2004 campaign - This campaign is different

[papau]

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040729/6407119s.htm

USA Today 's Susan Page : "the 2004 campaign has been unexpected, surprising, even unprecedented in historic ways. "The 'rules' don't apply in this race Sharp political polarization, heavy Internet fundraising and other factors make for an unprecedented election
By Susan Page
USA TODAY


BOSTON -- This campaign is different.

This is the year Internet fundraising exploded, nearly erasing a Republican financial advantage that had been around so long it seemed to be written in the Constitution. Voters love and hate President Bush in almost equal numbers. The close divide in American politics has hardened, and the undecided voter has become an endangered species.

Then there is the war in Iraq. Strategists for President Bush and Sen. John Kerry miscalculated how long the war would last and how polarizing it would become. Both sides figured voters would have moved on to the economy by now, as they usually do. But they haven't.

In this and other ways, the 2004 campaign has been unexpected, surprising, even unprecedented in historic ways. That has forced candidates and strategists to upgrade their Web sites, refine their rhetoric on the war and revise the get-out-the-vote blueprints they drew up months and years ago.

That process will continue after Kerry is nominated at the Democratic National Convention here tonight and Republicans renominate Bush at their convention in New York in five weeks.



a polarizing President http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040729/6407097s.htm

— a gridlocked government http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040729/6407099s.htm

— Internet fundraising http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040729/6407100s.htm

— more decideds than undecideds http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040729/6407101s.htm

— war http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040729/6407102s.htm

[mzmolly]

1. We are at the beginning stages of real change in this country.

Historians will speak about election 2004 and how it changed politics forever.

Dean and Trippi of course, being the catalyst for said change. :hi: