“These Democrats say the enthusiasm for defeating Bush runs much stronger and deeper than the passion for electing Kerry. The chief reason: The senator from Massachusetts, they say, has not crisply articulated what a Kerry presidency would stand for beyond undoing much of the Bush agenda. So far, these concerns have not slowed Kerry. But if Kerry cannot change this perception coming out of next month’s Democratic convention in Boston, it could prove much harder for the party to maximize turnout, win over Ralph Nader voters and keep independents from swinging to Bush, they say.” According to these insiders, the Kerry campaign. John Podesta, White House chief of staff on the Clinton administration, and the guy largely in charge of all this new media analyzing people like me, says there’s a danger in that ambivalence. “You can’t just be against something. [Voters] want a positive vision of where the country is going, and he has to provide that.”
What have I always told you about these people? They cannot tell you what they’re for. The reason Kerry won’t is because he can’t. He knows it. All you have to do is look at his voting record. He knows what he’s for. He doesn’t dare say it. I mean that would sink these people. Don’t draw any inferences from these polls, folks, about the ideological make up of the country. The Democrats get the strength they get in most of these national polls by denying who they are. This is largely sentiment of kooks that are largely ginned up by their dislike and hatred for Bush. But the reason they can’t come out and tell you what they’re for is because they can’t, they have to make it up.
“Representative Bart Gordon, well known Democrat from Tennessee, said for Kerry to win the presidency?” You ever heard of Bart Gordon, Mr. Snerdley? Me, either. That’s the first time I’ve heard of him, but they are quoting him here in the Washington Post. He said that for Kerry to win the presidency, “Bush has to lose the confidence of the public and the next thing that has to happen? [is] Kerry has to convince the public he’s an acceptable alternative. He has not passed that threshold, but he is making progress.”
He’s not making progress; he’s stalled out in this whole area. That’s why they’re all telling everybody they’re concerned about this. “Asked whether he is excited about Kerry’s candidacy, Gordon said, ‘I am excited about a change of the administration. I think Kerry is a solid guy; he’s not an exciting guy.'” There’s a vote of confidence for ya from the well known Bart Gordon, Democrat congressman from Tennessee. “One standard barometer of voter enthusiasm is how strongly partisans support their presidential candidate.”
Now, remember, this is an interesting paragraph, and I want to set this up by reminding you about this LA Times poll that came out, was it last week? Yeah, during the midst of the Reagan memorial and funerals LA Times had this poll that showed Kerry is up by five points. But if you looked at the internals, Bush wasn’t losing anywhere. And the conclusion was that the sample that The Times used had to be weighted with Democrats, because Bush won the independents. He won far more Republicans voting for him than Kerry got Democrats. It didn’t add up in the end unless there were more Democrats in the poll that gave the national aspects of the poll the results that the Times published. This paragraph sort of alludes to that in its own way.
“One standard barometer of voter enthusiasm is how strongly partisans support their presidential candidate. By this measure, Kerry is doing far worse than Bush, but markedly better than Al Gore at this point in 2000. In a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, 68 percent of Democrats strongly supported Kerry and 89 percent of Republicans expressed strong support for Bush.”
How do we get this massive Democrat unity here if only 68% of Democrats strongly support Kerry? They keep telling us all this, “We’ve never been this unified. We’ve never been this strong.” They may be unified in their hatred for Bush, but they are not unified in enthusiasm for Kerry. And when you see things like this, you have to start questioning all of these polls. I mean, if he’s only getting 68% of the Democrats in the country who strongly support him 
and Bush is getting 89% of Republicans who strongly support him. To me, it taints the results of all these polls. Anyway, there’s more to this story, too.
“Although Democratic constituencies from unions to abortion rights activists remain committed to Kerry despite concerns about his commitment to their issues, the durability of that loyalty could be tested soon. Many Democrats are bracing for a Bush resurgence — if not in the weeks ahead, then after the GOP’s national convention in August. After Bush’s poll numbers dropped to what history says are perilous levels, he has hit a run of potentially good fortune.”
So they’re all waiting. The point is they don’t believe Bush is going to stay where he is. The bottom line of this whole story is they don’t believe these numbers in their polls are an accurate representation of where Bush is, and where he’s going to end up. And they’re worried Kerry doesn’t have the ability to close ground if Bush pulls ahead. That’s the summation.
END TRANSCRIPT
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