W team's sizing up Dean

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/153895p-135305c.html

In the spring of 1992, President George Bush confided to a friend that despite fears of a recession, his reelection was shaping up nicely.

"The economy is going to recover," Bush predicted, "and then people won't vote for a guy like Clinton with no foreign policy experience."

A dozen years and two Clinton presidencies later, could another President Bush be making the same mistake by underestimating Howard Dean?

Absolutely not, insist Bush-Cheney campaign handlers, who say an unusually polarized electorate guarantees a hard-fought - and close - election.

White House political guru Karl Rove and campaign manager Ken Mehlman have been furiously trying to lower expectations for weeks - but some top Bush lieutenants didn't get the curb-your-enthusiasm memo.

[stickdog]

1. What bullshit. Rove has instructed his minions to spread the "Bush

is unbeatable" meme.

The only way the Boy King wins is if he gets through the entire election cycle without anybody pointing out that he's naked through and through.

That's why Dean is Rove's worst nightmare.

That's why Rove has aleady started desperately pandering, starting with Latinos and space fetishists.

[Padraig18]

2. you're right--- Dean is Rove's worst nightmare.

Howard is not the polite, shy and retiring sort, as most already know. Howard will say "Look! Bush is naked" and keep right on saying it until only the brain-dead will not have looked.

[dorktv]

3. Rove and Co. are not totally stupid...just overconfident.

[goodhue]

4. disimilar story in NYT?

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/11/politics/campaigns/11BUSH.html

Over all, the mood among the 160 staff members at Bush-Cheney headquarters is sunny, while the strategy is to cast the Democrats as angry and out of touch with what Mr. Bush calls the essential optimism of America.

[stickdog]

6. "essential optimism" = "complete gullibility"

PT Rove says, "There's a sucker born every minute."

[mot78]

5. Rove's whole strategy is lowering expectations

Whoever we nominate, for every time * lowers his expectations, we should try raising them disproportionately.

[Eric J in MN]

7. In the last Minnesota US Senate race, the Republican won by

In the last Minnesota US Senate race, the Republican, Norm Coleman won by running ads of his daughter saying "My Dad is a great guy."

The Democrats spent about as much as the Republicans.

We shouldn't underestimate the Bush strategy of running vague, upbeat campaign commercials.

If that strategy can be effective in Minnesota, it can certainly be effective in states with more Republicans.

[Merusault]

8. "Dean is a weak Michael Dukakis"??

That's one of the most ignorant statement I've ever heard. If that is the mentality of the Bush team then they are going to be in for a big surprise.

[thebigthink]

9. Thanks for the Laugh!!!

I needed that.

:puffpiece: