Electable?

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times, April 1, 2004
Kerry Slips Out of Picture
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
and JODI WILGOREN

WASHINGTON, March 31 — At the very moment that President Bush has begun 
his general election campaign, Senator John Kerry has largely slipped 
from sight. And Mr. Bush has made the most of Mr. Kerry's absence.

Mr. Kerry's low profile occurs at what would seem to be a particularly 
opportune time for the senator. Mr. Bush has been struggling with 
questions about his record on terrorism, and Mr. Kerry had been riding 
on a wave of excitement after his capture of the Democratic nomination.

Yet Mr. Kerry was off the campaign trail yet again on Wednesday, this 
time for shoulder surgery in Boston, an operation expected to sideline 
him through Sunday. The surgery followed his weeklong disappearance to 
the slopes of Sun Valley.

Some Democrats said that should Mr. Kerry lose in November, he might 
well remember this month as the time when he seriously undermined his 
hopes of defeating Mr. Bush. A few invoked one of Mr. Kerry's 
least-liked comparisons, noting how another Massachusetts Democrat who 
ran for president, Michael S. Dukakis, stuck close to home in August 
1988, in what turned out to be a foolish strategic move in his campaign 
against Mr. Bush's father.

(clip)

Mr. Bush, after studying his father's experience in 1988 and the success 
with which Bill Clinton undermined Bob Dole by attacking him in the 
spring of 1996, has set out to define Mr. Kerry now, in the hope that 
perceptions created today will be difficult to change in the fall.

As Mr. Kerry has stayed on the slopes and the sidelines, the president 
has pressed forward with a meticulously planned and lavishly financed 
campaign to undercut him with a barrage of speeches and television 
advertisements intended to portray him as a liberal, unprincipled, 
big-spending Democrat.

By contrast, even Mr. Kerry's supporters say he has yet to offer a 
concise case against Mr. Bush or one for his own presidency.

"Here's what concerns me in the long term: I can tell you what George 
Bush's definition of John Kerry is: He is a flip-flopping liberal who 
wants to raise your taxes," said a Democratic strategist who did not 
want to be quoted by name. "But I'm not sure I can tell you what John 
Kerry's definition of George Bush is."

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/01/politics/campaign/01DEMS.html

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