"It's About Coalitions, Not Purity" Part Forty-One

The 2004 Election, Part Two

The Republicans faced little infighting going into the 2004 election, as President George W. Bush quickly obtained the necessary number of delegates fairly early on in the party's nominating process. At the Republican National Convention, held in New York City, the Bush-Cheney ticket was easily affirmed.

The Republicans centered their campaign around national security, which to them included the war in Iraq. There was comparatively little from Republicans about Afghanistan, although the successful chasing of the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces from much of the country, except in the mountainous area on and over the border into Pakistan, was touted. Democrats countered that Bush had gotten the U.S. involved in Iraq over highly questionable and mistaken issues, while leaving the area where the terrorists had developed their plans to attack the U.S., Afghanistan, to wither as the administration committed troops and resources to pursue the mistaken war in Iraq. Republicans argued that Bush's steadfastness demonstrated American leadership and that Kerry was "a flip-flopper." John Kerry got himself into trouble by trying to explain his nuanced votes on the Iraq war and then on budget appropriations for the war in the Senate, providing Republicans with a powerful ad against the Senator.*

President Bush touted his work on education in cooperation with Democrat Ted Kennedy, but while Senator Kerry tried to shift the debate more to domestic affairs, the campaign remained centered around Iraq and terrorism, as well as on personal attacks on both candidates. Bush's service record in the Texas Air National Guard came into question,** but documents unfavorable to Bush aired by CBS were shown not to have been authenticated by the network, a matter which reinforced conservative arguments that the mainstream media could not be trusted. On the other side, Kerry's nomination had been thought by Democrats to mute the criticism that Democrats were anti-military, as Kerry was a decorated Vietnam veteran. Further, Democrats thought the decorated Kerry would be a great contrast to George W. Bush's controversial military service. This spawned the formation of a group that came to be generally known as "The Swift Boat Vets," who actively worked for Kerry's defeat by attacking his military record.*** The group, which included some men who served in or around Kerry in Vietnam, ran television ads, made public appearances and even published a book disputing virtually every aspect of Kerry's Vietnam record.**** Republican Senator John McCain condemned the "Swift Boat" attacks on Kerry, but President Bush and most other Republicans stood idly by, although they said they would not attack Kerry's record themselves. Kerry and his campaign launched no major counter to the Swift Boat allegations, something which exasperated Democrats.

Three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate were held during the campaign.

The election results showed Bush holding onto his coalition and garnering about three million more votes than Kerry, with Bush winning about 50 and 3/4 percent of the popular vote, to Kerry's 48 and a quarter percent of the vote. In the electoral vote, which is what matters, Bush won 286 votes to Kerry's 251 (one elector voted for Edwards separately for president), with 270 needed to win the presidency. Bush carried New Mexico by only about 4000 votes out of about 750,000 votes, as well as Iowa by about 6000 votes out of about 1.5 million votes, while Kerry won Wisconsin by only 16,000 votes out of about 3 million votes. Analysts generally credited Bush's win to superior identification of likely Bush voters and then the efforts to turnout those voters by his campaign, even though Bush's popularity had decreased considerably from his post 9/11 and early Iraq war numbers, which would have been difficult for any president to sustain. I know several people who voted for Bush who did so with little glee, although they still stuck with him, but the controversy over Iraq dampened enthusiasm. Iraq and other events would take a further toll on Bush's second term.

* In the fall of 2002, Senator Kerry had voted for giving President Bush the authority to use military force in Iraq. During votes on an appropriation for the war in 2003, the Senator voted for such an appropriation when the bill's language would have scaled back President Bush's tax cuts to pay for the appropriation. He then voted against the bill when that language was dropped.

** George W. Bush's military service had come under scrutiny as he entered politics in Texas, and then again in the 2000 election. Briefly, critics claimed his well connected father (a congressman back in the late 1960s) had been able to pull strings to get his son into the Texas Air National Guard, which kept his son stationed in Texas. As the U.S. then had a military draft, critics argued this allowed Bush to escape the draft, which "may" have then kept him from duty in Vietnam, where there were major American forces, and escalating casualties at that time. Critics charged George W. Bush's National Guard record did not merit his selection as a pilot and that his attendance and compliance with regulations was relatively poor.  

*** John Kerry served in South Vietnam in the late 1960s as a Navy commander of a "swift boat," a type of patrol boat. He was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for his service in Vietnam. He later became a leading critic of the war, even appearing in congressional hearings and leading public protests. One early 1970s' protest involved Kerry and many other veterans discarding their military decorations to protest the war. Kerry's antiwar stance in the 1970s also brought criticism from Republicans in 2004.

**** The Swift Boat controversy would require an article, or series of articles, to explain all of it, but while the group was technically not part of the Republican campaign, it received large sums from big Republican donors, like T. Boone Pickens, and some people tied to the group had clear Republican and Bush connections, including some back to the attacks on Senator John McCain in the 2000 Republican nomination battle. One man quit the group and told people he would vote for Kerry, later saying the group had unfairly distorted Kerry's record. Other former veterans who had served with or around Kerry vouched for his military service record. See the NY Times article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/washington/28kerry.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ei=5089&en=7158a80120f0ee5a&ex=1306468800

WORD HISTORY:
Hectic-This word goes back to Indo European "segh/sekh," which had the notion of "to hold, to hold onto." This gave Greek "ekhein," which meant "hold, continue to hold," which then produced Greek "hektikos," which meant "habitual, continuing," with the extended meaning "continuous fever." Latin borrowed the term as "hecticus," with the illness meaning, which passed into Latin-based Old French as "etik (later "etique"). English borrowed the word as "etik," but later, under the influence of Latin spelling, it became "hectic." The idea of "continuous fever," and the disorientation accompanying such, provided the meaning "do something at a hectic (feverish) pace."