The New York Times has this morning’s dumbest headline, on yesterday’s terrorism commission hearings: “For a Day, Terrorism Transcends Politics as Panel Reviews Failures.” While the Times will never admit it, the fact is that this commission, and these hearings, are about nothing other than politics, as will become even clearer when the fraudulent Richard Clarke testifies today on behalf of the Kerry campaign.
So let’s turn for a moment to the political front, as described by Dick Morris, who foresees “A Blowout In the Making”:
The Bush ads are working: Two weeks ago, the Washington Post poll showed Sen. John Kerry ahead of President Bush by 11 points, and the Gallup Poll had him up by 8, while more recent polls reflect a dead heat between the two. Zogby (March 21) has Kerry up by only 48-46, and Rasmussen (March 20) has it Bush 46, Kerry 45.
The polls are starting to reflect the effectiveness of Bush’s ads, which depict Kerry explaining his ultra-liberal record to the voters. This Democrat, who escaped scrutiny by posing as the un-Dean in the primary, is now being revealed as the leftist he is.
I have doubted the conventional wisdom that this election would be close. If Bush continues to stay on the offensive and Kerry’s responses remain as inept as they’ve been, the Massachusetts Democrat will go downhill faster than he is now doing on his skiing vacation.
Bush’s attacks have focused on the issues of terrorism and taxes. Kerry has not even answered the first charge and has given only a ritualistic denial of the second. Instead of answering Bush’s charges in detail, he piously asks, in his ads, if the president has anything more to offer America than negative ads. But Americans don’t see the Bush ads as below the belt, but as welcome information about a man they don’t know who is running for president.
Kerry’s two gaffes – on foreign leaders with whom he allegedly spoke and on his flip-flop on the money for the war – were not unforced errors: They were fumbles caused by the aggressive pressure of the Bush campaign. This Democrat is not ready to run for president, and the more the Republicans press him, the more he will self-destruct. His campaign advisers are hoping that a few hours extra sleep on his ski trip will restore his political judgment, but they ignore the fact that he never had a lot to begin with.
Bush needs to keep up the pressure and watch Kerry’s ratings drop. In a few months, we may be wondering why the conventional wisdom ever thought this race would be so close.
Morris’ optimism is a welcome antidote to the rage I felt after spending several hours in LaGuardia Airport yesterday afternoon. Every major airport in the country now has CNN blaring from its television monitors at all times, so that air travelers (at least those lacking iPods) are subjected to liberal commentary whether they want to hear it or not. During the time I waited at my gate, listening under duress to the terrorism commission hearings, I never saw a Republican ask a question, and the longest speech I heard was given not by a witness, but by Democrat hyper-partisan (and Watergate relic) Richard Ben-Veniste. I’ve never been so glad to board an airplane in my life.
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