"Senior Republican" says Bush is "manifestly unfit to be President"

"A senior Republican, experienced and wise in the ways of Washington, told me last Friday that he does not necessarily accept that Bush is unstable, but what is clear, he added, is that he is now manifestly unfit to be President. This, too, is a view that is widely felt, but seldom articulated and then only in private, within the Republican as well as Democratic establishments in Washington. Either way, the choice voters make on Tuesday fortnight should be obvious: whether he is unstable or merely unfit to be President - and I would argue that they amount to much the same - he should speedily be turfed out of office. "

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1329540,00.html

lol

too bad it is in England

he sums up things pretty damn well.

On Kerry's candidacy I disagree with his characterization, but it is true that Kerry took some blows before raising his game. He can't do that this last two weeks. I don't think we can ride to victory on the debates.

the campiagns media people need to really push these stories.

no one in america needs to go to bed to night with out knowing many people think that chimpoleon is wacko...

coupled with his deabte performances

and paper endorsements

and the NYT mag piece

by next friday people should be scared chimopeon is in charge at this moment let alone 4 more years

snip>
Kerry is a poor candidate who has only recently woken to the need to fight. Bush manages to maintain a peculiarly American, ordinary bloke image - mystifyingly so, given that he is the privileged product of Andover, Yale and Harvard - that still contrasts well, in the eyes of many Americans, with Kerry's patrician manner.

It's always good to take a look at what the English are saying because they bring that necessary suspicion and horror to their work that American journalists lack. Here's something i snipped out of that article:

<Bush now reads to the Republican faithful at his campaign meetings reflect their intent to demonise and annihilate Kerry's character in the eyes of the electorate; policy statements made by Kerry are wilfully distorted and then endlessly repeated so that, in the end, the distortions gain a credence among the majority who do not follow such matters closely.>

Now please understand that when i say "Hitler" I'm drawing a comparison to TACTICS, not personality or ultimate goals or anything else--just TACTICS. I'll leave the other, more dastardly comparisons to someone else. So, here goes. What that esteemed Britisher describes is, of course, the Hitler tactic of "The Big Lie". It's nothing new in politics, LBJ talked openly of it. The key to the "Big Lie" working is "the majority who do not follow such matters closely". This is a situation that's not likely to improve due to the increasing complexity of almost everything. And the "my opponent is practicing Hitleresque tactics on you dupes" approach is sure to backfire. And being put on the defensive is no good either. So...how do you combat the big lie?

What's Kerry and his team going to do in these last days to make sure that he can withstand the Big Lie attack? I don't know. Does anybody here have any ideas? One thing that Bush is doing might help. If Bush is only speaking at places where you have to pay to see him...well that's not good for spreading the big lie. Of course Fox News will broadcast it for him but again most of the people who watch Fox News are sold on Bush already.

So what's to be done to protect the voters who can be swung from the Big Lie? Any ideas?