11-17-2004, 10:42 PM
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On the trail of Kerry's failed dream / How Bush did it
i'm a bit late posting this, but here are two excellent pieces concerning the presidential campaigns. there is a lot of inside information, and the analysis covers key points in the candidates' strategies.
The Boston Globe article is one long page. Here is a sample.
Quote:
On the afternoon of Aug. 9, John F. Kerry stood on the lip of the Grand Canyon, about to make one of the biggest mistakes of his three-year quest for the presidency. A stiff wind was blowing across the canyon, and Kerry, whose hearing was damaged by gun blasts in Vietnam, had trouble understanding some of the questions being thrown his way. But he pressed on, coughing from the pollen blowing on the breeze.
Would Kerry have voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq, one reporter asked, even if he knew then that Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction? "Yes, I would have voted for the authority; I believe it's the right authority for a president to have," Kerry replied, as aides stood by, dumbfounded.
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Bush had learned in his only losing campaign -- a 1978 US House race in West Texas, where he was labeled a liberal Eastern elitist -- that it was political death to let your opponents define you first. So in the ensuing years he had turned that same strategy against his foes. In the case of Kerry, Bush readily agreed to a plan to define the senator as a flip-flopper weak on defense
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Eager to help but reluctant to drop his TV career to join the campaign, Begala in May gave a private briefing to Kerry's campaign staff members about their failings. He took out a whiteboard and, according to notes provided to the Globe, listed 12 ways to define and defeat Bush:
"Over his head/incompetent," he wrote. "For the rich/special interests.
"Ideological/stubborn/rigid. Out of touch. Ignores problems. Can only to do one thing at a time. Liar/broken promises. Wrong Priorities. No plan for the future. Divider. You're on your own. Ignores middle class."
Pick one, Begala urged Kerry's staff, and then hammer it until Election Day.
But as June dragged on, Begala saw no change. His friends, including longtime associate James Carville, pressured him to quit CNN and take up Kerry's offer. Carville also talked to Kerry, and believed the senator had committed to giving Begala a key position. Begala now convinced himself; he had to join the Kerry campaign for the good of the party.
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The Newsweek articles are separated into different sections: eight chapters and several auxiliary essays. I'll give you a taste.
Quote:
It was an open secret that Karl Rove was itching to take on Dean. Back in July, Rove had been seen standing in a crowd near his home in Washington, watching Dean pass by in an Independence Day parade. Rove was quoted as chortling: "Heh, heh, heh, that's the one we want. Go, Howard Dean!"
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In Esquire magazine, writer Ron Suskind recalled sitting outside Rove's office waiting for an interview to begin. Inside, he wrote, he could hear Rove bellowing at an aide, "We will f--- him. Do you hear me? We will f--- him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever f---ed him!" (A White House spokesman has said that Suskind has a "hyperactive imagination.") But Rove was well aware of his reputation and cultivated it. On Halloween 2003, a NEWSWEEK reporter teased Rove for not wearing a costume. "I'm scary enough," he replied.
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The morning after the Feb. 3 primaries, which vaulted Kerry into a virtually insurmountable lead, the candidate was fuming over his missing hairbrush. He and his aides were riding in a van on the way to a Time magazine cover-photo shoot. Nicholson had left the hairbrush behind. "Sir, I don't have it," he said, after rummaging in the bags. "Marvin, f---!" Kerry said. The press secretary, David Wade, offered his brush. "I'm not using Wade's brush," the long-faced senator pouted. "Marvin, f---, it's my Time photo shoot."
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The ground rules for the debate expressly forbade "reaction shots," but the Bush team knew that the networks would ignore that stipulation. The president had been warned. Still, Hughes was irritated at the frequency of the split screen, and she could see right away that one of the ground rules had been a mistake. The podiums were each 50 inches high, but since Kerry was at least five inches taller than Bush, on the screen the president appeared to be peering over the rostrum like a schoolboy at a candy counter. Hughes also noticed that Bush appeared to be fidgeting and grimacing. She made a face. "I wish he wouldn't do that," she said, to no one in particular.
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Rove was feeling a little cranky about press reports that the Democrats were registering vastly more voters in swing states like Ohio and Florida. He blamed shoddy reporting by The New York Times (Rove considered the Times to be Pravda for liberals; he had just personally chewed out the Times's executive editor Bill Keller and Washington bureau chief Phil Taubman). The Times had measured only recent registration numbers, overlooking the fact, Rove protested, that the GOP had been working away at voter registration since the 2000 election. "Nationally, it's a wash," claimed Rove. Besides, the key to victory was not registration, but turnout—actually getting people to the polls.
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At the White House, the Secret Service was told to prepare a motorcade to go over to the Ronald Reagan Building, where the party faithful were awaiting the president's victory speech. But there was a nagging glitch: the networks were refusing to declare any more states for Bush. His electoral tally, according to NBC and Fox, stood at 269, one shy of the 270 necessary to win. The Kerry campaign put out a defiant statement, refusing to concede anything. Bush was frustrated. He wanted to claim the victory he knew to be his. But Rove counseled caution. They had to wait. A long night was getting longer.
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i guess the links constitute a small book, but read at your leisure. if you've followed the campaigns closely, you should find something of interest. |
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