Republicans on a roll
NEW YORK
THEY ARE skillfully shaping their message, massaging it speaker by energized speaker and transmitting it night by disciplined night. George W. Bush is a decisive leader. America is fighting terrorism post-9/11. The country salutes its troops.
Republicans know how to package their politics for mass consumption. Say something often enough and eloquently enough, and voter doubt about the incumbent president is pushed to the background. Voters will forget that Bush is decisively leading America in the wrong direction. They will overlook the fact that Bush chose to avenge the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon by invading a country that had nothing to do with those atrocities. They will ignore the destruction and violence in Iraq out of loyalty to those brave Americans who volunteer for military service. As for the economy, the GOP is gambling that economic indicators will remain just strong enough to give people reason to dismiss any personal uneasiness.
That is the great Republican hope, and the GOP clings to it with good reason. Democrats squandered their July convention week and the entire month of August. Ron Kaufman, GOP national committeeman from Massachusetts and longtime Bush supporter, says that when the Democratic presidential nominee saluted and told Democrats "I am John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty," he weakened his chance for victory and enhanced Bush's.
"I believe in my heart the defining moment in this campaign was when John Kerry took the microphone on Thursday night in Boston and said `reporting for duty,' " said Kaufman, aboard the USS Intrepid at a Monday night fund-raiser for Governor Romney. "I truly believe it's one of the biggest mistakes in current American politics. For the American voters, it's not about what happened 24 years ago or even the last four years."
Kerry, said Kaufman, "focused on the past. Conventions should be focused on the future."
To the average television viewer, the Republican National Convention is focused on the future. Each night showcases the stars of the post-Bush era: former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona's Senator John McCain, California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Let the media harp on the narrow GOP platform. The public reads People magazine, not issues papers, and laughs along with Schwarzenegger when he calls economic pessimists "girly-men."
Democrats took the opposite approach in Boston. They broadened their platform but forgot to broaden the appeal from the podium. They offered up Democratic icons of conventions past -- former President Jimmy Carter, former Vice President Al Gore and Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Stars like Bill and Hillary Clinton are highly polarizing. Barack Obama of Illinois, a candidate for the US Senate, has yet to win national office.
Kerry also surrounded himself with Vietnam veterans and military men, hoping to transmit an image of strength. But the first test of strength is backbone. Kerry showed little, even before the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth muddied his campaign waters. There must be polling data to support his decision to avoid making a clear statement on issues from war to abortion. But what reason could there be to let the ever-bitter emotions of a war 30 years ago poison his presidential campaign? In New York, Republicans salute the troops serving in Iraq. In Boston, Kerry saluted his own service in Vietnam, giving opponents a rationale for attack.
Parallels to the 1988 showdown between former governor Michael Dukakis and George H.W. Bush continue on their eerie path. In his nomination acceptance speech, Dukakis said the election was about "competence, not ideology." Republican campaign operatives made sure it was about ideology. In 2004, Kerry decided that the election should be about his Vietnam service and George W. Bush's Vietnam avoidance. With help from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Republican campaign operatives are using Vietnam to raise doubts about Kerry's honesty. In response, Kerry displayed the same intellectual arrogance as Dukakis when the Bush campaign hit him with the Willie Horton ads. Like Dukakis, Kerry took too long to rebut the charges. Then he retired to Nantucket and went parasailing.
For Kerry supporters, September 2004 may feel more like December 2003, when Howard Dean had the message, the momentum, and the polls going his way in Iowa. Democrats will try to seek comfort in Kerry's vaunted ability to dodge disaster when times are bleak. Bush speaks tonight, and he is no Giuliani, McCain, or Schwarzenegger. When Bush wanders off script, he is prone to rhetorical fumbles, as his statements over the past week demonstrate. Kerry is prone to rhetorical doubletalk, making future debates challenging in another way.
The debates are about winning minds. Politics is first about winning hearts, and that is exactly what Republicans are working to accomplish from Madison Square Garden.
Joan Vennochi's e-mail address is vennochi@globe.com.
