Experience Matters
I’m reading an analysis of poll results at Donkey Rising and what they mean for the presidential election in November because, let’s face it, I need the reassurance. Although they’re not willing to say the election is wrapped up yet, they do say that poll numbers don’t look good for Bush.
In the comments to that post, “buck fish” says:
Kerry’s campaign needs to figure out how to keep the spotlight on the visible, destructive incompetencies of the administration, and counter with strong, repeatable messages of their own…
But people live with Bush’s “visible, destructive incompetencies” and their consequences every day. I think it is this more than anything else that has the disengaged voter breaking towards the Democratic party this time.
I think the primary reason Bush 41 lost to Clinton was Bush 41 continued to insist that things were just hunkey-dory when people could look around them and see that it was not. Bush 43 is falling into the same trap. When Kerry talks about people’s problems and Bush’s incompetencies, it’s not to convince them that Bush’s policies have been bad for them. They experience that. It’s to let the voters know that he knows what the issues are. And every time Bush says things are just fine and anyone who says otherwise is a pessimist, he alienates those voters for whom things are not fine.