February 18, 2004

LEARNING FROM THEIR MISTAKES:

Bush cultivates grass roots (Richard Tomkins, 2/17/2004, UPI)

With President George W. Bush facing what's shaping up to be a bruising re-election battle, Republican campaign operatives are focusing on setting up a formidable grass-roots machine to help prevent another general election squeaker.

In chad-jinxed Florida, state re-election officials have benefited from 12 special training sessions conducted by Bush-Cheney 2004 national and regional staff. They then conduct training sessions for more local operatives, who do the same in turn.

More sessions are on the way.

Supporters in other states -- especially swing states such as Missouri and Ohio -- are likewise being taught the ins and outs of coffee klatches, leafleting, voter registration drives, radio call-ins, door-knocking and letter writing to stoke a momentum they hope will build to a final -- and successful -- 72-hour push to victory come Nov. 2.

"We've been busy putting together a grass-roots organization because we believe the election will be close, possibly as close as 2000," campaign deputy spokesman Scott Stanzel told United Press International. "By building state leadership teams, holding training for county chairmen and precinct leaders, we hope to turn out a very good vote."


How about just avoiding having a past arrest revealed in the final 72 hours?

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 18, 2004 09:17 AM
Comments

OJ - good point. Perhaps the benefit of this AWOL story is it is dealt with now. And you noted the other day the Bush team releasing driving records for Bush when he was a teenager.
In 2000 the DWI played right into the "Bush as unserious fratboy" image the Dems were pushing. I'm not sure it would have the same impact now that he has been president for 4 years and the voters can judge him by actual, not projected, performance.

Posted by: AWW at February 18, 2004 09:33 AM

It will take more than election year pandering for Bush bring the dissenters back to the tent.

Posted by: M at February 18, 2004 11:04 AM

It will take only an election--the nativists are all mouth.

Posted by: oj at February 18, 2004 12:26 PM

The so-called dissenters are the same people who've been whining since the early 1990s. Think Buchanan. They whine because they like to whine and like the reaction they get for their whining, and will whine even if they get everything they've whined for. They love to lose because it's hard to whine about winning. It's time to ignore them, and cultivate people who actually like to win.

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at February 18, 2004 12:49 PM

My mom was a short-time Buchananeer pre-92 election. I warned her, but she wouldn't listen. She will never let that happen again. I think there are a lot of people like her.

My mom has a brain that remembers things like Clinton and the havoc his despicable presidency wrought.

Posted by: NKR at February 18, 2004 01:01 PM

Do not kvetch. Be a kvecth. Become one with your whining. Do a write in for Kucinich.

Posted by: Genecis at February 18, 2004 03:13 PM

I'm an anti-immigrationist, (nativist, I guess) and I whine alot. I am voting for Bush. When they have you by the balls your heart and mind follows where ever they lead you.

Posted by: h-man at February 18, 2004 03:15 PM

There's something else that sprung to my mind while reading over Tomkins' litany. Don't you suspect that one of the things being taught is: "How to watch for the Democrat ballot-box-stuffing tricks."?

I do.

Another reason why I think that Florida 2000 was probably the peak of the Dems. They've been stealing elections for a long time, and the Stupid Party has been letting them get away with it. As soon as they can't pull their tricks, and the *accurate* vote totals are totalled, their percent of the votes is going to collapse. In so many places they've been winning elections by a merely a few hundred or few thousand votes.

Posted by: ray at February 18, 2004 06:16 PM

While a suprise legal problem for Bush the weekend before the election is unlikely, I expect the Democrats, espeically in Florida, will come up with a surprise "voter fraud" scheme by the Republicans the weekend before the vote that will attempt to recall the 2000 election, scandalize the media and dominate a good deal of the pre-election headlines. That's what the Republicans should be on the look out for this time around.

Posted by: John at February 18, 2004 08:06 PM
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