Right. Now cast yourself as someone who pays attention to politics for the worth of a 5 minute blurb on the evening edition of NBC news once a week if they're awake enough and only knows that his job is being outsourced and the government is doing nothing about it. Stop and think objectively for about 10 seconds. From the perspective of the average non-politically active person out there, Kerry just knocked that flat out of the park. Yes, he did stretch the truth here and there.. for those of us that know because we payed attention. I and others have warned endlessly that outsourcing would be a milstone around the President's kneck. No surprises and it's come home to roost. So in my best Sean Connery voice "What are you prepared to do now!"
So much bitterness because Bush 'took your job.' LOL
Just like the Enron scandal, it will hang on both.
No quarrel from me there. Most people aren't paying attention to anything but appearances.
A lot of people vote for somebody because his hair looks good.
My take is simple: sure he gave a great speech. Hell, between Kerry, Edwards, Obama, and Clinton, this convention has probably been a hit with the swing voters. But, remember, we're going to be doing the EXACT SAME THING in a month. Bush will surely give just as good an address (being a veteran of several awesome State of the Unions), and we can be fairly certain the whole convo will be just as inspiring for middle-of-the-roaders.
Kerry's speech was not nearly as sleep-inducing as we expected. In fact, it was rather quite rousing... Regarding the actual content, though, the Kerry campaign is making a very, very savvy move. By portraying Kerry as a hawkish moderate, they are appealing directly to those swing voters not particularly incontent with Bush but not entirely gung-ho about the war. On the domestic front, the same moderate (occasionally right - "fiscal responsibility" and his claimed "family values") message, the base be damned. You see, Kerry knows he can count on the liberals, such as those we've seen all week at the convention, to vote for him out of sheer hatred for Bush, so by going solely for the moderate voters, they in effect FORCE Bush to go further right than I'm sure he's comfortable at. Very savvy.
My prognosis: Expect a five-point (maybe higher...) bounce. No problems, though, as it fades rapidly, particularly as Kerry returns to his same old snooze-inducing self, and the RNC convo should turn a few votes, AS LONG AS it's just as good as the Dem convo.
The Republican party needs to spend the next month promoting Bush. They've been bashing Kerry for months now, and it would be folly to attempt to take him down immediately after this speech, particularly in the face of the liberal media, who is sure to replay sound bites of it for weeks. Bush needs to spend August outlining his plans, and make an effective run-up to the convention, and then score a knock-out at the convention. After the convention, call Kerry on his record, make a good show in the debates, and it should be no problems.
Have faith, my dear friends, we will take this election yet!
I have to agree with your comments.
We're all political junkies. We know that Kerry is full of it.
However, the people who need to realize that are the people who come home at night and get their news from biased fools like Rather and Brokaw.
I am going to volunteer at my local Bush-Cheney HQ starting this weekend. I've already written a couple of checks to the campaign.
I am going to do more. For the good of our country, we must keep this man out of the White House.