'Change' Is Vital Election Theme for Bush, Kerry (Bush=New Ideas???)

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-change12sep12,1,1314253.story?coll=la-home-headlines
'Change' Is Vital Election Theme for Bush, Kerry
The president frames himself as the candidate of new ideas, a departure for an incumbent. It's an attempt to relate to voters' anxieties.
By Ronald Brownstein
Times Staff Writer

September 12, 2004

WASHINGTON — After nearly four years in office, President Bush has settled on a surprising new identity for his campaign's stretch run: he is selling himself as the candidate of change.

On issues from Social Security and healthcare to national defense, Bush now presents his agenda as a response to "changing times" and a "changed world." He also accuses his Democratic rival, Sen. John F. Kerry, of pursuing "the policies of the past."

Bush is relying more on this argument even as Kerry amplifies his efforts to portray the president's proposed second-term agenda as "more of the same," and his own proposals as a sharp change in the country's direction.

These pointed disputes illustrate the priority both sides place on identifying their candidate as a source of change at a time when surveys show about half the public dissatisfied with the country's direction.

Republicans think Bush's arguments have framed the race in a way that will help him win a solid share of voters eager for change — something presidential incumbents have almost never achieved. "It's a nice contrast to have for an incumbent: We're for new and they're for old," said Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee. "That's the biggest change in the dynamic that has taken place here going into the stretch run."<snip>

And the petroleum industry is in it's last gasp.