Interesting political discussions going on, might as well throw my $.02 in.
The election is over.
Bush is re-elected.
The vast majority of the public view Bush as better equipped to prosecute the war on terror yhan Kerry.
Democrats, thru the 911 commission hearings, brought the war on terror to the forefront in an effort to embarrass the president.
The public, sensing that maybe the war on terror is something they need to be concerned about, starts to think about same. hence, bush's poll numbers rise.
The economy, battered by the Clinton recession that began Q3 1999 and further hammered by the uncertainty generated by the 911 attacks, begins to feel the impact of the Bush tax cuts at just the right time. Economy on rebound. Jobs increasing in number. Consumer confidence fairly high and on the rise. interest rates low.
With those two issues neutralized, what does kerry have to attack Bush on? Gas prices? Heck, Kerry wanted to tack on a $.50 gas tax while back.
Why are gas prices high? We use a lot of the stuff. OPEC has us hamstrung because we can't dig for our own, ie the ANWR. The economy is, in fact picking up steam, which results in increased demand. Increased demand when combined with static or decreasing supply is going to yield higher prices. Neither Kerry, nor Bush, nor anyone else in politics will ever figure out a way to successfully repeal the laws of supply & demand.
Let's say Kerry goes after Bush on health care. The dems tried for umpteen years but never managed to grab their knees and squeeze out a prescription drug plan for Medicare recipients. The one we have may or may not be exactly what the doctor ordered (pun partially intended) but it is out there, and for all their posturing it is a heck of a lot more than the Clinton regime managed to produce.
Now all that being said, I would be very pleased if, around convention time, Cheney decided to step down from the ticket due to health reasons and help position the GOP for another victory in 2008 when Hillary is on the other side of the ballot. And the way to do that is to throw either a Bush/Rice or a Bush/Giulani ticket at the dems this time around.
But, without pictures of Bush in a cheap motel room with Janet Reno and barney Frank, this election is history. Stick a fork in the dems, they're done.