The Newest Teflon President

From the Guardian (excerpts):

George Bush emerged relatively unscathed from one of the worst months of his presidency yesterday, holding steady in opinion polls as Iraq experienced a wave of ambushes, kidnappings and bombs. Two polls showed that the chaos in Iraq has so far produced little direct gain for the Democratic challenger, John Kerry, for what is shaping up to be an exceedingly close election next November. But recent violence has yet to shake faith in Mr Bush, or in his command of Iraq and other elements of national security. On some issues Mr Kerry's approval rating slipped. Despite Mr Kerry's years in the Senate and his status as a Vietnam war hero, 49% of respondents said Mr Bush was better equipped to deal with the national security problems, compared with 44% for the Democratic challenger. A second poll in USA Today reached a similar conclusion. "By two to one, voters say only Bush, not Kerry, would do a good job in handling terrorism," USA Today said. "By nearly as much, 40% to 26%, they say only Bush would do a good job in handling the situation in Iraq." Analysts said it was impossible to ignore Mr Kerry's failure to break through. "Most of his support is anti-Bush, not pro-Kerry," said Peter Feaver, a political scientist at Duke University. "If the election were held today, 90% of people voting for Kerry would really be voting against Bush. That points to a softness in Kerry's appeal."

I think another reason for Kerry's soft appeal is that he is so much like Bush. Why bother stopping and getting out of your Lincoln Navigator and making the effort to get into your Cadillac Escalade, when either will get you to your destination? Nader and Kucinich know this, and that's why neither will go away, as long as they think that they can offer a real alternative.

The more Kerry tries to appeal to Bush's base, the more he appears like Bush. This risky strategy is probably going to backfire big time for Kerry. It's already alienated true Democratic progressives like me.

UPDATE: skippy-with-a-small-s expands on the Kerry-a.k.a.-Bush theme.