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Noam Scheiber's Daily Journal Of Politics
REAGAN'S TIMING COULDN'T BE BETTER--FOR KERRY: This is how Jodi Wilgoren sums up John Kerry's Reagan problem in today's Times:
-The canceled schedule comes in a week that already posed a challenge for Mr. Kerry, who would have had to compete first with President Bush's trip to Europe in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion, and then his convening of the G-8 summit meeting in Sea Island, Ga. Campaign aides had previously said that Mr. Kerry would talk about the economic squeeze on the middle class, trying not to interfere with the president's focus on foreign policy.
Now, he will have to struggle not to disappear from public view altogether.-
But is the timing of Reagan's death really such a bummer for Kerry? Obviously it's a problem if Kerry can't recoup the money he passed up when he had to cancel two multimillion dollar fundraisers this week. But, given the fundraising success he's had so far, I can't imagine that will be the case. And, as far as the public campaign goes, I'd say Reagan's death represents a bit of a break for Kerry. This, after all, was the week Bush was supposed to recast himself as a president who plays well with others. Since the press was clearly gearing up to provide wall to wall coverage of his foreign travels and meetings, it's hard to see how Kerry wouldn't have "disappeared from public view altogether" anyway. Now Reagan's death pushes Bush to the margins of public view, too--essentially freezing the race where it was beforehand. If I'm Kerry, that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
(True, Bush may get a soft bounce from the nostalgia and good-feeling aroused by the Reagan coverage. But he was going to get that whether Reagan died this weekend, a year ago, or four months from now. As long as that was going to happen, much better to have the death drown out what the Bush campaign had billed as a pivotal moment in the marketing of its candidate.)
posted 2:43 p.m.
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