The Note
W A S H I N G T O N, May 26, 2004—<br> -- NOTED NOW
TODAY SCHEDULE (all times ET)
FUTURES CALENDAR
NEWS SUMMARY
The chatter this morning will turn to terror warnings, as Memorial Day/conventions/Olympics and other ripe target days approach.
It is somewhat more favorable terrain for the president; as we've pointed out, what some consider the key threshold for the president — are we (you) safer today than you were four years ago (or after September 11) still sits above 50 percent. Americans believe, by and large, that George W. Bush is doing a good job in this area.
But even more than Iraq, perhaps, terrorism is beyond the administration's control, which makes dealing effectively with it a potentially shaky base on which to build a re-election campaign.
In the political world, President Bush has a single scheduled event today — he meets with the president of Gabon at the White House.
Sen. Kerry continues to campaign on the West Coast today, in Seattle, with a midday discussion about energy independence. He fundraises in the evening and continues to prepare for his big Thursday speech, wherein he'll (depending on who's spinning it) (a) enunciate new principles for a post-war Iraq (b) explain why a President Kerry would better implement President Bush's Iraq policy (c) reiterate the detailed plan he's been promoting for months or something else entirely.
Will Al Gore foment unrest on Kerry's left today? And how will the conservative media echo chamber amplify his call resignations en masse?
Adam Nagourney and Dick Stevenson in the New York Times ** offer this on-background take on the dilemma Kerry faces from "one adviser who Mr. Kerry relies on heavily."
"[Kerry is] caught between what would be politically advantageous, declaring a timetable for getting out, and what he knows is the reality on the ground, which is that we need more troops … .And the internal debates have often been between the camps in the campaign who want a clear break from the Bush policy and those who want to portray Bush as largely incompetent in executing what strategy they had." LINK
On Hardball last night, Chris Matthews browbeat Terry Holt into making this joke: "But in John Kerry's case, he went to Vietnam … He took his own photo camera, by the way, so he could get some good pictures."
The Kerry campaign called it an "attack" on the candidate's Vietnam record. You make the call.
**= LINK
On campaign finance and the conventions, we're told that he plans to announce his decision within 36 hours whether to postpone accepting the Democratic presidential nomination. The Massachusetts Congressional delegation will most likely publicly agree to whatever Kerry decides so long as the legal status is unambiguously clear. Which it's really not, considering Sen. Kerry's stated desire to have his vice presidential nominee accept the nomination at the convention. Perhaps he was telegraphing.
As Dan Balz and Jim VandeHei point out, those unanswered questions include:
— Can Kerry accept $15 million in convention money if he doesn't accept the nomination?— Can one be officially 'nominated' but not officially accept the nomination? Or accept it later?— Can the President and Vice President somehow be nominated separately?
"Campaign officials said they have received positive reactions from their convention delegates and some state party leaders, but other Democrats said privately they thought the idea was not worth the trouble. Some senior Democrats have conveyed that assessment to the highest levels of the Kerry campaign." LINK
Related Stories
ABC News Live