Do Bush and Cheney know something the polls aren't telling us?

[Bullshot]

Bush and Cheney have been negative from the get-go, but their rhetoric during the past week has set new standards for smear campaigning. All week, we're hearing Bush and Cheney grossly distort everything Kerry and Edwards are saying and turning it into sounding like they support terrorism, terrorist nations and terrorist leaders.

In other words, they're campaigning like they've run out of things to say, so they just say anything, no matter how grossly false, and not bat an eye. It reminds me of HW Bush's final weeks before he lost to Clinton in 1992. He just called Clinton and Gore names and just sounded desperate down the stretch.

Bush and Cheney are not campaigning like a ticket that's around 10 points ahead of the competition (if you believe the polls). They screen their audiences and preach to the choir. If you have control of who is in your audience, there's no need to sound so desperate. Who's there to convince?

Do Bush and Cheney really know that all of those media polls that show them comfortably ahead are bogus? If not, what's up with their behavior, which is pitiful even by their standards.

[pmbryant]

1. Very perceptive

My memory of Bush '92 is the same as yours. In the final weeks, he became of sickly spectacle of negativity. It was downright embarrassing.

You don't run campaigns like that if you think you're winning.

--Peter

[KansDem]

2. Not to mention Karl Rove crawled out from under his rock yesterday...

...(or was it Wednesday) to inform us the B/C are "pulling ahead" in the EC battleground states.

This sounds like a desperation tactic.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

28. Rove's performance yesterday rang some bells with me

It just didn't make sense that he'd be cheerleading like that.
He's clearly trying a last ditch effort to demoralize the fired up dem onslaught he knows his coming.

[rocktivity]

3. They're campaigning LIKE they've run out of things to say?

They're campaigning like this because they had nothing to say to begin with! But that was okay, because the affair with the intern, the labels of being a flip-flopper and elitist, and the Smear-Boaters were supposed have long since buried Kerry by now. No wonder they've dared to accuse Kerry of being the one who's being "negative" and engaging in "despair and hopelessness!"

:headbang:
rocknation

[yellerpup]

4. I think you are right

and the polls are wrong. It will come down to the wire just like it did with Carter/Reagan, and when we get the final numbers, we'll have a REAL hero in the White House.

[RollergirlVT]

5. what they know

They know that they have gotten away with any and every lie that they have told and so their lies just become more and more blatant and ridiculous. They know (since so many have proven them right) that Americans are Stupid. That is what dems should be saying as a daily talking point. The GOP thinks you are stupid. They think you are soooo stupid you will believe ANYTHING including that dems want to BAN THE BIBLE. The more lies the people buy, the more outlandish the lies become. Once folks realize that the GOP thinks they are stupid for accepting so many of their lies, they will STOP BELIEVING ALL THEIR LIES.

[LittleClarkie]

11. And Kerry has also been esp. good this week

Making their usual talking points sound hollow. That's also part of why they're suddenly stepping up the negativity.

I think they've really been scrambling this week. Some of their talking heads (some woman I can't think of after Kerry's speech on Thursay) was almost bouncing up in down with hysteria as she talked about how much better Bush was than Kerry on the war on terror.

[dogtag]

6. Yep, they're getting ready to borrow GHWB's 'bozo' card.

Didn't Poppy have to sort of apologize for calling Clinton/Gore bozos? That was really the nadir of the 1992 campaign. Nat anywhere near as bad as the Swiftsmears, but so totally infantile and wussy.

[whistle]

9. I would think "Go fu*k yourself" is right up there with Bozo....

...but Cheney said it made him feel better to say it.

[Bullshot]

12. Didn't GHWB also call Gore "ozone man" during a campaign speech?

[virgdem]

7. I have a gut feeling that they know they are in deep kimshee...

and the proverbial shit is about to hit the fan. I've been wondering why in the world they are sounding so desperate if, as the media whores keep on declaring, B/C are so far ahead in the polls. Also, if they have it sewn up with Electronic Voting and the fix is in, why in the hell are they ramping up the false attacks against Kerry? If you are so sure that you will win, why bother going negative in a nuclear way? Doesn't make sense to me, but nothing that comes out of B/C makes any sense to me.

[Kimber Scott]

13. They truly are delusional. It's the only rational explanation.

nt

[Arkana]

23. Deep kimshee?

You wouldn't either be a Korean War vet or have a relative that was, would you?

I think that phrase was slang during the Korean War years...

[virgdem]

27. No, I'm not a Korean War Vet...

Just a phrase that my husband has been using for years. I think you get the gist of the meaning.

[Arkana]

29. Yeah

It means "deep shit."

[izzie]

8. I read Bush also gives the same talk and to the people who love him.

Odd Can his base put him in? I would think he would need some of those trying to make up their minds. Looks to me they can not see him unless you have proof your a Republican. So what about those other people?

[masshole]

20. it's done for the cameras

The hand-picked, pledge-signing lemmings are simply there for background at *'s speeches. It's not about him preaching to his base, it's about making every sound-bite and photo-op as "clean" as possible.

[cmayer]

10. I heard Mehlman on the radio this morning

The reporter was giving him some tough questioning, but there was no mistaking that his stress level was near the breaking point.

I was having breakfast, the radio was in the background and all I heard at first was the tone of his voice. I thought "What's wrong with that guy?". Then I tuned in and discovered it was the Chairman of Bush's campaign. His replies were standard talking points and (I judged) well handled on his part--but they are trying to keep it together with chewing gum and string.

[AlCzervik]

14. Maybe they have bad numbers from their internal polls

escalation of violence in Iraq usually hurts them coupled with just how shitty they have made things in general.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

15. You know what you just vividly reminded me of???

LOL! In the final weeks leading up to the 92 election, Saturday Night Live had a skit with Dana Carvey as bush senior whining and sniveling into the camera: "Please. Please don't make me a one-termer." He was begging! ROFL!

Thanks for that good memory. It came true, too.

Hmmm. Maybe SNL needs to do the same skit this time with bush the lesser portrayed by a comedian sayign the VERY same thing. (Will Farrell) Musta been good mojo.

[faithnotgreed]

25. when does snl start back up? will ferrell should be very good

this time around. they should have their own version of the debates, that would tie right into the thread someone started here earlier that said, post your fantasy of what will happen at the debates

[BootinUp]

16. Yep, their in deep shit.

I remember '92 just like you say. They stooped lower and lower as it became evident they were going down. The media let them get away the shit too for the most part. But Clinton was just too good. :)

[w13rd0]

17. It's pretty sad...

...when your campaign is based on two things:

Slandering the opposition
and
Running on the promise of "we will" do all the things in our second term we promised to accomplish in our first...

[maxsolomon]

18. when clinton ran for reelection in 96

i went to a HUGE rally in pike place market in seattle. no screening, barely any secret service presence. yet there was the PUSA, out in the open where any GOP assmunch could heckle him.

nary a peep was heard amidst the applause.

lets see bush try that. he'd be egged in seattle. his only presence here has been to drive through town on his way to fundraisers at tony eastside estates. every overpass lined with protestors.

[shraby]

19. It's a combination of their internal polling

and the realization of what's coming at them when Kerry wins.
Investigation after investigation after investigation and indictment after indictment after indictment. BWaaahahaaaaahhhaaaaahah

[PurityOfEssence]

22. That's the BIG issue: what would be found out if they lose

They were shockingly desperate in '02, because they had to hold the House at all costs and take back the Senate. The sheer brutality of their fixation was astonishing.

These people are criminals: they manipulated Enron, ginned up a war, stole an election, robbed California, went on a greedfest with an Afghani pipeline that either led them to letting us get attacked to justify a war (or worse), lied about the deliberate distortion of intelligence to justify their wicked little plans, looted the Treasury for their friends, thumbed their noses at the world, hid Daddy's records, obstructed justice and generally run amok.

They are trying to run out the clock. Nothing matters except this election; once they win that, they'll stack the courts, push their agenda so forcefully that most dissent will be stilled, attack Syria and just have a jolly old time. Everything for them is this election; should they lose, their party will be found out to a great degree, but if they win, they're ever closer to corporate theocracy.

[democrat_patriot]

21. The beauty of pre-screened audiences:

It becomes a press conference - where NO questions can be asked! They can now simply defend/deflect everything Kerry says, and put it in nice little sound bites that are picked up and repeated by the 'librul' media...

It's beautiful. Sucks for them, cause it's still not working - otherwise it would be 70% Bush*. They actually need something to run on.

How hard is it for * to at least break even with jobs?

How hard is it to just spend the surplus - not destroy it?

Economy? Health care?

It's like they're not even trying. What do they know? BBV? Elections cancelled? I think they are actually responding out of pride to the attacks, rather than any sense that their going to lose.

Dick Cheney: "Hey George $20 buck I can link Al-Qaeda to Sadam"

GB: "Dude, no way! You're on! You already owe me for our last bet - spending 1 trillion in 3 years with NOTHING to show for it, without any impeachment proceedings.

DC: "OK double or nothing, I can 4 out of 5 companies we have interest in to be the SOLE construction companies for Iraq.

GB: "It's a bet".

[blue neen]

24. Everything that was said in this thread is true.

Thank you to everyone! I'd much rather read this than doom and gloomer threads any day. Kerry IS going to win this election.

[BillZBubb]

26. They certainly know things we don't have data on.

I don't think even they would dispute that this election will be close. They also know Bush*s approval numbers mean he's in big trouble.

So, what their campaign is trying desperately to do is to make Kerry seem unfit to be President. They have essentially admitted Bush* is a failure, but they want everyone to believe Kerry would be worse. They have to accomplish that to win.

To date, their strategy has been very successful. Any president with Bush*s record should be well behind at this point. They know that, so they aren't going to change their approach.

The key for us is for Kerry to somehow make the sale to the voters that he is up to the job. If he does that, Kerry in a landslide.