Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Jimmy Carter fears repeat of election fiasco in Florida
Guardian Unlimited | "Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has said Florida lacks 'some basic international requirements for a fair election' and that a repeat of the 2000 election fiasco 'seems likely'.
He said reforms recommended after the recount in Florida had still not been implemented 'because of inadequate funding or political disputes'.
Mr Carter, who runs an election and human rights centre in Atlanta, accused election officials working for Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, the president's brother, of being 'highly partisan'."
Supporters Get Incentive Plans at Bush Rallies
The New York Times |Want to see the president when he comes to your town? Get in line - to make phone calls for his campaign.
President Bush's campaign aides say they have hit on a novel way to recruit volunteers for his get-out-the-vote army. Anyone wanting to attend one of Mr. Bush's campaign rallies, anywhere in the country, has to get a ticket first. And anyone wanting a ticket, or a coveted spot up front, can improve his chances by putting in a few hours at a phone bank, canvassing Republican homes or putting up lawn signs.
Campaign rallies may be as old as politics itself, but in this year of earliests, firsts and most-expensive-evers, the Bush campaign has taken this most basic form of communication to a new state of the art, by pressing audiences to work as foot soldiers, before, during and immediately after Bush events."
Anti-Bush Voters Seek Reasons to Back Kerry
(washingtonpost.com)| "Denise Mulle said she started out the election season more anti-Bush than pro-Kerry. But she read newspapers and Kerry campaign literature that helped her understand the Democratic presidential nominee's positions on the issues.
'It's not good enough to say that Bush is so horrible that I'd vote for Bozo before I'd vote for Bush -- even though that's what first brought me to the Kerry campaign,' she said. "
Poll Shows Bush With Solid Lead
(washingtonpost.com)| "President Bush heads into the first presidential debate with a solid lead over John F. Kerry, boosted by the perception that he is a stronger leader with a clearer vision, despite deep concerns about Iraq and the pace of the economic recovery, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News Poll and interviews with voters in battleground states.
Bush's relentless attacks on Kerry have badly damaged the Democratic nominee, the survey and interviews showed. Voters routinely describe Kerry as wishy-washy, as a flip-flopper and as a candidate they are not sure they can trust, almost as if they are reading from Bush campaign ad scripts. But Kerry's problems are also partly of his own making. Despite repeated efforts to flesh out his proposals on Iraq, terrorism and other issues, he has yet to break through to undecided voters as someone who has clear plans for fixing the country's biggest problems. "
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Kerry Answers Questions! - The press still doesn't understand his position on Iraq.
Slate By Chris Suellentrop | "John Kerry emitted an exasperated sigh. The last time he held a press conference, on August 9, he confused everyone by saying he would have voted for the congressional resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq even if he had known that Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction. Now, six weeks later, the press still doesn't understand his position on the war. At least, they keep asking about it."
Poll giving Kerry lead stirs controversy
Guardian Unlimited | "A poll in 20 swing states published yesterday showed John Kerry still clinging to a narrow lead over President George Bush in the key election battlegrounds, but it raised questions about the reliability of such polls at a volatile point in the campaign.
While some other surveys have shown the election as a tight race, a string of recent polls has given the president a double-digit lead, provoking controversy about the various techniques used by the survey groups.
Yesterday's poll by Zogby International suggested that although Mr Kerry was losing ground, his support was better distributed in the battleground states, giving him a potential edge in the electoral college, which reflects the way each state votes and ultimately selects the president."
Kerry in a Struggle for a Democratic Base: Women
The New York Times | "It was no accident that John Kerry appeared Tuesday on 'Live With Regis and Kelly'' and recalled his days as a young prosecutor in a rape case. Or that he then flew from New York to Jacksonville, Fla., to promote his health care proposals. Or that on Thursday in Davenport, Iowa, he will preside over a forum on national security with an audience solely of women.
These appearances are part of an energetic drive by the Kerry campaign to win back voters that Democrats think are rightfully theirs: women."
News Analysis: 2 Iraq Views, 2 Campaigns
The New York Times | "To hear President Bush and John Kerry argue bitterly in the past two days about the American mission in Iraq is to wonder if they are talking about the same war, or even the same country.
At the marble podium of the United Nations, Mr. Bush on Tuesday morning described an Iraq that 'has rejoined the community of nations' and is well on the way to being 'secure, democratic, federal and free' if the world, and America's allies, do not lose their nerve. It was the kind of declaration that prompts cheers at campaign rallies; at the United Nations, it was greeted with the General Assembly's customary silence.
Advertisement
The day before, just two miles to the south, Mr. Kerry spoke of an invasion of Iraq that 'has created a crisis of historic proportions,' and warned that 'if we do not change course there is the prospect of a war with no end in sight.' He went on to describe a country that bore no resemblance to the one Mr. Bush portrays, one of bombings, beheadings, rampant unemployment and few allies sharing the burden. "
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Kerry Sharpens Attack On Bush and Iraq War
(washingtonpost.com) "Sen. John F. Kerry on Monday accused President Bush of deception in taking the country to war in Iraq and historic miscalculations since the invasion ended, arguing that Saddam Hussein posed no imminent threat and that his removal has turned Iraq into a terrorist breeding ground that has left the United States even less secure.
In his most comprehensive and stinging indictment of the administration, Kerry charged that by nearly every measure, from attacks on U.S. forces to the pace of reconstruction to the training of an Iraqi security force, conditions in Iraq are far worse than the president has acknowledged. Kerry called the November election a choice between staying the course with failed policies and a change in direction that he said is urgently needed to prevent disaster in Iraq."
"The president misled, miscalculated and mismanaged every aspect of this undertaking and he has made the achievement of our objective -- a stable Iraq, secure within its borders, with a representative government -- far harder to achieve than it ever should have been," Kerry said in a speech at New York University.
Bush and Vice President Cheney immediately attacked Kerry for repeatedly changing his position. "He's saying he prefers the stability of a dictatorship to the hope and security of democracy," Bush said in New Hampshire. "I couldn't disagree more and not so long ago, so did my opponent."
Monday, September 20, 2004
Blow for Kerry as Nader wins Florida battle
Guardian Unlimited | "Democratic hopes of winning the White House have suffered a blow after a court ruled that independent candidate Ralph Nader would appear on ballot papers in Florida.
Nader has been blamed by many analysts for costing the Democrats victory four years ago after his leftist third-party campaign attracted many voters who would otherwise have backed Al Gore. "
Friday, September 17, 2004
New Blood At Heart Of Kerry Campaign
(washingtonpost.com) "A new center of power has emerged inside John F. Kerry's presidential campaign, with several veteran Democratic operatives moving quickly to consolidate their influence and effectively take over the nominee's daily message and strategy in the six weeks until the election. "
In Address to Guard, Kerry Says Bush Isn't Telling Truth on Iraq
The New York Times |"Senator John Kerry said at a National Guard conference on Thursday that President Bush was living in 'a fantasy world of spin' and that the president had deceived them when he presented an optimistic picture of the war in Iraq at the same conference two days before.
'He failed to tell you the truth,' Mr. Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, said to a crowd that greeted him with restrained applause. 'You deserve better. The commander in chief has to level with the troops and the nation.'
Citing an intelligence estimate prepared for Mr. Bush in late July that presents a bleak picture of prospects in Iraq, Mr. Kerry said the president was turning his back on his own intelligence and ignoring the reality that Iraq was increasingly in the hands of terrorists.
'He didn't tell you this,' Mr. Kerry said, even though 'his own intelligence officials have warned him for weeks that the mission in Iraq is in serious trouble.''
'That is the hard truth, as hard as it is to bear,' he said, adding,
'I believe you deserve a president who isn't going to gild that truth, or gild our national security with politics, who is not going to ignore his own intelligence, who isn't going to live in a different world of spin, who will give the American people the truth, not a fantasy world of spin.'"
Bush and Kerry battle over science
BBC NEWS | "The leading international science journal Nature has focussed the US presidential election campaign on science by asking both President George Bush and Senator John Kerry for their views on the major issues.
Both candidates were given 15 questions and asked to confine their answers to a total of 1,500 words. Mr Bush had to be edited as he overran; Mr Kerry kept within the limit.
The most significant difference identified by the magazine was over stem-cell research, with Mr Kerry wanting to go well beyond the quite restrictive policy adopted by President Bush. "
Fictional candidate weighs into US election
Guardian Unlimited | "In the current US election season, Dickie Pilager's website stands out as a model of clarity and vision. Here is the candidate standing before a view of the mountains and lakes of his native Colorado, extolling the virtues of the outdoor life. Here is the family man, praising family life and the American way. And here is the nitty-gritty of his campaign: his views on healthcare, education, gun control, abortion and the environment.
Like many other candidates, Dickie Pilager has learned a lesson from Howard Dean and his army of Deaniacs; his website is about involvement, providing a virtual forum for supporters to meet likeminded souls.
But there is one aspect in which Mr Pilager is different to most of the other candidates in this election season: he is a work of fiction. "
Votes and profits: a complicated relationship
BBC NEWS | "It's obvious, really: a Republican president is better for your wallet than a Democrat president.
The party of the Right, we all know, sympathises more with enterprise. So the stock market will perform better when the Left is in the wilderness and the Right is in the Oval Office.
After all, businessmen know what's best for business and businessmen back Republicans.
Except that it's not actually true."
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Forget Vietnam - it's the economy, Clinton tells Kerry
Guardian Unlimited | "John Kerry, alarmed by a post-convention surge in the opinion polls for President George Bush, relaunched his campaign yesterday after taking the advice of Bill Clinton from his hospital bed.
In a 90-minute conversation from hospital, Mr Clinton was reported yesterday to have sketched out a detailed strategy to revive Mr Kerry's candidacy, warning him to tone down the emphasis on Vietnam and to re-focus on jobs and healthcare. Mr Kerry appeared to have adopted some of his suggestions, offering up a combative Labor Day speech in Pennsylvania yesterday. "
