Bush-Style Politics, AgainBy Sam Parry
August 19, 2004
This year’s general election campaign is taking on the trademark stamp of every Bush national campaign since 1988: attack politics that tear down the Bush opponent while a compliant Washington press corps can’t believe the Bush family would play dirty.
In 1988, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis faced Republican attacks suggesting he had undergone psychiatric care, favored dangerous criminals and lacked patriotism. In 1992, the Republicans went on a search for a “silver bullet” against Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, which included searching his passport file and leaking false rumors that he had tried to renounce his U.S. citizenship.
In 2000, Sen. John McCain confronted whispers about his sanity after five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp and mysterious phone calls about his “black” baby (a child he had adopted from Bangladesh). Vice President Al Gore saw his words so twisted that they were used to justify Republican claims that he was “delusional” and thus unfit to serve as President.
Now, it’s Sen. John Kerry’s turn. On one level, the Bush campaign presents Kerry as confused and inconsistent about his ability to make decisions on war and other issues. In a parallel operation, a conservative group of Vietnam veterans accuses Kerry of lying about his war record as the Bush campaign neither condemns nor discourages the smears.
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