Moderator’s Note: I’ve just linked to this thread from the now-closed thread Take the MSNBC Poll: Iraq, George W. Bush and the 2004 Campaign. If anyone wants to debate the issues of non-scientific Web polls, Bush’s popularity or lack thereof, and the relevance of all this to the 2004 election, this would be the place to do it.
Thanks, Moderator MEBuckner, for linking us to the link.
Now about Bush and the election:
If information continues to surface about how the administrative office went about steamrolling its war–backed up by Congress with the Republican majority, Bush won’t be able to win this election.
We have to remember and remind anyone who will listen that he did not win the 2000 election. The majority of our citizens did not want Bush for president in the first place. Those who voted against him need to remember all the reasons they did not want Bush in the first place, and then they need to remember how he pushed for the war without having a carefully orchestrated peace plan developed. Our boys are sitting ducks. 'Bring ‘em on!’ my foot. Added to the fact that our boys are in Iraq among a people who have very little understanding of the democratic process, we are learning that the war that Bush would have, come hell or high water, was based on manipulation of facts. The more deception that is uncovered, the more the people will either return to their original vote against Bush or they will vote against him for the first time if they were in doubt in 2000.
We also have to remember that many voters in 2000 were voting against Gore because of the whole Clinton ordeal. Gore never took a stand against Clinton’s behavior, and I can understand why he did not. But Gore was perceived as being a waffler. And people who had voted for the Democratic ticket in the past voted against Gore and with great hesitation for Bush. Those voters are most likely groaning over Bush’s push for war, lies to get the war he wanted, and the surfacing of what could well likely be more information of his administration’s manipulation of facts.
To conclude, the election in 2004 may very well be a Democratic victory if Bush can be shown to have manipulated information in order to go to war. It will become the responsibility of the Democratic party to reclaim any voters lost over the Clinton backlash against the party. Those lost voters brought back into the fold could make the difference in 2004.