I’m thinking of the presidential election in terms of a boxing match. Round One began roughly when the Democratic probable emerged in the wake of the New Hampshire primary. Ladies and Gentlemen: John Kerry. I’ll arbitrarily end Round One right now.

So, where are we? Bush’s strategy had, by insider’s accounts echoed through the chattering classes and actually manifesting itself in comments made in his Meet the Press appearance, been to “stay above the fray” as LONG AS POSSIBLE (note the early September Republican Convention date, which also correspond to winding himself up with the military) — with his minions doing the dirty work — and generally work on a soft-focus campaign that worked well for Reagan (“It’s Morning in America, dontcha know?”) and Bill Clinton (Triangulate = Be an Amorphous Blob), and to wind himself as tightly to the military as possible (as well, for that matter, to NASCAR.)

Where are we now? Yesterday, Bush ran right into the muck of campaigning and slammed John Kerry as a flip-flopper before the Republican Governors Committee. And he endorsed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which even Tom DeLay voiced hesitation on.

Granted, he still has his NASCAR appearance, but with regards to the other parts of his strategy… well, the plan has evidentally rather dramatically changed.

Round One goes to Kerry.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2004 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.