Even if Bush wins in November, he’s still doomed.
Nasty (from the Bush Admin’s PoV) investigations are underway which will conclude either this year or early next year. These will focu attention on the unseemly sides of the Bush Admin. There’s some seriously questionable stuff going on in there that no american can suport- the second SSCI report on the use of the pre-war intel re Iraq, the White House’s Iranian Spy Scandal, and pf course, the Plame investigation juts to name a few. Cheney’s just been popped for misleading Haliburton investors and inflating stock prices. Cheney also has other pending investigations.
As Senator Kyl says, what the Bush Admin’s facing are close to charges of treason.
The White House is a seething cauldron of wrong-doing. It’s just a matter of time until it boils over.
A “guilty conscience” has nothing to do with it. Kerry is just trying to counter the fact that Bush was percieved as stronger on defense. This is just sensible political strategy, and to some degree it appears to be working.
Bush is the President the US electorate currently deserves.
That there is even a serious question of whether the President who oversaw the events of 11th September 2001 will be returned to office is, in its way, astonishing.
But he will be, and not for any of the foil-hatted chicanery which our Icke-U-Like guest Got Taste? preaches on our proverbial street corner. It is simply that the US is a massively right wing country compared to the rest of the industrialised democratic world, and thus deserves a massively right wing President, for all his simian aphasia.
I can see it going either way. Right now, events favor Kerry. The ecomomic news last week in job creation being massively short of expectations and the stock market with consecutive triple digit losses does not spell well for Bush. The 1000th US death in Iraq should happen this month and this will be a big psychological milestone to the electorate. The public still needs to get to know Kerry, but the convention did raise his comfort level with the people. I don’t expect the economy to turn around in time to help Bush, and things in Iraq seem more prone to go worse than better. Capturing bin Laden would certainly help Bush’s chances and a major miscue in the debates could make a difference. But the race is now Kerry’s to lose and the undecideds tend to break for the challenger as the election draws near so it may not really be as close as some feel right now.
Regarding the jobs situation, there’s one little statistic I haven’t really heard the Kerry/Edwards campaign taking advantage of yet (unless they have and I’ve missed it)- that Bush’s administration is the first since Herbert fucking Hoover’s to suffer a net loss of jobs.
Jimmy Carter’s reign brought a job increase of 10 million plus and he couldn’t get re-elected. How well does that bode for Junior?
That’s just you, Evil One. A lot of politically aware conservatives, including some on this board (we’ve had GD threads on the question) would rather have Kerry than Bush.
SFW? If the Pubbies control the White House and the Justice Department and both houses of Congress, who’s going to do anything about it?
I think they mentioned that in at least one of the speeches at the Dem Convention, can’t remember who was the speaker – it might have been Kerry himself.
It’s simplistic to expect we “pubbies” to be in lock step especially in regards to crimes of this scope and nature.
IIRC, we “pubbies” had some influence at the times of the Watergate scandal.
I hope you can come to accept that there is a very real possibility that there are GOP members who find the sorts of things that have gone on to be less than desirable.
If not, then may I sell you some tinfoil?
Add to the number of Republicans of various stripes who have been alienated outright the (considerably larger) number who are annoyed about these things, but still plan to vote for Bush… if it isn’t raining on Election Day, and if the line at the polls isn’t too long, and if they don’t have an errand to run, and if there’s nothing good on TV…
Sure, but will they be outnumbered by the folks who prefer to paper over any scandal involving anyone with an “®” by their name? Will Richard Shelby actually get his ass busted for divulging classified information, or will the matter simply fade into quiet obscurity, as it has for the last two years?
I am quite certain that is true – which is why I expect Bush to lose the election. But if he wins it, and the GOP also contains control of both houses of Congress – or even one house, for that matter – I have little hope Bush will ever be impeached. (And if he is impeached by the House and convicted and removed by the Senate – Dick Cheny becomes president! Who wants to risk that?) Nor that any of his subordinates will be criminally prosecuted for anything they have done – because who, after all, would bring such prosecutions? John Ashcroft? The Independent Counsel Act expired in 1999. Congress could always revive it, but again, what are the chances?
It’s because of this kind of situation, by the way, that I think we need not just a new Independent Counsel Act, but a Tribunate – a whole independent fourth branch of government to police the other three, and also to run the elections, the Census, and post-Census redistricting. See my thread on that idea: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=264462
True dat. Also true that Bush’s negative coattails could mean the difference in close Congressional and gubernatorial elections, too. Republicans and fencesitters who stay home aren’t going to vote for any other GOP candidates, either.
capacitor, maybe I’ve become just too inclined to see the worst possible motives from this administration after their constant stream of petty lies, book-cooking, and pressure on nonpolitical agencies to produce political reports, but it does strike me as very odd that the economic reports they released just prior to the Democratic convention were so far out of line with the preceding and following months.
I’ve no real clue who is going to win the election. Never in my life have I been able to really accurately predict an election that is still a few months off. Mid October I may be able to make a prediction with confidence that I’d be willing to wager money on.
Personally I have a feeling this is going to be like the 1980 election. No one is going to see the result until it hits, one way or the other.
Personally I’ve found the 2000 and 2004 elections to be horrible in every sense of the word.
In 2000, despite being a die hard Republican I ultimately ended up voting for Gore.
Why? Well, the issues were a wash, both Bush and Gore were fairly moderate at the time. I felt BOTH Gore and Bush were going to be bad Presidents, but I felt that Gore wouldn’t be as bad, so I voted Gore.
I never thought Gore was going to win leading up to the election. Then election night I was surprised for a few hours and thought he was, then he didn’t.
As 2004 comes around I’m again faced with a hard choice, but it is not as hard this time.
Fiscal conservatism is my big hot button issue and both candidates fail miserably. But in this election I tend to think Kerry is the greater incompetence, so I’ll be voting Bush.
If Edwards had been nominated I’d probably have voted Dem again.
There’s a lot of people in the Republican party I’d vote for over ANY Democrat, but unfortunately not one of them has been nominated since 1984.
Wha? Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that particular landslide telegraphed far ahead of time by the polls? There was a good 10% gap between the two candidates, wasn’t there?
