I have about as much inside information on President Bush's campaign strategy as Howard Dean, in other words, I have no inside information. However, after hearing Vice-President Cheney repeatedly go on the offensive against John Kerry, I'm wondering about the President's strategy. I've come up with a great plan that would help to propel the President to victory...
Here's my scenario. Cheney aggressively goes after Kerry throughout the Summer. He savages him. The Democrats have their convention in July. Kerry gets the nomination and with much fanfare and publicity announces his running mate. In the run up to the Republican Convention at the end of August, or at the convention itself, Cheney announces that he is retiring from government. He could cite his heart problems or simply say he's ready to retire to Wyoming. President Bush then announces an up and coming popular (possibly hispanic) conservative to be his running mate. The ensuing media attention drowns out John Kerry and captures headlines for a good month and helps propel Bush to an overwhelming victory in November.
I think it's a pretty clever scenario. Of course, I thought of it.
What do you think?
Posted by jdmays at March 29, 2004 10:43 PM | TrackBackI was having a casual conversation with a person, and in the course of the conversation, I discovered that he was a Democratic precinct chair. When he said that Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico was a possible running mate, it seemed like a good idea for the Democrats. Have a Hispanic, have an ethnically diverse ticket, have a geographically diverse ticket, win the battleground state of New Mexico, what's not to like? But now that Richardson has been busy justifying his lack of action on terrorism, I'm reminded that it was on his watch that secrets were stolen from Los Alamos. I don't know of any Latinos that could be viable VP candidates for either party. Henry Cisneros could have been a good Democratic VP candidate if he hadn't gotten embroiled in scandal. There was an article about Henry Cisneros in Texas Monthly magazine a long time ago. It said "Henry Cisneros is the only person who views being President of the United States as a stepping stone."
Actually, a great Bush strategy would be to get Bill Clinton to talk, then have Kerry speak after him. That giant sucking sound you hear is the wind going out of the Democrats's sails.
Posted by: Douglas at March 29, 2004 09:15 PMI've heard Bill Richardson say that he doesn't want to be Vice-President. Of course politicians say that kind of stuff all the time and then go back on it, but I think he's serious about not wanting to be VP.
-Jim.