Jim writes on

Bush A Clear Loser in 2004

 

2004 November

Ah, the election. How terrible for George W. Bush. The guy totally lost the election by any measure. After all, he is a sitting war president that got only half the popular votes. 

I won't be confused by facts here. Let's just go by what the administration wants us to think:

  1. We should not change presidents in the middle of a war
  2. The electorate approves of the way the war is going
  3. A Kerry win would also be a "win" for the terrorists

Wow, with all this on his side, GWB should easily get a majority of the vote. The way he was talking I think he expected to get 70% of the vote without breaking a sweat. 

So what happened? He squeaked by with just 52% of the popular vote. Think about that. We're at war and the incumbent gets only 52% of the vote. 

I feel sorry for GWB. This election clearly shows how unpopular he is. Despite being at war, despite being the incumbent, despite the "other guy" being soft on terrorists, despite a massive voter turnout - despite all this the not-Bush vote is 48%. George, the people must really dislike the job you're doing as president.

And what about John Kerry? I've heard people say "when are the demos going to learn to field a better candidate?" Crap to that. Kerry got 48% of the popular vote. And, he brought that in against an incumbent "war" president. Kerry was fighting an uphill battle against Bush. Kerry's more dour personality must have appealed to a lot of people. I've heard the same criticism of Al Gore. Jesus, folks, Al Gore lost by a hair's breath. Sure, neither of these two won the election, but neither lost by much. The demos don't need to retool their whole platform. They just need to figure out how to get 2% more of the voters.

My fear is that the demos will start to change their whole platform and lose focus. The demos will start retrenching as if they face the battle of the bulge. While the demos search for meaning, the republicans will just slightly tune their tactics to bring over another 2% of the voters.  

The battle to be fought in 2008 is over 2%, not 20%. Cohesion and focus will carry the day.

 

Jim Schrempp is a sometimes freelance writer (only Vanity Press will publish his work) living in Saratoga, California. His writings have appeared on numerous pages on his own web site. The opinions expressed in this piece are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent those of anyone else (although Jim wishes more people shared his opinions)