December 12, 2003
LORD FARQUAAD OF MONTPELIER:
DEAN IN FOR N.H. BUSH-WHACKING: POLL (DEBORAH ORIN, December 12, 2003, NY Post)
A stunning new poll shows President Bush would clobber Democratic front-runner Howard Dean by nearly 2-1 in politically potent New Hampshire - even though Dean has a giant lead over Democratic rivals in the state.Bush gets 57 percent to Dean's 30 percent among registered voters in the American Research Group poll. In fact, Dean, from neighboring Vermont, does worse in the Granite State than a generic "Democratic Party nominee" who loses to Bush by 51 to 34 percent.
Even a tall dwarf is still a little man.
MORE:
Bush refuses to wallow in mud (Bill Sammon, 12/11/03, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)
President Bush will try to remain above the political fray for longer than usual leading up to next year's election because of what his handlers see as a significant "stature gap" between Mr. Bush and his challengers.Posted by Orrin Judd at December 12, 2003 12:42 PM"If he gets down ... with the Lilliputians, he is going to look like another one of them," said a White House source close to the president.
While it is traditional for an incumbent president to cling to the political high road for as long as possible, the imperative is even greater for Mr. Bush, whose war on terrorism has made him a larger-than-life figure to both supporters and detractors.
The president is especially wary of wading into a political discourse that many observers regard as unusually strident and even vulgar this election cycle. For example, Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, used an obscenity to describe the president's foreign policy to Rolling Stone magazine.
"No sense having President Bush dive into a cesspool that has most recently been clouded by the f-word," said the Bush source.
"People might not always agree with the president, but they see him as a strong, principled leader and they respect him for that," the source added. "Having him — or his official spokesmen or even his campaign — responding to, you know, Howard Dean, would reduce that stature."
The MSM (main stream media) have lost all credibility, and by the election next year, I think they will be totally irrelevant. The non-coverage of the sizeable anti-terrorist demonstration in Iraq and the coverage of the much smaller anti-American demonstration are cases in point. People, even non political junkies like us, are beginning to notice.
Thank God Bush has plenty of money to address the public directly with his messages and I doubt very much he will even deign to notice the mud being slung at him, much less speak to it.
He's a class act.
57-30!!!!!! They're gonna need a spatula or something to clean up the mess after the next election
Posted by: andy at December 12, 2003 6:23 PMHas anyone taken note of Bush's latest move? He has set up campaign headquarters in Arlington, VA, one of the few Democratic strongholds in the state (it is sometimes called the People's Republic of Arlington by its neighboring Virginians). Nothing like establishing a stronghold right within the enemy camp!
Posted by: Josh Silverman at December 13, 2003 1:50 AMIf you think the NH numbers are wide, wait until you see SC. At some point in the next 5 or 6 weeks, some lucky reporter is going to ask Dean how he can win, and the full temper will blow. Let's hope it's on camera.
Of course, there is something to be said for the raw honesty of that, as opposed to any stilted answer we would hear from Gephardt or Lieberman.
Posted by: jim hamlen at December 14, 2003 12:27 AM