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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sunny who wrote (14652)	10/31/2003 1:07:03 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 794400

Some good, gutty, street level politics from "The Note." ________________________________________________________ Eighty days until Iowa, 88 days until New Hampshire, and one year and three days until election day 2004. But the real number to focus on today is 72. NOT "7.2" — yesterday's paradigm-shifting gauzy growth figure about which we have been trying to alert you all week. (Congratulations on the Friday-through-Thursday poker faces, you pre-knowing Administration officials, you.) No, the number on which you should be focused if you care about who wins the White House next year is 72 — as in "72 Hours." Slide the decimal point of 7.2 just one position, and you get the kind of seasonal spooky cosmic numerology that frankly freaks us out more than a little bit. For the uninitiated, the greatest innovation of the Bush-Rove-RNC national political operation (after figuring out how to raise more money than anyone ever) has been the introduction of a coordinated political ground game from one election day to the next — known as the party's 72-Hour Task Force. LINK These efforts now go on literally constantly, but they culminate three days out from the actual voting with a burst of activity (surrogates, coordinated spending, TV, voter-to-voter contact, earned media, radio, e-mails, on and on and on) that is meant to counter what everyone in both parties had come to realize was a superior final push by Democrats, largely on the broad backs and shoulders of union members and that cagey Steve Rosenthal. With strong Republican candidates poised to snatch Democrat gubernatorial seats away, tomorrow, GOP strategists kick off their final push by wheeling out their biggest artillery piece. President Bush's visits to Kentucky and Mississippi are sure to dominate all local media in the final days, making sure that Republican partisans know that (a) there is an election; and (b) that it is important to their commander in chief (he of the gauzy growth) that they vote for these "good men" with "R's" after their names. And the visits will have some appeal to independents, too, don't you know. Maybe even some Democrats … . Sure, Clinton (today), Terry McAuliffe (tomorrow) and Gore (Sunday) are Democratic bosses who will be welcomed by the Street(s) of Philadelphia, but you won't see national party leaders of any type matching the Bush visits to Kentucky and Mississippi. Is there some parallel universe in which all the Democratic presidential candidates would be barnstorming at least Kentucky to help there at the end? Sure there is, but we aren't seeing it now, and the reasons for that should make The Macker (he of the 50-state strategy) quake. But while the national press gets focused on major surrogates, below that radar, party and interest group strategists on both sides will be looking to both push and analyze (for 2004 clues) what works and what doesn't about their ground games to get out the vote. We haven't heard much about the Kentucky AFL-CIO and what they are doing, but it's clear that the Democrats need some union love to keep them Happy, and they might not get it. On the well-funded Republican side (they of the Post -BCRA dominance), watch for their team to put the opposition in a full Nelson, with a Blaise of glory that will only ratchet up in a few short days for their beloved Bobby. IF the Republicans take two more governorships away from the Democrats (and keep one in Louisiana … ), the national political media is going to have a Bernie Goldberg gut-check moment and have to ask itself: Will the coverage and credit given to the GOP be equal to what the inverse would have been had the Democrats swept these races? abcnews.go.com

To: Sunny who wrote (14652)	10/31/2003 3:48:58 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794400

I don't have to want to see them all dead, to think they are the biggest threat to world peace. I think the US is a pretty large threat to world peace, and I don't want to see me dead either. You obviously sense that every "threat" comes with a value judgment. It doesn't, unless you are inclined to make a value judgment about every threat. I am not. Forest fires are a great threat in Southern California- by recognizing that I do not imply that we should destroy all the forests, so that they can be less of a problem. Can you understand that? We'll see.

To: Sunny who wrote (14652)	10/31/2003 3:56:04 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 794400

Ofcourse, they could decide to quit defending themselves and fighting for their country and their lives. Then they would become much less of a problem. How about this, Israel relocates. They still have their country and their lives. Just not in the middle of the biggest hornets nest in the world. Of course if they were offered this, they would refuse, because their "fight" is not about their country and their lives, it is about one small piece of land with religious significance. Those of us that aren't religious don't want to fight WWIII over this.