Bush v. Kerry: The Official Elections 2004 Thread

Bush and Kerry square off
Sources: Edwards to withdraw from race, 4 p.m. ET Wednesday
Wednesday, March 3, 2004 Posted: 2:45 PM EST (1945 GMT)



John Kerry left Washington Wednesday morning for Florida, as President Bush left for California.

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ON CNN TV

The first slate of Bush-Cheney TV ads and John Kerry's stance on a running mate -- both are issues on "Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics" at 3:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, And watch CNN's live coverage of the John Edwards announcement, scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.

THE MORNING GRIND
One race over ... And two more begin


VIDEO
CNN's David Ensor on John Kerry and the battle with Bush on security issues.

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CNN's Bill Schneider on exit polls and what Democrats see in John Kerry.

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GOP strategist Ralph Reed sizes up the Democratic competition.

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RELATED
Kerry faces new challenges

Carlos Watson: The road ahead

Audio Slide Show: A changed landscape

Gallery: Super Tuesday exit polls


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? California OKs budget rescue
? Bush's ads target conservatives
? Edwards praises Kerry
? Kerry: Change is coming
? Economy drives some voters
? Analysts debate Super Tuesday
? Victory speech highlights issues

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? Results: Super Tuesday races
? Exit Polls: Georgia, New York
? Delegate Scorecard
? Primary Explainer
? Special Report

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America Votes 2004

John F. Kerry

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After months of narrowing the crowded field of presidential hopefuls, the Democratic primary season has developed into a head-to-head contest between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry.

Both men left Washington on Wednesday for travels including campaign events. Kerry, fresh off his strong showing in the Super Tuesday contests, departed for the crucial state of Florida, while Bush is traveling to California as part of a six-day trip that will include a number of fund-raisers to add to his already impressive war chest. (Full story)

The president's travel starts as the re-election campaign for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney prepares to spend $4.5 million in advertising in key battleground states beginning Thursday. That sum is a small part of a campaign war chest that totals more than $100 million. The Kerry campaign has a fraction of that amount. (Full story)

Bush's campaign stops -- the first of his re-election campaign -- will revolve around the theme of "steady leadership in a time of change."

Accompanying Kerry on his trip are Florida's two Senators, Bob Graham and Bill Nelson. In a sign of the Democratic plan to come together behind Kerry in hopes of unseating Bush, Graham, a former presidential hopeful himself, told reporters," I will do anything within limits -- I will not sacrifice one of my grandchildren, for example -- to elect John Kerry."

Outlining the contest
Kerry's near sweep -- nine of the 10 states holding contests -- effectively ended the campaign of his closest rival, Sen. John Edwards, who campaign sources say will announce his pullout from the race in a speech at 4 p.m. ET Wednesday in his home state of North Carolina. (Super Tuesday results)

"Before us lie long months of effort and of challenge, and we understand that," Kerry told supporters at a victory celebration Tuesday night. "We have no illusions about the Republican attack machine and what our opponents have done in the past, and what they may try to do in the future. But I know that toge

 

Bush TV ads tout 'steady leadership'
Wednesday, March 3, 2004 Posted: 3:03 PM EST (2003 GMT)



The Bush-Cheney campaign plans to launch a $4.5 million ad campaign Thursday.

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Story Tools



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ON CNN TV

The first slate of Bush-Cheney TV ads and John Kerry's stance on a running mate -- both are issues on "Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics" at 3:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, And watch CNN's live coverage of the John Edwards announcement, scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.

THE MORNING GRIND
One race over ... And two more begin


VIDEO
CNN's David Ensor on John Kerry and the battle with Bush on security issues.

PLAY VIDEO

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GOP strategist Ralph Reed sizes up the Democratic competition.

PLAY VIDEO

RELATED
Kerry faces new challenges

Carlos Watson: The road ahead


SPECIAL REPORT


? Bush: Profile
? Bush: Issues
? Bush: Money
? Bush: Career Donors
? Who's in, Who's out
? Special Report

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America Votes 2004

George W. Bush

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The first TV ads of President Bush's re-election campaign vow that the United States is turning the corner after a difficult period and that he's a steady commander in chief who can provide "leadership in times of change."

The three spots, set to roll out Thursday, will be shown on national cable networks, including CNN, and local stations in key battleground states.

The Bush-Cheney campaign has bought at least $4.5 million in advertising time for the initial blitz, the first trickle out of a war chest of more than $100 million.

One of the ads lasts a minute; the other two are 30 seconds each, with one of them recorded in English and Spanish.

All were produced before Sen. John Kerry's victories in the Super Tuesday contests that effectively assured him the Democratic presidential nomination.

Bush's initial ads are positive, but campaign sources did not rule out negative ads focusing on Kerry in the near future.

"One of the things that must never change is the entrepreneurial spirit of America. This country needs a president who clearly sees that," Bush says in one ad, according to transcripts provided by the campaign.

"And as the economy grows, the job base grows, and somebody who's looking for work will be more likely to find a job. I know exactly where I want to lead this country."

In another ad, video and graphics list a series of challenges the country has faced since Bush took office in January 2001, including "an economy in recession, a stock market in decline," the dot-com boom and the September 11 attacks, "a test for all Americans."

"Today, America is turning the corner. Rising to the challenge," the graphics say. "Safer, stronger. President Bush. Steady leadership in times of change."

In the third ad, a voice says, "The last few years have tested America in many ways.

"America rose to the challenge. What sees us through tough times? Freedom, faith, families and sacrifice."

The ad ends with the voice saying, "President Bush. Steady leadership in times of change."

The ads will target sports programming and markets decided by relatively narrow margins in 2000.

Campaign sources said those markets likely will include Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

 

V03 -

Well said.

No matter what you or I post regarding Kerry's military voting record, those who choose to claim that we are 'biased' or simply repeat that Kerry voted against something Reagan wanted thus he hates the military...bla, bla, bla...they aren't going to vote for Kerry anyway, or any other Democrat for that matter. I heard on the news that Republican Senator John McCain will often speak on the Senate floor about wasteful Pentagon spending.

Sure, Kerry's record is open to debate. But so is Bush's...and it is far from perfect.

Regardless, the Republicans have to walk a fine line between debating voting records and foreign policy views (certainly legitimate), and questioning Kerry's dedication towards the defense of our country and putting W in flight suits/wrapping the flag around him. If it comes down to symbolism, I'll take Kerry's war heroism over W anyday.

For comparisons sake, the only poll (Gallup) that I could find from 2000 at about this point in the election cycle had Bush ahead of Gore 47-41, with Nader at 4.

OWM -

Slow down with the articles!

 

Is this the official Cut and Paste thread now?

How about a simple link or excerpt OWM?

Vaderize 03 is your name blacked out or am I seeing things?

Solidarity Now!

 

"And as the economy grows, the job base grows, and somebody who's looking for work will be more likely to find a job. I know exactly where I want to lead this country."


Into the ground? ?

 

Last one, I have to actually get SOME kind of work done today or the judge will catch on...

This thread sucks.

With Kerry In, Let the Veepstakes Begin

Lots of names?predictable and not so?in the hatWEB EXCLUSIVE
By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek
Updated: 3:16 p.m. ET March 03, 2004March 3 - Weeks ago, John Kerry put out the word to his staff that he didn?t want any speculation?even off the record?about who his running mate would be. But now that he?s the nominee, barring something cataclysmic, the guessing game has accelerated. Although the decision likely won?t be made until summer, here are some possibilities being tossed around in Democratic circles, in no particular order:

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JOHN EDWARDS: The North Carolina senator is the favorite only in the minds of the voters; insiders say that he is far from a shoo-in. His best hope is for his supporters, especially fund-raisers, to band together to make it clear to Kerry that there is a price to be paid for not picking him.

Advantages: He has proven himself a thoroughbred, virtually gaffe-free candidate who would bring freshness, youth and a skillful advocate?s abilities to his new client, Kerry, and would cross-examine President Bush and Vice President Cheney with a vengeance. In several states, his message of economic populism scored well with independents and moderate Republicans, a big plus in a general election.

Disadvantages: His Southern roots are not likely to help Kerry carry any Southern states, except perhaps North Carolina, which may not turn competitive. He does not have a good personal relationship with Kerry; it?s not bad, just not close. This wouldn?t normally matter except that Kerry might want someone he trusts totally. Kerry is also said to be unsure of how Edwards would stack up against Cheney on foreign policy.

DICK GEPHARDT: The Missouri congressman is a much more serious candidate inside the Kerry campaign than many outsiders realize.

Advantages: He could help carry Missouri, a key swing state that went narrowly for Bush in 2000. His longtime ties to the labor movement might take support for Democrats in union households to 70 percent, which could make the difference in critical industrial states like Ohio, which went for Bush by less than 4 points in 2000. He would be a likeable candidate and a credible vice president.

Disadvantages: He?s your father?s Oldsmobile and would send a musty message in a country that loves the new. With all the union support imaginable, he came in a miserable fourth in the Iowa caucuses. If the union connection didn?t help there, where will it? His appeal outside St. Louis remains a question mark.

BOB GRAHAM: The Florida senator is a possibility for three reasons: Florida, Florida, Florida.

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Advantages: Polling could show by summer whether his name on the ticket adds 2 or 3 points in Florida and might actually give Kerry that pivotal state. His chairmanship of the Senate Intelligence Committee?and opposition to the Iraq war as a distraction?gives him credibility on national-security issues. His history as a governor fills out the resume with administrative experience.

Disadvantages: His abortive campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination last year showed him as a lackluster candidate with little rapport with voters. A strange habit of writing down literally everything that he does in the course of a day (?3:15: Rewound the video on the VCR?) still lingers in the minds of many Democrats.

BILL RICHARDSON: The governor of New Mexico is an Hispanic-American from a state Al Gore carried by only a few hundred votes.

Advantages: Richardson could wake the ?sleeping giant? of the Hispanic vote, which might help in Arizona and among non-Cuban Hispanics in Florida.

 

IMHO the Democrats should give up this election, put up with Bush for the next four years, and let Hillary Clinton run in 2008. She would probably win.

If that happened it would mean, if Hillary was re-elected in 2012, every president from January 1989 until January 2017, would either have the last name Bush or Clinton.

 

Yaaay...not only do we have inbreeders, but our presidency is inbred as well.

 

Inbred huh?

That would explain Kerry's looks and Bush's speaking.

Combine them both and you get Frankenstein's monster.

 

Hillary as President...(shudder)...

EDIT:

[image=http://www.tlotr.com/film_pictures/new_0703/treebeard.jpg] [image=http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1345000/images/_1349932_kerry150.jpg]

 

That's a scary mental image.

 

Which one, Hillary or Treebe...er, Kerry?

 

George Kerry.

 

Political Passion
Bush?s support for a gay-marriage ban marriage is unrealistic pandering to religious conservatives. But it could energize the Dems more than the GOP

Newsweek

Updated: 12:11 p.m. ET Feb. 27, 2004Feb. 27 -

The visionary flight to Mars didn't poll well, so now George W. Bush is floating another lame-brained idea. Democrats should rejoice. The fact that the president caved in to his conservative base and came out in favor of a gay-marriage ban is good news for the loyal opposition.

First, a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage will never get through Congress. Even if it does, it will die in the states. There aren't 38 legislatures ready to turn back the clock on the evolving gay-rights movement. Coming out in favor of the amendment is Bush's way of reassuring evangelicals he's one of them. Think of it as the political equivalent of Mel Gibson's passion play. It rouses the true believers.

Second, what Bush did is all about base-tending, and the fact that he had to do it this deep into the election cycle reveals a weakness. This is the time when Bush should be reaching for the political center. Instead, from his perspective, he had no choice but to bow to the fire-breathing evangelicals. Without their enthusiastic support in November, he would suffer the same fate as his father?one term and out.

Finally, supporting an amendment to the Constitution to exclude a whole group of people from the rights and benefits of marriage is overreaching on a scale that Bush could regret. He dithered about it for weeks, hoping to avoid taking a definitive position. Polls show that a majority of the country opposes gay marriage, but a majority of voters also opposes amending the Constitution. A parade of influential social conservatives warned the White House that Bush couldn't stay on the sidelines. "It reminds me of his father's reelection campaign, when the senior Bush didn't have a strong hold on the conservative base and had to take positions he was uncomfortable with, culminating in the [1992] Houston convention," recalls an aide to a senior Senate Republican. "If you're a Republican, the fact he had to do it is discouraging."

The Republican convention in '92 was anti-gay, anti-black and anti-working woman, an orgy of intolerance that left the senior Bush behind in the polls and appearing out of touch with the country's real problems, namely the economy, stupid. Conservative commentator and failed presidential candidate Pat Buchanan invoked the specter of a cultural war with gangs of marauding minorities taking over American cities while Marilyn Quayle, wife of the vice president, delivered a hard-edged homily about a woman's place in society. Bush's first campaign stop after that convention was at a religious-right gathering in Texas.

At this stage of the campaign, the younger Bush anticipated running on the war and tax cuts, not on a constitutional amendment that divides Republicans. Problems with the base forced Bush's hand. His immigration reform plan sparked a revolt among conservatives, and talk radio fanned the flames. The administration's cavalier attitude about deficit spending infuriated the right?along with a Medicare prescription-drug bill that is the biggest expansion of the welfare state in 40 years. When Bush seemed to dodge the issue of gay marriage, the right got apoplectic.

The risk for Bush is that openly pandering to religious conservatives will energize the Democratic base more than the Republican base. A willingness to amend the Constitution to enshrine an ideological position is proof positive for Democrats and potentially independent and swing voters that Bush is no compassionate conservative.

Hearings will get underway next week in the Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but don't be fooled into thinking lawmakers will act quickly. There is no appetite in the Senate to go forward. The complexity of the issue is embodied in the Cheney

 

Bush is taking the postion on marriage that he believes in, and that the vast majority of the country supports.

Kerry is wiffle-waffling on the issue, saying he supports traditional marriage, but he doesn't support law that would guarantee such.

With Kerry's political maneuvering in the attempt to distance himself from his own record, along with Ted Kennedy being his right-hand man and the individual that introduces Kerry at every speech, it will be hard for Kerry to dispute his record once the GOP opens up on him.

 

You fail to grasp that 48% of the country doesn't support an amendment.

 

I think the issue will be the social issue of this coming election.

The issues that will dominate the election will be the economy and national security, though.

However, the election is going to be close, and this issue can swing it one way or the other.

We'll see if Kerry can stand the 'real deal' from the GOP's oncoming campaign.

 

So I see you disagree with everything the article said, out of hand?

(This thread sucks, please restore the old thread.)

 

Bush happens to be taking the mainstream position on this particular issue. The Amendment issue is a definitive statement on where the President stands.

Kerry is politically maneuvering to pacify his base, which is making him appear to wiffle-waffle on the issue.

The article above is also quite inflammatory: calling the GOP anti-black (in 1992) is akin to calling Republican's racists. That simply isn't the case, but I recongize it is one that certain Democrats use to solidify their African-American base.

 

Kerry was endorsed by Ramsey Clark today....

Tuesday, March 2, 2004 9:35 p.m. EST
Kerry Wins Ramsey Clark Endorsement

On top of his near sweep of Super Tuesday primary contests, likely Democratic nominee John Kerry has something else to celebrate tonight - the endorsement from his old anti-American Vietnam War protest buddy, Ramsey Clark.

"I think John Kerry is a great human being," Clark told Accuracy in Media at a press conference a few days ago. "I knew [Kerry] when he was - I call a youngster - in his 20s," said Clark, referring to the days when the former Lyndon Johnson attorney general acted as a lawyer for Kerry's radical group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

"I saw him as an extremely caring person, an extremely courageous person, and a person who was deeply concerned for peace and the well-being of other people," Clark added, saying he hoped a Kerry administration would take U.S. foreign policy in a new direction.

Like Kerry's VVAW colleague Jane Fonda, Clark traveled to Hanoi to give aid and comfort to America's enemies. A photo in Kerry's book "The New Soldier" taken the year before shows the top Democrat and the radical lawyer onstage together during an April 1971 anti-war protest.

Clark and Kerry teamed up again in the 1980s to block Reagan administration efforts to fight communism in Nicaragua.

Though Clark voiced his support four days ago, so far Sen. Kerry has yet to publicly thank his old friend and ally. Clark had better not hold his breath.

 

Well, the culture wars were about to go full scale, I agree the anti-black thing sounds bad, but you didn't take question with the anti-gay or the anti-women part did you?

(please restore the old thread. sucks.)

 

I just didn't mention the gay or woman issue, but it's the same as I said concerning the black issue.

The accusation is also baseless and inflammatory as well.

Kerry's protesting friends coming out for him isn't altogether very surprising, TripleB.

 

We were discussing at work the possibility of John Breaux, the retiring US Senator from LA being selected by Kerry.

Certain individuals here think it's a possiblity that Kerry can carry Louisiana due to the fact that a Democrat won the Gubernatorial election here last October. I tend to think otherwise, because the new Governor although a Democrat, is quite conservative.

I don't think Breaux would accept it, though, if asked. However, Breaux is a moderate and was a powerful US Senator with the ability to work out compromises.

 

Obi-Wan McCartney

There might be some folks turned off by the push for an amendment regarding marriage, but I am not convinced that the actions of Newsom, the Massachusetts Supreme court, and others are not going to cause adverse consequences for the Left.

Imagine for a moment, that the Wisconsin Supreme Court told Wisconsin that they could no longer enforce its ban on carrying concealed guns after someone filed suit against the state - in essence, ordering Vermont-style carry. How would you feel about such a court ruling, seeing as the legislature recently FAILED to override Governor Doyle's veto?

I do not think that you are taking that sort of thing into consideration. If the courts persist, then there is going to be a huge backlash.

 

Based on the fact that George W Bush was able to take Tennessee from AL Gore in 2000, I highly doubt that a Dick Gephardt/Southern Democrat as the VEEP will be enough to take any of those states from Bush.