Posted on 08/13/2003 5:58:48 AM PDT by NYC Republican
Karl Rove, President Bush's top political adviser, says Florida will play a crucial role in the president's re-election strategy next year.
Rove, in an interview with editors and reporters of The News Herald of Panama City, said the campaign strategy in Florida would be a combination of "brotherly love" - a reference to the president's younger brother, Gov. Jeb Bush - and an effort to "register, identify and turn out our vote."
"This clearly is going to be ground zero," Rove said in the interview, published in Wednesday's editions. Rove has been vacationing in northwest Florida, where he has been making trips for the past 16 years.
Florida, now with 27 electoral votes, decided the 2000 presidential election and is expected to be a battleground state next year.
Rove said the strategy would not likely change if Florida Sen. Bob Graham was on the Democratic ticket - as the presidential or vice presidential nominee.
"Frankly we're not focused on it," he said.
Rove said the Bush administration understands the frustrations of military families who are anxious for the return of their loved ones in Iraq. But he said the protracted stays of many service members are a result of a military "stretched thin."
"Our military, when it gets into Afghanistan and Iraq, is taxed," he said.
Rove said the administration is committed to the rebuilding of Iraq and hopes by this time next year to have "a country clearly on the road toward a democratic, market-oriented, secular state."
I beg to differ, summer. From my work in the last two elections, I learned in no uncertain terms that they get quite rabid, not to mention how they will pull every dirty trick in the book that they think they can get away with.
Do not underestimate you enemies -- nothing will hand them the battle more quickly. And they are enemies, and this is a battle. Those are the rules of engagement as defined by them.
Yep, I realize that, but I can't help but think that the Dems will try to use it against us, by saying that we're trying to politicize the WTC disaster (which is also called "Ground Zero".
"Bob Glass, (a Pensacola resident and owner of Windshield Express) who had been such a true believer that he manned a phone bank to implore others to vote for Bush,...decided not to exercise his sacred right to vote for President of the United States."
"'What's the use?,' he reasoned. 'I mean if Gore has already won the state, there's no use in voting for Bush. I was so infuriated. I was so distraught. And I just went home.'"
< snip >
"'By prematurely declaring Gore the winner shortly before polls had closed in Florida's conservative western panhandle, the media ebded up suppressing the Republican vote,' concluded John R. Lott, Jr., senior research scholar at Yale University Law School. Lott put Bush's net loss at a 'conservative estimate of 10,000 votes'."
"John McLaughlin and Associates, a Republican polling firm in Washington, D.C., pegged the loss at 11,500 votes."
- Bill Sammon, At Any Cost, Regnery Publishing, 2001. pp 18-19.
Bob Glass was so dedicated to the cause that he didn't find time to vote during the day, waited until the last minute, and then didn't vote? Not likely.
You mean with congressional seats and other offices up for grabs, this dedicated man didn't vote? I don't buy it. John McLaughlin and Associates, a Republican polling firm in Washington, D.C., pegged the loss at 11,500 votes."
And I say hogwash.
The conventioanl wisdom was the Bush would win handly, especially in the panhandle. I can believe that there were at least 12,000 registered voters who weren't concerned about voting enought to actually make it a priority in their day. In the panhandle, traffic and lines are not a problem. Polling places are easy to get to and lines are mild, if at all, during most of the day. So suppose that you are one of those who thought Bush would win handily and didn't vote. Now you find out that the election is extremely close and mayber you feel a bit guilty. Next a Republican polling firm asks you if you were cheated out of voting by the national media. Do you tell them A)that you didin't vote because of apathy and carelessness; or B) do you save face and tell what they want to hear?
Putting Pensacola, Crestview, FWB, and Destin all together even including Hurlbert, Eglin, and PNAS together I don't believe that there were 10,000 cheated voters.
As I stated before, I went to supervise ballot openings and counting; I went to rallies; I met Party officials and activists; I met Freepers; I was all over the papers, TV and Radio for news and I never heard of a cheated voter, I never met any cheated voters, I never met anyone who claimed to know first or second hand of any cheated voters. The cheated voters didn't make it to TV, the paper, or the radio.
Yet there were a few cases of mishandled absentee ballots by Democratic party operatives. That made the paper and radio talk shows.
It defies common sense that one or two cases of absentee ballots being mishandled would make the news yet 11,000 cheated voters didn't.
Perhaps there were some. Perhaps.
Were there thousands and thousands that could have voted earlier in the day but didn't and then regretted it? Absolutely. Did those that were polled save face by telling the pollsters that they were cheated? I believe so. Makes more sense.
I've had this discussion before on FR and you'll probably be like the others who will believe people from the outside with an agenda to prove vs someone living and working there without the same agenda.
Oh, norm, think about it. I'm going to the rallies and ballot countings. What is my agenda by denying the idea of 10,000 cheated voters?
I don't doubt your stats. But episodic results from wherever derived produce only a snapshot at best.
You should have come to Panama City (Panhandle's second largest city off-season/ largest on-season). Unless you could find a really good hidiing place, you couldn't miss it.
I also was all over the media as I do both radio and television news here for a living and had a generous supply of the data you couldn't find.
I hope this wasn't a "forest & trees" situation.
I'm goiing to mention your post on the air the next time the subject comes up aand we'll see what happens.
I'm sure that the switchboards were jammed, and rightly so.
However, are you saying that people were complaining about uncast votes being meaningless or THEIR uncast votes being menaingless?
It's going to take a lot to convince me that there were tens of thousands of voters who honestly and sincerely were going to vote and didn't because of the networks.
The problem is that Republicans WANT to believe that this is the case, just like the NAACP WANTS to believe that the FSP was roadblocking blacks to keep them from voting.
You'd think that if half of those cheated voters existed that I'd have run into at least one person (besides you) who claimed to be cheated or actually knew someone who made the claim.
Heck, it's easier to find libertarians in the panhandle than cheated Republicans!!
And surely somebody in that long line is listening to a walkman or watchman and is going to speak up if he hears the networks have already called the election. Now, standing in line for two hours seems like a waste of time. But you said you had heard not one story. I provided one. I gave you the name of his auto glass repair business. If you want to verify it, look up the number and ask to speak to Bob Glass. If Bill Sammon was lying in his book, I'd like to know. That way you can either be convinced that at least one person (and probably more) really did choose not to vote after being told the state was won or you can disprove it by finding out if the story is a fraud. As for the 10,000 figure, I too find that a little tough to swallow but would it have mattered if it was 1,000 or 500? It might have been enough of a difference to have convinced Gore not to prolong the election for over a month. Sammon points out that the difference would not have changed the law requiring an automatic statewide recount but it could have prevented the month-long shenanigans we all suffered through and might have saved you additional days of work and frustration as well. I think you owe it to yourself to look up Bob Glass in Pensacola and find out the truth. I hope to hear back on this.
You obviously weren't looking in the right place.
Reminds me of the State Dept. official that went to niger to see if Iraq had tried to buy any "yellow cake" uranium ore and spent several days sipping spiced tea but never found any evidence.
And, yes, these people were complaining about their own votes. Some had actually voted and by the time they got back in their car they heard on the radio that their votes meant nothing. These aren't the kind of people who really care about the other guy's vote. They are Conservative Democrats who have only recently started to vote Republican.
A lot of them weren't so much concerned that Gore was taking the state as they were about their own votes having an effect.
The Bay County Sheriff's Ofice (they observe the polling places) reported (I have their spokesman on video-tape) that people standing in the lines were going back to their cars and leaving when the word started to spread.
It was headline news here...sorry you missed it.
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