This isn't exactly a shocker, but Ben Manski counts himself among those who think George W. Bush's presidency has been absolutely wretched - one of the worst ever.
However, here's where Manski, a lifelong Madisonian and co-chairman of the national Green Party, disagrees with many of his fellow liberals: He doubts John Kerry would be any better.
"Quite frankly, it's astonishing to me that Kerry appears to have secured the Democratic nomination," Manski said . . . "Because in anointing Kerry, the Democratic Leadership Council has chosen somebody who's really the worst of both worlds. He's a New England corporate liberal."
OK, so the 29-year-old Manski - whose party will announce its endorsement at its national convention in June - isn't the most impartial observer. He still has great admiration for Ralph Nader, who was the Green Party candidate in 2000 and who is running this time as an independent.
But Manski, who attends the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School, believes that anyone who thinks Kerry represents a true alternative to Bush obviously hasn't been paying attention. . . .
Having said all that, Manski believes that right now it's Kerry's race to lose.
"And he's doing a good job of losing it."
Indeed, from Manski's perspective, Kerry's already made two colossal blunders.
One, he's called for an escalation of U.S. troop deployments in Iraq.
"So it's very hard to see how people wanting to cast a vote against this quagmire are going to see John Kerry as a realistic alternative," Manski says.
And two, he recently proposed a 5 percent cut in corporate taxes.
"That's just not going to appeal to middle-class people from the Midwest," Manski says. "And that's a constituency Kerry can't take for granted. I mean, if Wisconsin is a swing state in this election, then Kerry's doing something wrong."
In fairness, Manski says, he wasn't exactly enthralled with any of the Democrats who ran in the primaries. Still, if the Dems truly had wanted a candidate who represented their core values - and was a bona fide alternative to Bush - the obvious choice was Howard Dean.
Sadly, however, Dean's impassioned rhetoric - and his assertion that he represented "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" - "scared some of the wrong people," Manski maintains. "And I think what happened to him was pretty much a takedown by the leaders of his own party. He was regarded to have gone too far by the Democratic National Council."
To be sure, Manski is frustrated that more disenchanted voters don't support throw their support to the Green Party, which, he points out, not only is strongly opposed to the war, but is the only political group not afraid to take on the corporate powers who have poisoned the system.
At the same time, Manski says, he's encouraged that the party continues to grow. In 1996, for example, the Greens had 40 elected officials serving throughout the country. Today they have 205. Furthermore, the party's national registration has nearly doubled during that period and is now over 300,000.
In any event, Manski admits he's as intrigued as everyone else by Nader's intentions this time around. But he suggests that Democrats who believe that Nader is merely trying to make a point and will drop out in the final weeks shouldn't get their hopes up.
Manski says he met with Nader back in December in Washington, D.C., and that Nader made it clear that if he did throw his hat in the ring - which he did two months later - he would "not drop out at the last moment and abandon his supporters. He actually stated that." . . .
E-mail: rzaleski at madison.com
<http://www.madison.com/captimes/news/zaleski2/71962.php> *****
***** Posted on Fri, Apr. 09, 2004 AP Poll: Bush, Kerry Still in Close Fight WILL LESTER Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Bush has spent about $40 million in campaign ads in recent weeks aimed at defeating Democrat John Kerry, but the president has problems of his own: growing doubts about Iraq and worries about the economy. The two remain locked in a very close presidential race, an Associated Press poll found. Bush was backed by 45 percent of voters and Kerry by 44 percent in the poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs.
Independent candidate Ralph Nader had 6 percent support. The numbers are essentially unchanged from AP-Ipsos polls taken in early and mid-March.
In one development that is potentially troublesome for Bush, a growing number of people think the Iraq situation is making the threat of worldwide terrorism worse.
Asked whether the military action in Iraq has increased or decreased the threat of terrorism around the world, half in the poll, 49 percent, said it has increased the threat, while 28 percent said it has decreased the threat. The number of people who thought the Iraq situation increased the terrorism threat grew slightly from Monday through Wednesday at a time that television news was showing the sharply increasing violence in Iraq.
In a mid-February AP poll, Americans were evenly divided on the effects of military action in Iraq, with 38 percent saying it had increased the terror threat and the same number saying the threat had decreased. . . .
Despite a government report showing the nation's payrolls in March posted their biggest gains in four years, public confidence in the economy also has slipped over the last month. That measure was affected by growing concern about job security, local business conditions and possibly by international turbulence.
The public's view of Bush's handling of the economy was unchanged since March after signs last week that the jobs picture is improving. More than half in the poll, 53 percent, disapproved of Bush's handling of the economy.
Growing fears about the situation in Iraq and doubts about Bush's handling of domestic and foreign issues have not helped Kerry to this point. . . .
<http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/election2004/8391785.htm> ***** -- Yoshie
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