Banking on the Big Picture

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-assess3sep03.story
NEWS ANALYSIS
Banking on the Big Picture
By Ronald Brownstein
Times Staff Writer

September 3, 2004

NEW YORK — While looking at the stars, does President Bush risk stumbling into the ditch?

In an often eloquent and at times visionary speech Thursday, Bush pointed his presidency toward the far horizon, pledging to work toward fundamental government reform and a global expansion of liberty that would erode and ultimately eradicate the threat of terrorism.

But by focusing more on long-term changes than immediate responses to challenges in the economy and Iraq, Bush may have left himself vulnerable to Democratic charges that he has offered few new solutions to the problems many voters consider the most pressing.

Indeed, less than an hour after Bush left the podium, his Democratic rival, Sen. John F. Kerry, unveiled a combative new campaign speech that sought to shift the campaign focus away from the incumbent's goals toward his record of the past four years. "It's too late, two months before an election, to come leaping into a convention and make a bunch of promises when you haven't even kept the promises you made before," Kerry said at an unusual midnight rally in Ohio.

Bush's speech culminated a Republican convention notable for its concentrated focus on national security and searing attacks on Kerry, especially in Wednesday night's speeches from Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.). <snip>

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. It's too late baby, now it's too late.... though you really tried to

fake it....

[MissMarple]

2. Bush&Co still can't get that vision thing.

When they realized they needed it, they confused it with propaganda. This is such a sad attempt to disguise this administration's failures with smoke and mirrors.