Kerry is not done yet!!! Looks like the debate whoopin really helped....

[reeds]

Bush Raps Kerry, Slips in Newsweek Poll

COLUMBUS, Ohio - President Bush (news - web sites) on Saturday ridiculed what he called the "Kerry doctrine" as a dangerous outsourcing of America's security, seeking to poke a hole in Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites)'s debate performance with what advisers see as his rival's biggest miscue.

The first poll taken after the presidential debate showed Kerry running even with Bush. The Democrat had the support of 47 percent and Bush 45 percent in the Newsweek poll. Independent candidate Ralph Nader (news - web sites) had the backing of 2 percent.

Bush was slightly up, 49-43, in the same poll in early September and up 11 points in the Newsweek poll taken right after the GOP convention. The poll of 1,013 registered voters was taken from late Thursday to early Saturday and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

"When he laid out the Kerry doctrine, he said that America has to pass a global test before we can use American troops to defend ourselves," Bush said, drawing loud boos from a friendly crowd at a National Association of Home Builders meeting and later from campaign-assembled audiences in Mansfield and the Akron suburb of Cuyahoga Falls.

"When our country is in danger, it is not the president's job to take an international poll, the president's job is to defend America," Bush said.

In the debate, Kerry said he supported the right of a president to order a pre-emptive strike to protect the country but, he added, it must pass "the global test where your countrymen, your people understand fully why you're doing what you're doing, and you can prove to the world that you did it for legitimate reasons."

Two days after a debate that focused on the Iraq (news - web sites) war and the anti-terror-battle, the stated theme of Bush's 27th visit to this battleground state was his economic record and plan to encourage an "ownership society."

Bush's agenda includes partial privatization of Social Security (news - web sites), tax-deductible personal accounts to cover health care expenses, and proposals to increase homeownership. Bush cast Kerry as a friend to big government who is obstructing such proposals that would provide Americans with "more freedom and more control over your own life."

"Instead, his agenda focuses on expanding the scope and power of government," Bush said in Columbus. "He's decided to put his faith in the wisdom of the government. I will always put my faith in the wisdom of the American people."

Kerry has presented himself as a business-friendly Democrat, and he often criticizes the Bush administration for the first job-loss record since the Depression.

The renewed focus on bread-and-butter economic issues came exactly one month from the Nov. 2 election. "Who's counting?" Bush joked.

Bush narrowly won Ohio in 2000. The state has lost 237,400 jobs since he took office and has an unemployment rate of 6.3 percent. Recent polling shows a virtual tie between Bush and Kerry as they compete for its 20 electoral votes.

The president's appearance before the home builders served as a reminder of one of the stalwarts of the economy: a strong housing market during Bush's presidency has been one of the main engines of growth. But Bush's star-spangled bus entourage also stopped in Mansfield, a small central-Ohio city that got bad news the day before the president's arrival when a local manufacturer announced it would shut a facility.

Even with the economy on center stage, Bush aides made clear the campaign would continue to pounce on several remarks Kerry made Thursday night, in hopes of shifting the perception that the Democrat emerged the victor and turning talk away from Bush's grimacing during the encounter.

Confident that Americans are offended at any notion of allowing other countries to make U.S. national security decisions, the campaign rolled out a television ad on Saturday that sought to inflict damage on Kerry for his "global test" comment. "A global test: So America will be forced to wait while threats gather?" it intones.


The Kerry campaign responded quickly with an ad that says: "George Bush (news - web sites) lost the debate. Now he's lying about it."


Refining a line of attack he rolled out Friday in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, Bush promised that under his watch, unlike Kerry, "Our national security decisions will be made in the Oval Office, not in foreign capitals."





That suggestion — and use of the word "doctrine" — incensed the Kerry camp. Kerry foreign policy adviser and former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said Kerry was articulating long-standing U.S. policy that asserts the right to launch a pre-emptive strike but recognizes the need to back up such a move by facts and present those to allies.

___

[Drbio]

reeds- before spewing out obvious last gasp crapola you should do a little research. Check NPR- the liberal national radio for some ass kicking sobering news. You might also wish to check Electoral vote - another liberal spin machine for additional sobering news. Ouch. Two of the top liberal spin machines reportinga landslide electoral victory for Bushy.


dimocraps everywhere must be pissin' in their pants.

[reeds]

"last gasp crapola "....

Call it what you wish...but the fact is this- the newsweek poll is encouraging news, regardless of what you say...

[Chiwas]

The Race is On
With voters widely viewing Kerry as the debate’s winner, Bush’s lead in the NEWSWEEK poll has evaporated


The face of frustration?: Bush on debate night

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Brian Braiker
Newsweek
Updated: 6:04 p.m. ET Oct. 2, 2004Oct. 2 -

With a solid majority of voters concluding that John Kerry outperformed George W. Bush in the first presidential debate on Thursday, the president’s lead in the race for the White House has vanished, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. In the first national telephone poll using a fresh sample, NEWSWEEK found the race now statistically tied among all registered voters, 47 percent of whom say they would vote for Kerry and 45 percent for George W. Bush in a three-way race.

Removing Independent candidate Ralph Nader, who draws 2 percent of the vote, widens the Kerry-Edwards lead to three points with 49 percent of the vote versus the incumbent’s 46 percent. Four weeks ago the Republican ticket, coming out of a successful convention in New York, enjoyed an 11-point lead over Kerry-Edwards with Bush pulling 52 percent of the vote and the challenger just 41 percent.

Among the three-quarters (74 percent) of registered voters who say they watched at least some of Thursday’s debate, 61 percent see Kerry as the clear winner, 19 percent pick Bush as the victor and 16 percent call it a draw. After weeks of being portrayed as a verbose “flip-flopper” by Republicans, Kerry did better than a majority (56 percent) had expected. Only about 11 percent would say the same for the president’s performance while more than one-third (38 percent) said the incumbent actually did worse that they had expected. Thirty-nine percent of Republicans felt their man out-debated the challenger but a full third (33 percent) say they felt Kerry won.

Kerry’s perceived victory may be attributed to the fact that, by a wide margin (62 percent to 26 percent), debate watchers felt the senator came across as more confident than the president. More than half (56 percent) also see Kerry has having a better command of the facts than Bush (37 percent). As a result, the challenger’s favorability ratings (52 percent, versus 40 percent unfavorable) are better than Bush’s, who at 49 percent (and 46 percent unfavorable), has dipped below the halfway mark for the first time since July. Kerry, typically characterized as aloof and out of touch by his opponents, came across as more personally likeable than Bush (47 percent to the president’s 41 percent).

In fact, Kerry’s numbers have improved across the board, while Bush’s vulnerabilities have become more pronounced. The senator is seen as more intelligent and well-informed (80 percent, up six points over last month, compared to Bush’s steady 59 percent); as having strong leadership skills (56 percent, also up 6 points, but still less than Bush’s 62 percent) and as someone who can be trusted to make the right calls in an international crisis (51 percent, up five points and tied with Bush).

Meanwhile, Bush’s approval ratings have dropped to below the halfway mark (46 percent) for the first time since the GOP convention in late August. Nearly half of all voters (48 percent) say they do not want to see Bush re-elected, while 46 percent say they do. Still, a majority of voters (55 percent versus 29 percent) believe the president will be re-hired on Nov. 2.

Neither man was seen as a particularly stronger leader (44 percent Bush, 47 percent Kerry), more negative (37 percent Bush, 36 percent Kerry) or more honest (43 percent Bush, 45 percent Kerry).

Perhaps because the debate topic focused on foreign policy—and largely was dominated by the war in Iraq—that issue rates higher as a voter concern than it did a month ago. Twenty percent of all voters say Iraq is the issue that will most determine their vote, up from 15 percent. Tied with Iraq is the economy (21 percent), and still leading the list is terrorism and homeland security (26 percent). And key for the president is the fact that he is the preferred man on the issues more important to voters. On homeland security, Bush is preferred 52 percent to Kerry’s 40 percent (a significant spread, but a narrowing one: Last month the spread, in the president’s favor, was 58 percent to 34 percent). On Iraq Bush is preferred 49 percent to 44 percent (compared to 54 percent versus 39 percent a month ago). Kerry is even with the president on the question of which man is better suited to guide foreign policy in general (48 percent Bush to the challenger’s 46 percent) and clamping down on the proliferation of nuclear materiel (47 percent Bush, 43 percent Kerry).

Where Kerry clearly leads is on domestic issues, which will be the focus of the third debate on Oct. 13, in Tempe, Ariz. The Democrat is preferred to Bush by double-digit spreads on who would be better at handling the economy (52 percent to 39 percent), foreign competition (54 percent to 36 percent) and health care (56 percent to 34 percent).

Although the subject of the draft was only briefly addressed during the debate, four in ten voters (38 percent) believe that because of the war in Iraq—which 50 percent of all voters now view as unnecessary—a second Bush administration would reinstate the draft. Just 18 percent feel the same would happen if Kerry were elected. Nearly two thirds (62 percent) feel a draft should not be considered at this time and 28 percent said a draft should at least be considered. But only 46 percent feel going to war was the right decision in the first place with just as many (45 percent) under the impression that the administration deliberately misled the nation into war with falsified evidence of weapons of mass destruction.

Finally, echoing a recurring refrain of Kerry’s, more than half of all voters (51 percent) think the Bush administration has not done enough to engage other nations (43 percent feel they have done enough or even gone too far in that direction as it is).

For the NEWSWEEK poll, Princeton Survey Research Associates interviewed 1,013 registered voters aged 18 and older between Sept. 30 and Oct. 2 by telephone. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.

[reeds]

and the issues of the deficit are coming...the medicare rates skyrocketing...social security... all the jobs lost...it could get even better for Kerry...this could get interesting after all.....wooohooooo

[dude1394]

The choice is stark.
windsofchange

Look at Europe now, or look back into human history - illusion and passivity in the face of real threats is an option, and some leaders and states will take it.

One question: is Kerry one of those people? Simple question. Simple answer.

Kerry's positions on issues like Iran are clear, and were openly stated in the debate: normalize relations with the world's #1 terrorist sponsors while they undermine Iraq & Afghanistan, offer them nuclear fuel, propose sanctions the Europeans will drag their feet on in order to stop a late-stage nuclear program that's impervious to sanctions anyway, and oppose both missile defense and the nuclear bunker-buster weapons that would give the USA defensive or offensive options in a crisis.

Gee, I'm sleeping better already.

Kerry's long record in public life - both upon his return from Vietnam, and in the Senate - is equally clear: Calumnies against both his fellow soldiers in Vietnam and America's current allies in the war on terror that are never repudiated, or apologized for. A long history of votes against defense & intelligence appropriations, and of opposing U.S. military action abroad, even in the face of clear threats. Declarations that that we are engaged in global police work in the wake of 9/11, and not a war. The endless preoccupation with Vietnam.

The only explanation I can find for people who believe a Kerry Presidency would not be Carterite to its core (and worse) is sheer wishful projection. It is a measure of Bush's lack of competence as a campaigner and persuader that these illusions have not been utterly shattered, and that Kerry is still in the race.