Yeah, but will pics like this help or hinder Kerry? Check out his face. He looks like he's on his ninth beer.
Posted on 09/05/2004 10:16:43 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites), enormously popular with conservatives, will be key to turning out the Republican base this November. But campaign officials say they will use Cheney to persuade undecided voters as well.
Democrats delight in the prospect, saying the vice president is so divisive that they hope swing voters hear his name again and again. Even some delegates to the GOP convention fear that Cheney's personal style and his reputation as a resolute conservative will turn these voters off.
The Bush campaign replies that Cheney has the stature and experience to discuss national security, a central issue in this campaign, and that voters know he could step seamlessly into the Oval Office if needed.
"We're not limiting him," said Bush strategist Matthew Dowd. "He's respected. Whether or not some Democrats like him or dislike him, he's respected."
He took a prime role at the Republican National Convention, kicking off the event at an Ellis Island rally, attending festivities in the hall each night and delivering a searing indictment of Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) in his own nationally televised speech.
Over the next two months, Cheney plans to travel as many as five days each week to battleground states. Sometimes he will go to conservative areas where President Bush (news - web sites) runs strong, and sometimes to areas where the race is tighter, Dowd said.
Bush and Cheney will travel separately — for security reasons, the campaign says. And planners will make sure they do not overlap their visits to an area, to maximize crowds and local media coverage. Cheney will visit some remote areas where airports cannot accommodate Air Force One.
Expect more "town hall meetings," where invited guests get to ask Cheney questions. "That's a particularly good venue for him, and we think it's a very good approach to swing votes," chief Bush strategist Karl Rove said.
And while people attending Cheney events tend to be loyalists, aides say, what matters is the local press coverage of the event, which reaches many more voters.
Wherever he travels, Cheney will continue to make the case that Bush is a strong leader in fighting terrorism, and he will continue to assail Kerry's record. He'll also keep raising money, both for the Republican Party and GOP congressional candidates.
But unlike Kerry's running mate, John Edwards (news - web sites), Cheney has yet to appear in any of Bush's television ads, which reach the largest numbers of potential voters, and there are no plans to put him in one.
Dowd says it's a sign of Kerry's weakness that the Democrats are showcasing Edwards in their ads, but the fact remains: Edwards is much more popular than Cheney. Clear majorities say they would vote for Edwards if the election was for vice president alone — which, Republicans note, it is not.
Polling last week found Cheney's popularity at an all-time low, with the portion of Americans who view him unfavorably more than doubling during the past four years.
"Dick Cheney is emblematic of what a lot of people don't like about this administration," said Kerry spokesman Phil Singer. If the Bush campaign thinks he can help them with swing voters, Singer said, "good luck."
Cheney's been a magnet for criticism, with detractors accusing him of pushing the country into war with Iraq (news - web sites), holding secret meetings with polluters and backing unaffordable tax cuts that mostly aid the wealthy. He was accused of conflict of interest after Halliburton Co., which he once led, won no-bid contracts in Iraq. He cursed a senator on the Senate floor, later refusing to apologize and even remarking, "I felt better after I said it."
None of this seems to bother Cheney, who dismisses the criticism as coming with the job.
Still, even some of the most loyal Republicans — delegates to the national convention — say it would be best to send the vice president to safe territory.
"He is more (appealing) to the base, more to the strong conservative base," said delegate Janet Creighton, mayor of Canton, Ohio, a classic swing town in a swing state.
"He's a very forceful, firm individual," Creighton said. "He's not someone who appears warm and fuzzy. There are people not attracted to him as an individual."
Delegate Dennis Tooley of Redmond, Ore., would also like to see Cheney used to turn out likely Republican voters.
"He's calm and collected and doesn't excite some people," he said. He'd prefer that someone such as national security adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) address the undecideds. "People tend to listen more to her than someone like Dick Cheney."
Other delegates are happy with the campaign's strategy.
His strength is talking about national security, said Michelle Colbert of Steelville, Mo. "I think the war on terror is the main issue for independent voters as well."
Similarly, asked what parts of Iowa he would send Cheney to, Leon Mosely of Waterloo said simply: "All of them."
Some real rocket scientists writing this stuff.
Or SAP.
They keep trying to find a chink in the Bush campaign armour, refusing to see that their own dork is their problem.
Gee, what a bold title-- win/win for the writer.
Maybe, or maybe not
Bush / Cheney got a double-digit bump from the convention because the Bush twins were sassy and irreverant. Cheney's speach where he took apart Edwards in about two sentances and then got a hold of Kerry by the ankle and slowly worked his way up to more vital organs had absolutely nothing to do with it. Nope. Old divisive bore Cheney. Just move on folks. Nothing to see here.
And that is why Kerry is enjoying a 20 point lead in the polls as the Bush / Cheney ticket crashed and is burning.
We all know what a big bounce that F'n got, when he got a Ken doll as running mate.
I may or may not go to bed early tonight. Same difference.
Sounds like Flipper suggested that title.
Just an exercise in the obvious. The title is a essentially a statement of the obvious, and says nothing.
Sounds like a Kerry headline to me. What crap.
Some real rocket scientists writing this stuff
_______________________________________________
My reaction exactly.
What about the facts that Edwards is much more popular than Kerry, and that Bush is more popular than both of them?
"The Dork looks so natural in that picture..."
Is it just him, or do all the photogs really, really hate him? Maybe the writers of the MSM are lefties, but the photogs are all part of the VRWC?
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