It’s possible that ”the public is going to get burned out over this,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Yet, she said, the issues that Bush and Kerry are battling about — terrorism, taxes, jobs and health care — are critical enough to keep voters engaged.
”We’re seeing a new model of campaigning,” Jamieson said. ”The assumption has always been that you don’t engage seriously at the general-election level until at least summer. You are now down to the specific case against each side at a very early time.”
It’s going to be a long, hard campaign. Ask yourself who benefits from voter burnout? mjh
”To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” — President Theodore Roosevelt
So what was Bush’s attack about? There are two ways to look at it: as a measure of how dumb the White House thinks we are and as a measure of how anxious the White House is a full eight months before November. …
This is not about facts. It is about planting seeds of mistrust [of Kerry]. Which brings us to Bush’s flip-flop strategy. …
Is this rubbish supposed to be the way to lead a nation in a time of ”war”? This from the man who always boasts that he’s ”plainspoken”? …
When President Bush travels around the United States, the Secret Service visits the location ahead of time and orders local police to set up ”free speech zones” or ”protest zones,” where people opposed to Bush policies (and sometimes sign-carrying supporters) are quarantined. These zones routinely succeed in keeping protesters out of presidential sight and outside the view of media covering the event.
Bush talks about preserving freedom while he moves to reduce ours. mjh
Though you didn’t see it on the news and read almost nothing about it in print, there were protesters in Roswell confronting George Bush. We were there.
Military Families Speak Out is an organization of people who are opposed to war in Iraq and who have relatives or loved ones in the military. We were formed in November of 2002 and have contacts with military families throughout the United States, and in other countries around the world.
As people with family members and loved ones in the military, we have both a special need and a unique role to play in speaking out against war in Iraq. It is our loved ones who are, or have been, or will be on the battlefront. It is our loved ones who are risking injury and death. It is our loved ones who are returning scarred from their experiences. It is our loved ones who will have to live with the injuries and deaths among innocent Iraqi civilians.
If you have family members or loved ones in the military and you are opposed to this war, join us. Send us an e-mail at mfso@mfso.org.
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams
