Bush goes on the offensive. Apparently Bush/Cheney got the word that Kerry was going to be in West Virginia, so they tailored a little ad taking Kerry to task for voting against funding the troops.
This kind of preemptive (if you will) strike should be welcome news to the president’s supporters, disheartened by months of unanswered assaults against him and his policies. Earlier in the week, Kerry was criticizing Bush for dragging his feet on protecting the home front, when the senator voted against the Department of Homeland Security six times, delaying its creation by 112 days, according to the Bush campaign’s count. The expectation is that when he talks in West Virginia about supporting our troops, he’ll now be asked about those votes against equipping and paying them. “So he’ll be answering questions rather than making charges,” explains Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman.
It’s about time.
West Virginia voters will wake up Wednesday morning to news stories about John Kerry’s votes against funding troops in the field. With the Bush campaign on offense, similar ads are no doubt headed your way – right ahead of John Kerry. There’s certainly plenty of ad material. In 19 years, Senator Kerry has cast about 6,500 votes.
Heh. Parenthetically, this is why it is so hard for a senator to get any traction in a presidential campaign, and why it gets harder the longer he’s in the Senate. He’s got far too long of a public record to squirm away from.
In most cases, state governors are term-limited so the amount of ammunition you can dredge up against them is significantly less. Plus, they don’t vote on things; they sign or veto laws, and they support or don’t support measures. And they lose a lot.
And perhaps most importantly, governors have been executives. Senators are more like board members. In my experience, most board members would make lousy CEOs.