Bad News

Was it Something I Said?
I think that things look a lot worse for Bush that polls might suggest. Everyone (among Republicans) is happy becuase he is ahead in all of these polls. But if you look at these polls he is almost never over 50%. That is bad news for an incumbent. People look at an election with an incumbent as a referndum on him. People either want to keep him or not. The 'or nots' may not be ready to go for the other guy but if they aren't ready to pull the lever for Bush now there is little that could happen in the next two weeks that could move them in Bush's direction. The Nader/undecideds at this point are just waiting to see if they can stomach Kerry. After the debates it seems to me that Kerry looks reasonably presidential. Indeed, the whole flip-flop tactic may have backfired. He seemed very consistent in the debates. The real criticism that could have been leveled against him was being consistently liberal, but that would have required a degree of mental agility beyond what the incumbent could manage.