As this historic election comes to an end, President George W. Bush came as close as any presidential candidate can to admitting he's afraid of losing the election: He asked Democrats to vote for him. Last week, on a bus tour through the swing state of Wisconsin, Bush spoke to rural voters in barns and high schools.
President Bush's plea is particularly odd, for throughout the campaign he has steadily avoided even speaking to undecided voters. Instead, the president has addressed rallies for Republican supporters, many of whom are required to prove their support by spending hours volunteering on behalf of the campaign. The danger of this system became apparent early in the second presidential debate, as John Kerry finished a detailed summary of Bush's failures to stop nuclear proliferation. When it was the president's turn to speak, he leaned toward the camera and said with a grin, "That answer almost made me want to scowl."
There was resounding silence from the audience. Bush couldn't seem to believe that the line, a piece of folksy self-mockery that he had used several times since his face-twisting in the first debate, had fallen flat. When at last the president answered the question, he was visibly disconcerted.
If Bush seemed confused by the audience's reaction, it was probably because the joke had worked before. On Oct. 6, he told a cheering crowd in Pennsylvania that after hearing Kerry's opinions on the Iraq war, they could understand "why somebody would make a face." The same day, he successfully mocked his repetition of the phrase "hard work."
At both events the president was addressing a group made up entirely of his own supporters. Bush's loyalty-oath policy was the logical choice. Bush ensures that his speeches will always be greeted with cheers and applause. Actual swing voters, watching the news, see the political equivalent of a sitcom with a laugh track.
John Kerry has known all along that he has to convince the country he is qualified, and he worked to develop a convincing speaking style. But Bush has a hard time addressing audiences that aren't primed to applaud his every word. Uncommitted voters watching the second debate were looking for solid information on the two candidates' policies. Bush had a limited amount of time to respond to Kerry's attacks, and he should have used it to make a persuasive case. Instead, he made two false assumptions: first, that the crowd liked him personally, and second, that they already disagreed with Kerry's response.
In the past week, with Bush and Kerry nearly tied in the polls, both candidates have been pulling aces from their sleeves. Kerry produced a svelte and shaky Bill Clinton to stump for him in Arkansas, and Bush started appealing to moderates (whether they find him appealing is another matter).
Bush worked up to Tuesday's tour by making a pitch to moderate Republicans, who may have been turned off by his identification with the Christian right. On Monday, Bush told Charles Gibson of "Good Morning America" that he favors allowing states to grant civil unions, though the party platform is against them. By the next day, Bush was criticizing John Kerry for not supporting the Defense of Marriage Act - in Wisconsin, to Democrats.
George W. Bush prides himself on being resolute. The fact that he has finally brought himself to appeal first to moderates, and then to Democrats, means that the Republicans are getting desperate.
Katy Crane '07 is herself extremely resolute.
