Voters' talk shows Bush retains support

[unfrigginreal]

By Dick Polman
Inquirer Staff Writer

Douglas Grunklee might be the Democratic Party's worst nightmare.

An independent voter and Catholic school teacher, Grunklee complains that President Bush "lied to get us into Iraq," that he is "allowing too much corruption," that he is "taking care of the top one or two percent" of rich people at the expense of everyone else, that his tax cuts have not stoked the economy, and that his attorney general, John Ashcroft, is "crushing the Constitution."

Grunklee's preferred candidate for 2004? President Bush.

The complex national mood was on full display the other night when 12 citizens representing a cross-section of political opinion met as a focus group in an Exton, Chester County, office park under the guidance of Democratic pollster Peter Hart. By the time they finished two hours later, it was clear that even though Bush hasn't closed the sale for a second term, his Democratic rivals have barely mustered a decent pitch of their own.

<snip>

After the voters went home, Hart concluded that "the President is not home free... . The question marks from 2000 have not been erased... . The same jokes that worked in 2000 could work in 2004." But if Democrats fail to harness anti-Bush sentiment and craft an alternative agenda, the President could have the last laugh.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/7079353.htm

[placton]

1. Ah, the Moron-Americans

Ya gotta love these folks. There were another bunch like them, overseas, in the 1930s. They were the Moron-Germans.

[ixion]

2. Grunklee: a prime example of a mindless idiot

Bush lies, Bush is corrupt, Bush has caused the death of innocent civillians, Bush is hated the world over, Bush has looted the treasury and gutted the economy, but still morans like this will vote for him? :wtf:

[Wickerman]

3. Fuck Douglas Grunklee - he's an idiot, and fuck the press

for not reporting on the agenda of any of the Dems - except Liebermans whose is no different than Bush's*

[Richardo]

4. This is the crux of the matter -

...putting forth a candidate that will attract the swing voters in the middle of the bell curve.

I can tell you from personal experience that the first time you vote "the other way" is an extremely difficult decision, and it feels much safer to hold your nose and go along with your traditional choice, even if you don't like him/her.*

A reluctant vote for the monkey is still a vote for the monkey. There must be a palatable alternative for those that really would rather not vote for Smirky again. I know this grates on all who would prefer a more ideologically "pure" candidate (me included) but unfortunately the reality is that politics is a game of expediency and incremental steps...


* I got better :D

[ProfessorPlum]

5. Gunklee should be all good Americans worst nightmare

It just goes to show the power the media have to give or take away that "feels so good in my tummy" good feeling about a person, and how important it is to re-instate the fairness doctrine and get even a modicum of balance restored to the airwaves.

Good grief what a moron that guy is. (Gunklee, not Bush - sorry for the confusion). (Well, Bush, too)

[number six]

6. Idiot Logic

It's Shrub's second term election, and you always get a certain percentage of people who say "I'll vote for him, because he's the president!". Just like Britney - "He's the president, so I think we should all just shut up and do what he wants":Idiot Logic!

[finn]

8. strange ain t it

old lady erlich wanted to shoot brittany spears for her appearence. repugs are stupid asswipes.

[unfrigginreal]

7. I guess that I view this article a little more positively than most

The way I see it is that OUR positions have sunk into the psyche of idiots like Grunklee. I'd rather our candidate be in the position of seeking votes from Repubs that already know Bush is bad for them than those that still worship the ground he walks on.

[Wickerman]

9. My hope is that idiots like him stay home on election day!

[unfrigginreal]

10. A lot of them will...

they will be known as the demoralized Republican base.

[PATRICK]

11. Love of monarchy dies hard

What is it that deprives the wise political and democratic decisions of all power and content? It is this need to have the world symbolized in strength, loyalty and security from the top leader of the nation. People can lose common sense over highly invested emotions or a profound reflex of social character. They cannot speak in rational terms of this negation of all citizen responsibility, logic and dedication to equality. The so-called national forums, as bad as they are, do not often allow them to. So they parrot what the issues are, what the democratic values are- then genuflect proudly before the King's carriage as it passes showering the shining faces with royal mud.

A clear indication to me has always been various gender camaderie magazines of the most innocuous and comforting blandness that is more important than any of the content of their articles on health, beauty or life's little soap operas.

Who is the best dressed American? Invariably, unless the First Family is invisible, reviled as cultural rebels or complete slobs, at least the First lady is given a high ranking even were she dressed like a turkey. Her hairdo is emulated as much as her peers can stomach it. Other fatuous celebrities like court appointed ladies in waiting appear on the incongruous list that seems to have no basis or judgment behind it whatsoever. More "modern" polling substitues role model or admiration factors for this absurdity, but when the results are mostly the same, the reasonable consideration structure itself is laid low, bowing to the Name- to the institutionalized and comfortably conforming world of necessary fantasies.

Such are the byproducts of national myths, not only the trust and democratization that glues a free people, but the old contradictions and dangers clinging to revolutionary clothes because they must be better than other nations. Fear, anxiety, responsibility for imperfect and grinding struggles cast away in a wink for the soothing delegation
of life upward to the most reassuring icon.

If the current President is too protected or invisible within the serving blanket of the media that mirrors this retrograde society more than it ever dares admit- and a strident dissenting voice upsets the equilibrium- it will take quite a bit to shake off the irrational blanket and brave the cold. The idea of competition that might mean facing a horror or a bad decision(no one wants to admit they made a mistake of this magnitude) itself becomes unthinkable.

Yet people in a second can talk the talk. It is the walking part and that obstinate fear of democracy, fear of the borderlands between anarchy, failure and imperfect decisions that the candidates must address. People don't go to energized debates on the issues that mean life and death. They watch football and baseball, unless they have lost loved ones and jobs in such a way as to spark personal enlightenment. The humiliation of servants and heros by their gamed imitations in sports and entertainment.

Our candidates are stronger, smarter, morally superior and better equipped to lead America in the way the times demand and our highest ideals cry for. But thanks to three monkey corporate media, a strange game of big money politics, and love of inertia as security and patriotic titillation as the sole requirement of the citizen, it is not easy to pierce the walls of oblivion. To get noticed and not instantly reviled. To be at least fairly understood. To realize the true dangers of the times and the best who can govern in our name.

A candidate who can get through to the people with the truth without banging their head against the wall or making them resentful that they had to be informed someone else playing them for helpless fools. (Fill in your favored candidate here). The madness of these times is that thousands upon thousands are better than the abomination we have now and millions upon millions dare not admit it openly to themselves.