Monthly Archives: September 2004

Back in the game

I’ve taken more than an hour to try to talk myself out of concluding that John Kerry won tonight’s debate. I haven’t succeeded. Senator Kerry, I think, edged President Bush on substance and, surprisingly, looked better throughout. Bush didn’t do badly. He committed no gaffes and spoke compellingly at times. He also landed some great shots, especially when he wondered how Kerry was going to get allies to join “the »

Live-Blogging the Debate

I’m at a blogger party hosted by David Strom of the Taxpayers’ League. It’s a fairly rowdy event, with not only the entire Northern Alliance (less the Trunk), but a number of other bloggers as well. We have a nice wireless connection and plenty of outlets–also plenty of beer–so we’re ready to go. The GOP is putting out an instantaneous, real-time critique of factual assertions by John Kerry. If you »

By popular demand

Reader Steve Beck writes: “I haven’t read you guys for a little while. Any comment from Big Trunk re [Brian Wilson’s] Smile [recording, released Tuesday]?” Funny you should ask, Steve. While Rocket Man is live blogging the debate tonight, I’ll be attending the premiere live performance of the reconstructed version of the legendary lost album in downtown Minneapolis tonight. I’ll be back later with something on the show. »

Barone’s footnote

Political historian and analyst extraordinaire Michael Barone has kindly written to add a footnote to our post on Kerry’s fictional explanation for his $87 billion mistake: One more thing should be noted about John Kerry’s statement on Good Morning America that he made his inarticulate (actually quite articulate) “I did actually vote for . . . ” statement late at night in the primary season. You correctly pointed out that »

Gulliver’s Travails

The esteemed editors of the New Criterion magazine have sent us the featured article by John O’Sullivan in the forthcoming October issue: “Gulliver’s Travails.” »

Wizbang Nails Globe, “Expert”

You may have seen reports that some alleged “expert” has given the opinion that the forged CBS documents on President Bush’s National Guard service are authentic. We haven’t followed this closely, since this story is as dead as a door nail, and an “expert” can be found to say absolutely anything. When Bill Burkett says the documents were handed to him by some guy he never saw before at a »

Peter Beinart’s stretch

In this Washington Post op-ed, Peter Beinart of The New Republic argues that President Bush is really the candidate of “retreat and defeat” with respect to Iraq. Beinart reasons that Bush is committed to honoring the wishes of the leaders elected by Iraqis and that, since Iraqis will certainly elect a candidates who wants the U.S. out, we will be more or less ordered to leave. Beinart’s piece starts out »

Second Quarter Figures Revised Upward

GDP grew at a 3.3% rate in the second quarter, revised upward from the 2.8% initially reported, Reuters reports: “It looks like the economy wasn’t all that soft in the second quarter,” said economist Gary Thayer of A.G. Edwards and Sons Inc. in St. Louis, Missouri. “Generally, it shows the economy healthy and seeing growth in most categories.” UPDATE: Reader Steve Reavis pointed us to this Associated Press story on »

Silky Kerry

If you’re a horse racing fan of a certain age, you might enjoy this bit of election handicapping by my conservative cousin from New York: “Your Power Line post suggests that the MSM will seek to hype a comeback kid scenario for Kerry. Remember how, after Iowa, MSM compared Kerry to Seabiscuit, the legendary underdog and likened Bush to War Admiral, the horse with all the advantages. Actually, in equestrian »

Lots of good lines

and perhaps some wisdom in this George Will piece about tonight’s debate. Here’s my favorite bit: “By late this evening we may know whether, beyond wishful thinking, Kerry’s real answer to the Iraq conundrum amounts to telling Americans to face defeat gracefully. In which case, he will have to do just that.” »

Plan C

Jim Hoagland of the Washington Post offers Kerry this advice for tonight’s debate — cheat. UPDATE: Apparently, the Kerry campaign has decided to take this advice. AP reports that the campaign demanded that lights signaling when a debater’s time has expired (lights agreed to by Kerry’s representative) be removed from the lecterns. When the debate commission refused, Kerry’s folks threatened to remove the lights with a screwdriver. »

A message from Terry McAuliffe

Hoping to bridge the “enthusiasm gap” referred to below by Rocket Man, and seeking to prevent President Bush from “stealing the debate,” DNC head Terry McAuliffe has sent the following message to his troops: Tonight, don’t let George Bush’s henchmen steal another victory. We need your online help immediately after the debate, so save this email, print it out, and have it ready with you as you watch the first »

“Enthusiasm Gap” Threatens Dems

The Washington Post notes that 65% of President Bush’s supporters say they are “very enthusiastic” about their candidate, while only 42% of John Kerry’s supporters describe themselves as “very enthusiastic”: That’s a 23-point difference in relative excitement. Although the polling record is incomplete for earlier elections, the available data suggest that the enthusiasm gap in the 2000 presidential campaign was negligible, at best. In an election in which turnout is »

More Voter Fraud

Michelle Malkin has a good roundup on attempted voter fraud in Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, West Virginia and Wisconsin. A few days ago, we noted attempted voter fraud in Wisconsin by a liberal group called the “New Voter Project.” Michelle reports that a criminal investigation of the liberal group is about to be undertaken: A group that says it has registered 30,000 voters in southeastern Wisconsin could face a criminal investigation »

Gallup Reports Big Florida Lead for Bush

Nine points, to be exact, among likely voters. Do you suppose some Floridians might be annoyed at being treated as a third-world country by Jimmy Carter? The trend of Gallup reporting results favorable to President Bush continues. I’m not a polling expert, but my understanding is that Gallup does not correct for a possible “over-sample” of either party. So if a lot of people are describing themselves as Republicans, Gallup »

How hard can it be

to tie John Kerry in knots over Iraq if even Diane Sawyer can do it? Consider this exchange, as reproduced by PoliPundit: DIANE SAWYER: Was the war in Iraq worth it? JOHN KERRY: We should not have gone to war knowing the information that we know today. DS: So it was not worth it. JK: We should not »

Kerry Fools the Times

From this morning’s Corrections section of the New York Times: An article on Thursday about political advertising in the presidential campaign, including a commercial that accused John Kerry of having “secretly met with the enemy” in Paris in the 1970’s, misidentified the parties with whom Mr. Kerry said he had met at the Vietnam peace talks. (The error was repeated in articles on Friday and Saturday.) The parties were the »