Al Hunt is executive Washington editor for The Wall Street Journal ($). His WSJ responsibilities include writing the weekly editorial page column, “Politics and People,” and directing the paper’s political polls.
This week, Mr. Hunt is writing his column from the Republican Party Convention in New York, but his subject in today’s column is the coming shakeup in the John Kerry’s campaign staff resulting from President Bush’s recent run-up in the polls. Mr. Hunt describes what Mr. Kerry’s supporters are saying about his management style:
The Kerry campaign, like most, ultimately reflects the candidate. The cautious indecisiveness and occasional vacillations have become Kerry trademarks.
Leading Democrats describe a command structure often frozen — or at least tempered — by too many chefs, a too-heavy reliance on polls or focus groups and an aversion to risks. As a result, the message often is muddled and the reaction to hard-hitting attacks from Republicans often is slow and unconvincing.
With friends like these . . .
The Rasmussen daily tracking poll shows both presidential candidates at 47% each. In other words, President Bush stills has a serious fight on his hands. We must never forget one harsh fact of life: this election is not merely about George W. Bush vs. John Kerry. No, it?s between the current White House incumbent vs. John Kerry—and the biased liberal media. They?ll pull every dirty trick to help Senator Kerry. Our democracy could be in danger of destruction. Instapundit recently commented on this frightening possibility. We indeed do live in dangerous times.