IT'S ALREADY STARTED

A few weeks ago I commented that this will be a very negative campaign year. This greatly comes from the high negative numbers bush posesses, while still retaining a VERY loyal base. Unless something big happens to bring up the bush numbers, they are something with which he's stuck. When your negatives stay high, your only real recourse is to try to drive up the opponent's numbers so that there is no high road and the election comes down to turning out the base. you do that by a hard pander to your core and pump money into monitoring the polls and getting people out where they are lagging.

That being said, its already started in the TRUE bush fashion: accuse others of what you are doing yourself. This has been the Bush Modus Operandi since at least 2000, most effective in the post election fight for the presidency in florida. the idea is to pull attention away from what you are doing by accusing someone else of doing the very same thing (implying your own innocence). this is very similar to the Passive Aggressive FOXNews with its "fair and balanced" slogan. This makes the accused have to explain THEMSELVES before they utter the first breath attacking you!

There have been some legitimate questions (i think since 2000) about Bush's service. while fighting the idea of revealing the very same info that EVERY veteran candidate has released (in modern history), they accuse the Democrats of SLEAZY campaign tricks while trying to avoid even ANSWERING the touchy questions offered by the press. its called mis-direction, and it's worked so well for bush in the past, i just don't think they know what to do now that the free passes have dried up. See previous dialoges between the Press and the Bush Press Secretary below for (now) daily examples.

One has to wonder if this story actually has legs, or if the White House is just so used to keeping whatever info it likes, that it just doesn't know how to react to someone demanding real answers...over and over.