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Politics : Proof that John Kerry is Unfit for Command -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richnorth who wrote (22463)	10/27/2004 12:23:53 PM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27181

I've been living in God's Country all of my life. It's known in popular parlance as the Good Old USA, or The United States of America. Canada had a small window of opportunity just before and after the Revolutionary War to choose to be a part of the Greatest Nation on Earth but her Royalists and other lovers of Monarchy chose otherwise. Don't fret about my passing days. They are passing for you also, and at the same rate as for me. Just be glad that you continue to favored to breathe the breath of freedom's air, even if it is Canadian. And I'll stick by my earlier Tea Leaves projection re: the Electoral College. Bush 355 Kerry 183

To: Richnorth who wrote (22463)	10/27/2004 12:41:17 PM
From: Andrew N. Cothran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27181

Hawaii hit by political quake as it becomes new 'battleground' state Wed Oct 27, 2:13 AM ET U.S. National - AFP HONOLULU, United States (AFP) - The US island state of Hawaii has been hit by a political earthquake, turning the tropical paradise into a new battleground just days ahead of the country's presidential election. Two polls this week showed that President George W. Bush (news - web sites) has suddenly caught up with Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) in the traditionally Democratic bastion, putting him in a position to become the first Republican presidential candidate to take Hawaii in 20 years. The news that the two are in a dead heat here has badly shaken Democratic voters who until this week had taken it for granted that the tropical paradise would back Kerry in one of the tightest elections in years. "I am astonished, truly astonished," said Democratic supporter Jerry Comcowich, as he stood under the palm trees at the Hawaii Kai Golf Course, overlooking surfers slamming through the shore break on nearby Sandy Beach. "At first I was amused by the thought that after all these years of abject neglect (by) the national party leadership, the voters in Hawaii may actually decide the outcome of a presidential election. "That thought lasted about five seconds, then I became horrified. What if Bush takes the Hawaii vote?" said the dismayed specialist in ocean and earth studies at the University of Hawaii. A Honolulu Advertiser survey of 600 likely voters on Saturday put the two candidates almost even in Hawaii, with 43.3 percent backing Bush against 42.6 percent for Kerry, with 12 percent undecided. The poll was conducted between October 13-18 and had a margin of error of around four percentage points. The shock to Democratic party faithful here only worsened Sunday when a Honolulu Star-Bulletin and KITK-TV survey showed Bush ahead by 46 percent to 45 for Kerry, compared to August when Kerry had a seven point lead. That poll of 612 likely voters was carried out between October 17-20 and had a margin of error of around four points. In the 2000 election, Bush also appeared to surge in Hawaii in the closing days of the campaign, but ended up with only 37 percent of the vote -- a local landslide for Democratic candidate Al Gore (news - web sites). "How can we elect a congressional delegation that rivals that of Massachusetts as far as being liberal, and at the same time vote for Bush?" asked businessman Garry Francell, disbelievingly. A shell-shocked Comcowich believes that some Hawaiian voters are suddenly reluctant to change presidents because Bush has succeeded in making them feel fearful and uncertain amid the war on terror and in Iraq (news - web sites). The state's Republican governor Linda Lingle, who campaigned on the US campaign with Bush, says the president's leadership is the key, and that the strong economy here and Bush's attention to the state are helping him. And experts said that while most of Hawaii's population remained of Asian origin, more caucasian Americans had retired here, possibly swaying the voting demographic. Since achieving statehood in 1959, the Democratic bastion of Hawaii has only gone Republican only twice in a presidential election, with Richard Nixon in 1972 and Ronald Reagan (news - web sites) in 1984. While the state only has four electoral college votes, they could prove critical if the vote goes down to the wire on November 2 as widely expected. Reeling Kerry campaign officials have raced to but last-minute television time for commercials that could begin appearing as early as Tuesday evening, marking the first surge in political advertising here in 20 years. Hawaii, the newest state in the union, "has always felt like the poor stepchild of the United States, a mere tropical playground," said Mark Stitham, a psychiatrist who lives on the waterfront in Kailua. "With less than one percent of the US population, Hawaii's importance in presidential elections has been less than insignificant," Stitham said. "And being several time zones away (from most states), the election is virtually over before the Hawaii voter has even gone to the polls." Stitham, a Republican, said Kerry's "patrician attitude" may be hurting him in the easy-going Hawaiian islands, where a "hang loose" local style is more the norm. "But I'd still bet on Kerry taking Hawaii," he said. While supporters of both Kerry and Bush were stunned by Bush's last-minute spurt, many Hawaiians were thrilled by the possibility that their state could at last play a role in choosing the leader of the free world. "It turns our perspectives upside down," said Doug Carlson, a public relations counsellor in Honolulu. "It will be the joke of all jokes if it comes down to the wire and Hawaii makes the difference," he said. "Maybe now Hawaii residents will get to know how it feels" to be in a battleground state, Carlson said.