First of all, being a contrarian doesn't make one a pessimist. If others see the glass half empty, I often see it half full.
Second of all, I make one hell of a lot of money. My clients pay me because I take care of things for them. I don't do it by quoting Norman Vincent Peale. And I certainly don't do it by saying "no." You have the nerve to accuse me of being someone who doesn't try to figure out how to get something done? That's all I do.
Third of all, I never said anything remotely resembling the kinds of things you seem to think. I don't like all the coverage this is getting because it is giving democrats the opportunity to press their talking points. It may not work. It may be hurting them. I just don't like it. It's a distraction. Kerry needs a distraction more than Bush does. I hope I'm wrong.
And I don't have any idea how your business philosophy has anything to do with my assessment of this issue. So, I suppose you just thought Bush 41 was going to walk into a second term? I mean, to think otherwise would have been pessimistic, right? You must have been certain Dole would romp over Clinton, because we wouldn't want to think about what could go wrong, right? Well, I didn't. I've correctly picked every presidential election a month or so out since I was a kid in 1980. It's not a crystal ball, I just looked at how things shaped up during the campaign. I think Bush will win. But nothing is guaranteed and I don't like anything that takes away from what I perceived to be a nascent but growing sense of inevitability that has been interrupted.
Excuse me for not parroting the party line.
"Kerry needs a distraction more than Bush does. I hope I'm wrong."
You're wrong, here's why:
Kerry is behind. Bush has momentum. Bush only needs to hold most of the states that he won in 2000 to win in 2004 (the 2000 census gave those states additional electoral votes).
Kerry in 2004 can't compete well in those Bush 2000 states, however, because being an elite New England liberal hippie anti-war attorney turned Lt Governor under Dukakis and Senator with a more liberal voting record than Ted Kennedy - doesn't play very well in the Heartland.
Worse for Kerry, he's got no catchy slogan, no big policy idea such as an income tax cut to die for, and worse for him still, he can't compete with the daily news of hurricanes, Democratic scandals, and world events.
That makes it tough for him to sway voters.
So in poll after poll he is dropping and dropping nationwide. He's behind in the Democratic state of New Jersey now, for instance, where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans.
His only hope is that Bush is somehow swallowed by some giant scandal, but that sort of long shot just isn't going to happen because Bush had to be squeaky clean to beat Ma Richards and Al Gore.
In the meantime, Bush is running out the clock. Kerry is down, on defense, and the clock is ticking.
The AWB Has Expired - Gun Owners Have Won Again For All Americans!