Article from Rupert Murdoch's Sunday Times. Make of this what you will.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1020123,00.htmlIN the lobby of the Republican party headquarters in Washington, old campaign badges are displayed in glass cases. Their winning slogans bear testimony to the craft of past electioneers: the warm “I Like Ike”, General Dwight D Eisenhower’s nickname, and the improbable “Pretty Girls for Richard Nixon”. However, period charm will play little part in this year’s presidential race. The bestselling badge at Democrat election meetings depicts President George W Bush with six-shooters strapped to his thighs. The slogan reads: “Stop Mad Cowboy Disease”.
Two days after this week’s Super Tuesday ballot, which is likely to cement Senator John F Kerry’s grasp on the Democratic nomination, Republicans will launch a television advertising blitz to remind America that Bush has no intention of relinquishing the White House.
An aggressive assault on Kerry’s voting record as a senator and his multi-millionaire lifestyle is planned. Edwards has been dismissed as “an unaccomplished liberal in moderate clothing”, while Kerry continues to be demonised as a hypocritical fraud with a strange foreign-born wife who inherited a ketchup fortune. The Republicans imply that the Kerrys come from a world of fine wines, while most Americans, the president included, guzzle Coca-Cola.
Bush’s team intends to focus on old Kerry votes to scrap weapons programmes, reduce intelligence budgets and freeze defence spending. Republicans are confident they can blunt the potential impact of Kerry’s heroism in the Vietnam war by showing that he turned against the military in the Senate.