers are mostly pro-bush due to the Clinton snowmobile bans and the hunters are mostly concerned about access to their state and federal hunting grounds by motorized vehicles which are being targeted by many wilderness advocates. It's a big deal but by far not enough to swing the state to bush. Some local races are won and lost by such access advocates but that's a local thing.

[gennifer6]

8. compared with ohio.....

does anyone have an idea of what voter registration has been like in MN and WI?
here in Cleveland, the local Board of Elections has so many new voter registrations they have to hire part-time help to enter info...that is good news since we all know most new voters will be voting left.....

[henslee]

9. Last time he spent to much time in a Dem state, (CA) he lost the election.

[Just Me]

11. NOT without vocal opponents (who are ALWAYS "screened" out,...

,...by the media).

It still amazes me that the whole god-dang world is more intimate with the greatest number of protests (within and outside this country) ever recorded in human history than do the American people.

Such a fact says a great freakin' deal about the state of this nation.

,...it sucks,...

[leQ]

14. KROC (rochester) showed about 10 protesters

were there more?

[n2mark]

12. Not sure if this fits here but

I'll tell you one thing, if a Rep. comes to my door, they will be booted. They need to get to my house through a gate, they are on private property then... so out the yard they and never return. No further words, go, get out! Don't want a Bush lover near my house.

[Kenneth ken]

13. "detached from reality"

The Kerry campaign would do better if they simply said, "just another Bush LIE"