Honest Bushies Are Afraid Of Kerry:
WASHINGTON - Republicans talk confidently of re-electing President Bush (news - web sites) for another four years, but some are increasingly wary they could face a close contest this fall now that the Democratic race has been turned upside down.
John Kerry (news - web sites), a fourth-term U.S. senator from Massachusetts, has replaced former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (news - web sites) in the front-runner slot among Democrats after winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
While Republicans relish the chance to pick apart two decades of Kerry's congressional votes, they were absolutely salivating at the prospect of running against Dean, who many thought could be more easily outflanked.
Republicans feel Kerry is a veteran politician who can avoid the obvious mistakes of a political newcomer and they're very aware he is a decorated Vietnam war hero running in a time of war.
"I can't tell you in all honesty that President Bush has an advantage going into this election," said Gary Abernathy, executive director of the West Virginia Republican Party.
Both Abernathy and West Virginia party chairman Kris Warner said they expect a competitive contest both in traditionally Democratic West Virginia and nationally. Bush narrowly won West Virginia in 2000.
"Here's a president who has done so much for the military," Warner said. "And you've got a guy like Kerry who, whenever he shows up on TV, has veterans standing behind him, including the guy he pulled out of the river."
West Virginia has a very high population of veterans.
"If George Bush and John Kerry get in a fight over veteran loyalty," he said, "it will be interesting to see where that goes."
Abernathy and Warner were part of the crowd of several hundred Republicans who came to a Washington hotel this week for the winter meeting of the Republican National Committee (news - web sites).
They heard Republican national chairman Ed Gillespie call Kerry's record of military service honorable while complaining that the senator's "long record in the Senate is one of advocating policies that would weaken our national security."
Gillespie cited Kerry's call in 1984 for a freeze on testing, production and deployment of nuclear warheads, missiles, and other delivery systems; his vote against military action in the 1991 Persian Gulf War (news - web sites); and votes to freeze defense spending.
On Friday, Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman spelled out the Bush campaign's arguments for re-election: the stronger performance of the economy, efforts to improve school performance, prescription drug coverage for seniors and the ongoing war against terrorism.
And he claimed the president has begun to shift the evenly divided country toward the GOP.
Mehlman said in a Friday interview that he expects a nasty campaign and a close election.
"We're talking a close and competitive contest," Mehlman said. "Races these days are decided by 4 or 5 points, not 18 or 19. We expect their nominee will be ahead in the polls after their convention."
Bush and Kerry were even in a head-to-head matchup in a Newsweek poll out Saturday.
Democrats are certain to fight very hard for the White House in 2004, said Joyce Lyons Terhes, a Republican national committeewoman from Maryland.
"They are very frustrated that we have control of the White House, the Senate and the House," said Terhes. While two decades of Kerry's votes will be an attractive target, she said Kerry could still be a formidable opponent.
"Just the fact that he's been in the trenches and knows the warfare gives him a better chance than some who haven't been through it," she said.
Republicans successfully painted Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis as out of touch with mainstream America in the 1988 campaign by Bush's father, the first President Bush. They will try to do the same to Kerry, a one-time lieutenant governor for Dukakis, in this year's campaign.
"We don't have to make him into Dukakis," New Hampshire Republican Tom Rath said with a grin. "We just have to make him into John Kerry."
But Rath cautioned fellow Republicans not to underestimate the junior senator from Massachusetts.
"I've seen John Kerry up close and personal," Rath said. "He's one of the strongest closers in American politics. His last three weeks are the best three weeks." That was certainly true in Iowa and New Hampshire. |
