Friday, July 30, 2004
Two Minutes' Hate
If people want to know why lots of us simply hate George W. Bush, there was good evidence this morning, when he dismissed the Democratic Convention as "clever speeches." It's clear Bush has no intention of taking up John Kerry's challenge to engage in substantive, positive debate. It'll be all character assassination, innuendo, and outright falsehoods from here to Election Day, and the only question is how many of the Ohio 37 will be stupid enough to buy it. This is hardly a surprise, though. What's that proverb? "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly"?
The Republicans got some help from the Reuters this morning, too, in a piece by Alan Eisner headlined "Kerry Slams Bush on Iraq, Offers Little New." It's ostensibly a news story, but it's largely dismissive of Kerry's acceptance speech, and tries to portray Kerry as out of touch with his own party. Liberal media, my eye.
If you're looking for more reasons to hate the Republicans, here you go: People wanting to attend a Cheney rally in New Mexico have to sign an affadavit endorsing Bush, which includes permission to publicize the signees' names as Bush supporters, or they can't get a ticket. So much for taking your kid to see a VP just because he's the VP. This comes on the heels of news earlier this week that Republican operatives were present at a naturalization ceremony in Florida to hand out voter registration cards to the new citizens, with the party affiliation box conveniently checked "Republican."
Do you think that deep down in their heart of hearts, these Republicans believe in a fair contest in the marketplace of ideas, either in an election or in the daily course of governance, and may the best ideas win? They almost certainly don't. And that's why I think it's going to be incredibly difficult for John Kerry to win in November, no matter how optimistic we are right now, and no matter how big a bounce we get from the convention. The other side won't hesitate to rig the game because they don't believe in it to begin with.
Recommended Reading: Acceptance speech commentary: Billmon says it sure sounded good, but the fine print in doing what Kerry says he wants is going to be hard. (It's a problem Democrats ought to be getting used to by now.) Also, there were lots of interesting comments on a thread at Political Animal, like this one:
If people want to know why lots of us simply hate George W. Bush, there was good evidence this morning, when he dismissed the Democratic Convention as "clever speeches." It's clear Bush has no intention of taking up John Kerry's challenge to engage in substantive, positive debate. It'll be all character assassination, innuendo, and outright falsehoods from here to Election Day, and the only question is how many of the Ohio 37 will be stupid enough to buy it. This is hardly a surprise, though. What's that proverb? "As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly"?
The Republicans got some help from the Reuters this morning, too, in a piece by Alan Eisner headlined "Kerry Slams Bush on Iraq, Offers Little New." It's ostensibly a news story, but it's largely dismissive of Kerry's acceptance speech, and tries to portray Kerry as out of touch with his own party. Liberal media, my eye.
If you're looking for more reasons to hate the Republicans, here you go: People wanting to attend a Cheney rally in New Mexico have to sign an affadavit endorsing Bush, which includes permission to publicize the signees' names as Bush supporters, or they can't get a ticket. So much for taking your kid to see a VP just because he's the VP. This comes on the heels of news earlier this week that Republican operatives were present at a naturalization ceremony in Florida to hand out voter registration cards to the new citizens, with the party affiliation box conveniently checked "Republican."
Do you think that deep down in their heart of hearts, these Republicans believe in a fair contest in the marketplace of ideas, either in an election or in the daily course of governance, and may the best ideas win? They almost certainly don't. And that's why I think it's going to be incredibly difficult for John Kerry to win in November, no matter how optimistic we are right now, and no matter how big a bounce we get from the convention. The other side won't hesitate to rig the game because they don't believe in it to begin with.
Recommended Reading: Acceptance speech commentary: Billmon says it sure sounded good, but the fine print in doing what Kerry says he wants is going to be hard. (It's a problem Democrats ought to be getting used to by now.) Also, there were lots of interesting comments on a thread at Political Animal, like this one:
One niggle: [Kerry] did nothing to speak about Democrats as a party who also need to win the House and Senate in order to achieve any of the things he promised as president. I know he wants to project his commitment to national unity, but at least in code he should have talked about the importance of making sure that Congress is with him. This is a year when it is crucial that the whole ticket emphasize the importance of the slate. Kerry conspicuously left the role of the Democratic party in the election nearly unmentioned.And also:
The thing I was struck with was how much on the offense and how little on the defense it was. Convention watchers through the week are I supposed accustomed to this stance by now, to play offense rather than defense, but I don't think the casual viewers would expect that. They've heard so much negative trash they probably believe that it's the Demos who have something to be ashamed of for their mere political position. There was no shame to be a Democrat, whether centrist or liberal, tonight.And Wonkette's subaltern Boi From Troy wonders why nobody pointed out the terrible human cost of a new environmental threat before last night.
