Bush up in the polls, Kerry down

[The ZAPINATOR]

What do you all make of the fact that the latest poll numbers are showing Bush up on Kerry by several points in the wake of swift boat veterans for truth?  I'm not interested in whether you're pro-Kerry, pro-Bush, or pro or anti-swift boat veterans.  What I'm asking is, do you think this is permanent, or you you think Kerry will find a way to rehabilitate this image people have of him after all that?  Does this mean that people who hated Bush enough to support Kerry have decided he's no longer worthy of support despite the fact that he's not Bush?

ZAP

[M2]

I think Kerry will bounce back next month... I hope this is only temporary

[The ZAPINATOR]

I'm inclined to think he might bounce back too... but only if he can somehow prove that these guys aren't telling the truth about his service.  If they come out looking good and he looks opportunistic in the ways he's been exploiting his military service, my prediction is Bush wins easy.  Could be wrong.

ZAP

I think Kerry will bounce back next month... I hope this is only temporary

[buddha]

I think Kerry will be back up.  It's going to be close but I still think Kerry will win.

[The ZAPINATOR]

But the fact that he didn't get a bump from the convention tells me that aside from the anti-Bush aspect, he hasn't really been able to fire up the masses about his candidacy.  Anything like this that actually makes him look like a BAD candidate (as opposed to a nothing-special one) is liable to hurt him really badly. 

The reason Clinton unseated Bush I was because he connected well with the voters.  I don't think Bob Dole had what it took to unseat an incumbent in '96, and I don't know that Kerry has it in 2004.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Oh, the suspense!

ZAP

I think Kerry will be back up.  It's going to be close but I still think Kerry will win.

[buddha]

The convention bump really isn't a given only Clinton in 92 got a sizable one.  The reason the media kept harping on Kerry's non-bump was that it was the key part of an RNC talking point faxed around during the convention.  Expect the Dems to do the same to Bush.

[buddha]

Speaking of polls check out this one from those crazy brits at the Economist.

http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/YouGovG.pdf

Bush, is down to 30% approval.  Probably an outlier but still.

[The ZAPINATOR]

Sadly, this one's not going to come down to who people approve of though.. it's going to be a matter of who they disapprove of the least.

ZAP

[coloroflaw.org]

Am I the only one who thinks the Dems have misplayed the swiftboat issue?  For the last week or more, the only thing I have heard out of Edwards or Kerry is that Bush needs to denounce that specific ad.  They have taken an ad that was financed with less than a million dollars and only playing in three states and managed to get it on every news program, on every network, in every state in the country.  Instead of only a couple of million people seeing this ad, it has now been seen by over 100 million people and is now eroding any lead Kerry had along with his support from veterans.

If they had instead simply stood up with Bush and denounced all 527 ads, this would have played to a much smaller audience, if not gone away all together.  Instead, it has become huge going into the republican convention.

[The ZAPINATOR]

I stand with Bush on this.  The Democrats didn't give a damn when the 527's were going to town on Bush, then it was freedom of speech or whatnot.  But then, when it happens to them, they go crying about how unfair it is.

Bush has taken the appropriate response.  He has stayed above the fray, refusing to comment on the Kerry ad, and saying he feels Kerry served honorably.  Yet, he's calling for Kerry to stand with him on calling for an end to the 527's entirely, which Kerry refuses to do.  Bush has taken the right stance.  Kerry's stance has been opportunistic.  Of course, Bush is benefitting from all this... the grand irony is that he's been calling from the beginning to end the very thing that he's now getting a boost from! 

If Kerry really wants this stuff to be brought to an end, he should not play a double standard when it comes to Bush.  Either end it all or don't condemn any of it.

ZAP