IT'S ALWAYS MORNING IN AMERICA:

President's campaign uses optimism to attract: Strategy mines power of positive talk (Rick Klein, September 18, 2004, Boston Globe)

At a small baseball field in a town where the unemployment roll has added 1,200 names during his time in office, President Bush stood in the bright sunshine Thursday morning and trumpeted the optimistic vision that has become his campaign trademark.

‘‘Our economy is strong, and it’s getting stronger,’’ Bush said during a rally. ‘‘We’re not turning back.’’

And on a day that the CIA’s dire warning about the future security situation in Iraq was made public, Bush went on to assert that the democracy is blooming in the post-Saddam Hussein era.

‘‘Freedom is on the march,’’ he said. ‘‘We have led, many have joined, and America and the world are safer.’’

The audience of supporters roared their approval.

In a period of national uneasiness, Bush’s message is simple, blunt, and appealing: Things are getting better. Bush is calculating that voters who have tuned in slightly to the political race will be reassured by his clear-eyed assertions and convinced that a resolute leader deserves another term, said Ron Faber, a journalism professor at the University of Minnesota who studies political communication.

‘‘Voters don’t know about all the issues, but they seem to gravitate toward certainty,’’ Faber said.

‘‘Americans like positive messages and they like consistent messages, and Bush gives them at least the hope that things will get better.’’

That's the Master's most basic lesson:

When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future.

I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 18, 2004 3:05 PM