Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Three Questions

1. Will the upcoming 1000th American death in Iraq (it will happen any day now).....

Hurt Bush because it will revive dissatisfaction with what a bloody mess our intervention has become?

-- or --

Help Bush because it will cause Americans to evaluate the candidates as potential commanders-in-chief?

2. Which will be a bigger deal over the next two weeks ....

The latest Swift Boat ad replaying Kerry's 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee? Not as easy to rebut as the charges about Kerry's medals.

-- or --

Kitty Kelley's book on the Bush family, plus a revival of the National Guard issue thanks to Ben Barnes and "Texans for Truth?"

P.S. If the media is suffering from "Swift Boat guilt" because of the way they allowed some highly dubious charges to get into the national bloodstream, will that ....

Make them cover the cocaine / National Guard stories more to compensate for the damage done to Kerry? Or cover them less to show that they are "responsible?"

P.P.S. I'm not sure that anyone dumb enough to marry Neil Bush can be a credible witness.


3. Will the Swift Boat story be used more as a case study ...

In Campaigns & Elections classes to show how not to handle negative attacks.

-- or ---

In Media & Politics classes to show the media being suckered into covering poorly substantiated stories?

1 comment:

Charles Riedmueller said...

"I'm not sure that anyone dumb enough to marry Neil Bush can be a credible witness"

Credibility issues didn't stop the SBVT stories from taking hold.