that and three bucks will get you a cup of coffee. it doesn't say much that at the largest anti-shrub demo the country has seen there are "more than a few." big deal that cockburn exaggerates to make a point.
>> not much in itself but indicative of the fact that few people have
>> Kerry bumperstickers across the nation (i've seen almost none on the Los
>> Angeles freeways or streets -- and that's a lot of cars believe me) and
>> few people are kerry supporters; the move is basically ABB.
>
>There are plenty of Kerry buttons in NYC.
there are none in los angeles that i've seen; the second largest city in the USA, in a state that's likely not a swing state. NYC is no barometer of america. LA isn't either; but it's a lot closer than NYC. i wonder how many people in san francisco and boston are sporting kerry buttons.
this is the "literate and informed" coastal cities of the USA. imagine what it's like inland and upstate and in the south-east.
>>2. Bush has appeal for middle americans and kerry doesn't.
>
>*White* middle Americans, you probably mean - an appeal based on religion
>and race. It's not pretty, but you've got to admit it's real.
>
>Doug
no i don't. i'm thinking about all americans who like simplistic, short, direct answers to complex questions.
i don't see any americans of any racial group worked up about kerry. more and more, democrats i speak to are tending to concede that kerry is mediocre, or their eyes glaze over, or they withdraw. [i'm sure this is not due to my charming persona ;-)] not a good sign; and is a direct result of kerry's lousy campaign, i believe. the party faithful are feeling let down.
on talk radio in san francisco where about the only two "liberals" in commercial radio hold forth late at night, one host is, with great reluctance, saying flat out kerry's blown it. the other host, who's full of fairy tales and horse manure, a democrat true believer like nathan, is getting calls now and then from democrats in his biased audience expressing their deeply held concerns and fears about kerry blowing the election and asking him why kerry isn't running a better campaign.
with the dem's history of ignoring the grass roots, fantasizing about outcomes rather than realistically dealing with guys like rove, and putting down anyone who doesn't kiss tail in their fool's paradise, there's a strong likelihood the kerry campaign will blow it big time.
i certainly don't see the grass roots or the working class of any races excited about kerry. for example, i was speaking with a mexican-american friend, graduate of U of Alabama, about two hours ago. she's from el paso, texas. as she put it, texas will probably go for bush but el paso won't "because we're poor." not because they're for kerry.
shrub's appeal to the people who fit your definition of middle america is religion, race, bone headedness and overblown wedge issues which work like a dream for the right wing. it's also the corporate mass media, the right wing echo machine, centered in NYC, which insists on leaving out facts, lying, repeating propaganda, keeping the nation uniformed.
of course it's not pretty. it's even uglier to watch kerry founder around about swift boats and make false promises while people with minds of their own in our nation realize that both candidates are jerks, and ponder which is the biggest jerk and what's to become of us.
as cockburn points out, kerry's campaign is making the most obvious beginner's mistakes, a la dukakis. it should be a wake up call, except the kerry campaign keeps rolling over and going back to sleep. they've learned nothing from clinton's policy of a minimum of 1/2 a day response time to attacks, for instance. they're either stupid or incompetent or both.
the vote will probably hinge on the number of people who hold their noses and vote against shrub. read between the lines: nobody gives a damn about kerry, what he did or didn't do in vietnam, or his pitiful campaign promises that are unrealizable.
another in a long series of a lesser of two evils choice courtesy of the duopoly who runs, and ruins, your elections.
R