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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ish who wrote (35524)	9/7/2000 4:53:55 PM
From: ColtonGang	Respond to of 769667

Washington Post:Amid reports of panic in GOP ranks, the Bush campaign is being called defensive, bumbling, weary, detached and peevish — all in one story! Today is the day when the media floodgates burst and a torrent of Republican criticism washed over the Bush camp. The pressure has been building for weeks, as Vice President Gore has drawn increasingly upbeat coverage and the governor of Texas has been depicted as off balance and making mistakes. Now that has become The Story — a dangerous development for any candidate because it can turn into a self-reinforcing plot line that shapes public perceptions of the race. The carping at Bush is all the more troubling because it comes not just from those who George W. might characterize as major-league buttheads – media people – but from many in his own party who obviously want him to win. Most damaging by far is a front-page New York Times report by Rick Berke and Frank Bruni that will undoubtedly affect the tone of today's network newscasts: "Prominent Republicans around the country, including several who advise Gov. George W. Bush, say they are worried that his candidacy has floundered in recent weeks, allowing Vice President Al Gore to build on his velocity from the Democratic convention in a way that they never expected. While none of these Republicans expressed panic and all said that Mr. Bush could reverse the trend, they acknowledged puzzlement, frustration and even some distress about the strides that Mr. Gore has made." Former Education secretary Bill Bennett is quoted as saying there is "real worry" and "nervousness" about Bush's recent performance. Many Republicans "expressed unease about the way Mr. Bush has handled himself, saying that in the last two and a half weeks there had been too many instances when he seemed either defensive, bumbling, weary, detached or peevish. And there have been too many missteps, several Republicans said. For starters, some cited Mr. Bush's refusal to go along with the debate schedule proposed by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, saying his reluctance had made him look timid. . . . "Others said Mr. Bush was letting himself get dragged too deep by Mr. Gore into the bogs of a policy debate, where the vice president is at his best. Still others said that Mr. Bush's choice of Dick Cheney as a running mate had produced scant excitement on the campaign trail but significant damage in the news media." The Los Angeles Times is also openly skeptical toward Bush's latest maneuvering. In describing Bush's new television ads slamming Gore for refusing to embrace the debate format that the governor has proposed, the paper says Bush is "further focusing the presidential race on an issue that some in Bush's own party fear may come back to haunt him. "The steady escalation over a topic that rarely matters to voters has overshadowed Bush's policy pronouncements for several days, diverting attention and time from a campaign whose lagging poll numbers have prompted increased nervousness among Republicans." Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and a veteran GOP operative, delivers the killer quote about the Republican mood: "Worried, verging on panic. It's been a big deterioration pretty fast." What's more, "other Republican strategists – most of whom insisted on anonymity to preserve their relations with Bush – said the debate over debates was another sign that the campaign has lost some of its momentum and focus. There were other signs as well: The subjects of the campaign's ads and the candidate's words are not meshing, and Bush's long-standing pledges of civility were replaced by increasing hostility on the stump."............THE END IS NEAR FOR THE SON OF A BUSH!