Flip Flopper and Masquerade
Reported by Eleanor - August 31, 2004 -
On Special Report with Brit Hume (Aug. 31, 6:00 p.m.), it seems that the republicans are scrambling to explain Bush's flip flop concerning whether or not we can win the War on Terror. Yesterday, he said it's not winnable. Today, he said we will win.
It took Rush Limbaugh to get Bush to clarify what he meant to say yesterday with, "We can't win," and in Nashville today with, "It's a different kind of war. They may never sit down at the peace table, but we will win." To Rush he said it's not a conventional war, and he, Bush, needs to be more articulate. (That's a real stretch.)
The republicans again tonight are trying to cover up their right-wing platform by having Laura and Arnold speak for them, and not about their platform. Chris Wallace said that Laura will speak of how Bush has led the War on Terror, the commitment to social issues, and empowerment of women. Arnold will talk about the American dream for immigrants.
Major Garrett spoke of the request from the swift boat vets for Kerry to apologize, and they will withdraw the ads. (He should sue them for slander and blackmail instead) There was a "shut-up Fox" demonstration outside the studio. According to Carl Cameron, John Edwards is giving the "quasi-official" response to negative attacks on Kerry.
Zell Miller was given another five minutes to trash his own party again, as he did on Sunday, and will again tomorrow night. Observations from the Grapevine are that half of the people in NYC think that the government knew in advance about 9/11 attacks, and consciously failed to act. Also, that we were deliberately misled into war with Iraq. America is seen as a negative force around the world. Moore is going to write his column from outside the convention hall, and Doubletree has taken Heinz ketchup off the tables, and put it into small cups.
On Bush's flip flop, Mort Kondracke thinks he could have done better at damage control. Fred Barnes blamed the group around Bush for being "clumsy in amazing ways," blaming his staff rather than Bush. Kondracke said that McCain made a better case for war last night than Bush has done.
The discussion on whether or not the republicans are conducting a "masquerade party" started with Tad Devine on video saying that it's about the message and not the messenger. Mara Liasson said the platform is the party, not the TV show. Kondracke said the republicans have as many moderates on stage as the democrats had soldiers. The masquerade in 2000 was black faces. Barnes claimed the republicans have a bigger tent than the democrats, that agree on other issues like the economy. (Like low taxes for the rich during war time that destroy the budget and cause astronomical deficits?)
Comment: It must be tough to keep Bush from saying things off the script. Off-the-cuff remarks are dangerous to his political health, since he doesn't have it memorized as his policy makers do. The debates will be really interesting if he loses his script.
