Battleground motiovations
The Washingtom Post has an overview which identifies the battleground states and issus of concern both Kerry and Bush will have to deal with in their respective campaigns.
They put it together by talking to the campaigns' staffs so I take it with that grain of salt, but apropos of nothing I found a couple of things I want to highlight.
In Ohio, which has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs, Bush defended his record and said with another four years, he would make the economy stronger. Acknowledging that workers in Ohio remain nervous about jobs going overseas, he said, "We must have a president who understands that in order to keep jobs at home."
You have to do more than understand it, you have to give a damn about it. And I judge by results, not talk. Bush wants us to vote based on what he say rather than what his administration has done.
Bush advisers see August as a critical period in the presidential race and have adopted a strategy designed to suppress Kerry's post-convention bounce, shore up Bush's standing in the battlegrounds and come out of their convention at the beginning of September with the race even. They worry that if Kerry begins the final two months of the campaign with a clear lead, the president's prospects for winning a second term will be in danger.
In danger? Try GONE.
After all this time we know EXACTLY what you are to us. Too late to change it. And it is fitting that his fate should turn on the repercussion of things his administration chose to do.
The Newsweek poll showed Kerry and running mate John Edwards leading Bush and Vice President Cheney by 52 to 44 percent, a net gain of 2 percentage points from the magazine's poll in early July.
When independent Ralph Nader was included, Kerry led Bush by 49 to 42 percent, with Nader at 3 percent, a 4-point gain since early July.
No campaign bounce for Kerry, no high value target bounce for Bush. C'est la vie.
