President Bush

When President George H. W. Bush caved in to the Democrats’ demand that he raise taxes in 1991 after making the promise not to raise taxes the centerpiece of his 1988 campaign, he deserved to be defeated for reelection. Yet he probably would have won if Casper Weinberger had not been indicted by a disgraceful special counsel the weekend before the election, or if Ross Perot had not been in the race, or if the country had still been contending with the Soviet Union.
As Rocket Man’s analysis suggests, it seems somewhat imprudent to assess President Bush’s prospects for reelection nine months before election day. The following facts are nevertheless of some relevance. President Bush has not yet begun to campaign against his opponent. If his opponent is John Kerry, Kerry will lead with a glass chin.
Today few know anything about Kerry; by election day, most voters will know something about his past in addition to his record of military service, and something about his political record as a senator. The dissemination of such knowledge will not be to Kerry’s advantage. See, for example, Don Feder’s FrontPage column yesterday: “War Zero.”
The American people are not stupid. The voters who will matter most in this election — the conservative partisans and cultural conservatives who might stay at home, the independents who could vote either for Bush or for Kerry — know that the war against America is the defining issue of this election. Kerry’s record on security issues is a joke. Will the voters who matter stay at home or opt for a Massachusetts liberal over a proven war leader? I don’t think so.
In this respect, Don Feder speaks for me: “John Forbes Kerry/Kohn is a man whose time came and went

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