Barnes wasn't talking about the Convention. He was talking about responses and the Bush teams failure to mount effective responses to situations and allegations. He even went as far to say that the WH mouthpiece (McClellan) appears timid and afraid of the press.
That is not a good picture. The Bush 'we can't win the war on terrorism' comment was actually taped Saturday. So they should have known. It aired Monday morning--and the Dems jumped on it immediately. The Bush team didn't respond until Monday afternoon. Result--damage already done. [This is just one example of poor PR.]
Remember back when the Clinton team would be spinning all over the media immediately after, in some cases during, bad news breaking. They headed off bad news every effectively.
I thought Karen Hughes being back would help. I agree McLellan is not as effective as Ari, by a long shot. Bush probably won't get rid of him though...he has been with the team for a long time.
That really is needless fretting. Nobody thinks Bush isn't committed to winning the war on terror so please don't clog up this thread claiming something that isn't so.
Tom Brokaw won't vote on who had the best first night. Clintons had good night if you're a democrat, and we don't know about last night yet, how it affected the undecideds. (Tom is soo transparent!)
And Tom makes fun of Cheney being 'First Grandfather.
Tim Russert first mentions Arnold. LOL BOTH IGNORE MATTHEWS QUESTION TO SAY WHICH FIRST NIGHT WAS BEST!
Brokaw says being in New York helps to keep Terrorism front and center, but this convention has made no mention of Iraq. They are staying away from conduct of the war, so far. "Terrorism is a real threat", he says.
Russert says some blah blah. I missed it.
Matthews asks if Kerry has some other area besides his war record to fall back on. Brokaw won't answer but says Kerry is a good debater.
Russert says Kerry might mention Swiftboaters tomorrow, he knows he has to jumpstart his campaign.
I'm bored with this....too early for me to take David Gregory and Howard Fineman as Chris asks them leading questions about Laura.
Also, Barnes mentioned specifically that the White House never should have apologized for those 16 words in the State of the Union address that mentioned uranium. It all proved to be true, which we knew it would be, but the WH apologized.
Also, they let the DNC get out front of supposedly bad news regarding the economy.
Big headlines regarding more in poverty the other day. I had to read the Wall Street Journal to find out that the poverty percentage is EXACTLY the same as it was for 7 of the 8 years of Clinton!
The administration should be out there having press conferences with their cabinet post level staff explaining this stuff to the public.
This is what Reagan did so brilliantly; he went around the media or forced them to cover major press conferences and he TAUGHT things to people so they understood better what they were hearing/reading.