Bush probably could have put the war hero away weeks ago if he had not taken the high road. That took a lot of confidence for Bush and Rove not to get into the gutter with Kerry and the Democrats.
I did not agree with that tactic, but in the end it worked out OK! I have always thought that fighting fire with fire is not such a bad idea. The Bush team won this time, barely, but the left will not let that happen again.
It won't happen again.
This campaign was ugly at times courtesy of the Democrats. We can and should anticipate much worse down the road.
Ann baby, I love you, but a win is a win no matter what the score.
Kerry was in full meltdown before the first debate. It retrieved his chances and made the race about even again. He could not sustain it, and Bush's strengths on the substantive issues, along with turnout efforts by the grassroots, still delivered the win.
But it would not have even been close, but for the performance in that first debate. Bush had the arguments and the oppportunity to put Kerry away, and he did not. The atmospherics were poor. He sounded exasperated, defensive - and he whined.
Leaders of the free world confident of victory do not whine at the tendentiousness of their opponents or of the press. They say "there he goes again" and chuckle at them.
The president's preparation for the debates was inadequate and unprofessional, and those involved should look to it and see that the like does not happen again. (Not just for W, but for other major Republican leaders, in the future).
As for why Ann is saying what she is saying, she is just trying to put more spine in the cultural conservatism the administration presents. She fears press placating and bipartisanship instincts might blunt our victory by soft peddling the hot buttons, which she thinks are highly popular with middle America. She is probably right about that, but it is not helpful to frame that argument as an attack on individuals she merely paints as having a different opinion.
Considering the 10-20 point advantage the MSM's hyper-bias gave Kerry, Rove did a great job.
I would like to get my hands on the guy who recommended that George Bush load ice in the hot Florida sun instead of taking a nap the day of the first debate. W's first debate performance stopped the post convention momentum cold and came razor close to scuttling the whole election.
But, all in all, Team Bush did a wonderful job.
NOT the correct title
your title is misleading.
Reagan faced a tremendously hostile press, and he didn't have the internet or Fox news to help balance it out.
Ann has many good point. She didn't even mention Immigration. If GW would have come out and said "I just want the current laws enforced", It could have made a huge difference. Signing the campaign finance nonsense didn't do him any favors either. If GW appoints a pro-abortion Supreme or a pro abortion get the nomination in '08, the harm could be immense. Do not forget that the fight goes on and the rats will stop a nothing to oppose and obstruct every step of the way.
Ann missed the mark this time. I'm sorely disappointed in her.
Maybe she's trying to be a Conservative version of Howard Stern, only out there for the shock value? I hope not.
Rove IS a genius, politically speaking, as are most of the folks in the President Bush re-election campaign. Among others, Karen Hughes comes to mind.
Coulter's words are an affront to Bush/Cheney campaign workers, and I am among those.
She has such a talent with words..what a shame.
I also disagree. I think Rove did a great job in the face of a media onslaught that was simply unprecedented. I'm sure he would have liked to do some of the things Ann Coulter mentions, but he was like a man who's trying to nail fresh shingles on his roof while the hurricane's still blowing. Sometimes it's all you can do just to get the job done, and doing it "pretty" is just not possible.
If Ann thinks that this was used to the RATS political advantage, she is sorrily mistaken.
This is a very strange column. She sounds as vitriolic in her distain for Karl Rove as most libs.
Its too bad you snipped that part, it was the only weak part of an otherwise good editorial.
Ann is by far my favorite columnist but I think she is off base here. I have never seen such a determined Democrat effort in all my life, start to finish. Those people were rabid. Scary rabid. And Rove won this critical Presidential election. Rove IS a genius.
Armchair BS ...shoulda coulda woulda
I agree. Rove is a closet "moderate".
When did a Republican last do that, Ann?
Did you guess William McKinley?
A needs a long vacation in the carribean.....with me......in the same hotel room.
I see a lot of eyes wide shut here. Ann makes a perfectly valid point: social conservatives, the BLACK sheep faction of the Republican party, showed up in DROVES and made the difference for Bush. To ignore this fact is to give Hillary the victory in '08.
I'd like to see Ms. Coulter just try to run a national campaign. She wasn't even to get the Libertarian nomination for a US House seat.
I don't know about Rove, but I know that the Bush legal team sucked and hurt the campaign. First, they thought that McCain-Feingold would be overturned by the Supreme Court, so that the parties would still be able to raise and spend soft money and they wouldn't need GOP leaning 527s. The Democrats, though, set theirs up and started raising money. Then the Supreme Court upheld CFR, and the Republicans were way behind the 8 ball. Rather than try to catch up immediately, though, they launched a legal challenge claiming all 527s were illegal, even though the Supreme Court has specifically said that they were OK under McCain-Feingold. Not only didn't they didn't have a sound legal case, but they then ignored the fact that the Federal Election Commission, led by its two most conservative Republican members, Bradley Smith and David Mason, made clear as early as February that the the FEC believed that the law did not prohibit 527s. Still, the Republican lawyers kept scaring away GOP donors by claiming giving to 527s could get them sent to jail, while the Democrats kept racking up a dollar advantage. When the Republican lawyers finally gave up their legal challenges, the party was way behind the Democrat 527s, and never did catch up.
Then Bush-Cheney's chief lawyer, Ben Ginsberg, decides to sign on as lawyer for the most effective Republican-leaning 527, the Swift Boat Vets. What a stupid thing to do, allowing the Democrats to charge illegal collusion between the Swift Vets and the campaign, and giving the media a hook to discredit the Swift Vets. Ginsberg's been around Washington, and should have seen that coming.
The Republicans need to fire some lawyers.
The election results speak for themselves.