The 5-Step Plan to Beating Bush

The Wall Street Journal (no online link) on the Democrats' five-point battle plan for 2004,

The plan:

--Focus on insecurity over how things are going in Iraq.

--Talk about the economy in a way that resonates with voters despite signs of economic recovery.

--Hit President Bush's personal reputation and likeability.

--Focus on the 17 states where Bush claimed a narrow victory — or a narrow loss — in 2000, and gin up the base.

--Channel the soft money that used to go toward "party building" into the 527 groups mobilizing against President Bush.

Meanwhile Donkey Rising points out that Dean needs to get Independents to beat Bush - Independents who may be breaking against Bush.

Ruy has several good posts recently. Try to find this: just to make things more interesting, Dean would actually need 61 percent of the delegates awarded by primaries and caucuses to be assured of nomination. This is because there are 796 superdelegates who technically can vote for anyone they want to–including Wes Clark of course. I still don't agree with Ruy's continued efforts to paint Dean as liberal.

What is the Bush Plan? -- GOP will trumpet preemption doctrine.

Faced with growing public uneasiness over Iraq, Republican Party officials intend to change the terms of the political debate heading into next year's election by focusing on the "doctrine of preemption," portraying President Bush as a visionary acting to prevent future terrorist attacks on US soil despite the costs and casualties involved overseas.

Howard Dean, an opponent of military action in Iraq from the start, dismissed preemption altogether. "A preemptive strategy never fits into an American strategy."

"It is a policy that doesn't serve us well, and Iraq is a perfect example. The first time we used the preemption policy, it got us into an enormous amount of trouble."