Playing Against Type (Clear Choice: ground game coach vs. Bush Hail Mary)

[papau]

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB109520387372017975,00.html?mod=todays%5Ffree%5Ffeature

Playing Against Type
By Bush, Kerry Gives
Voters a Clear Choice
September 15, 2004; Page A4

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney tripped over his tongue last week by suggesting a too-direct connection between John Kerry's election and a domestic terrorist strike. But he was simply trying to call the most fundamental signal in any incumbent party's campaign playbook.

The play: capitalize on voters' inherent caution by casting your re-election as the safe choice and the elevation of your challenger as too big a risk. Lyndon Johnson did it against Barry Goldwater in 1964, with the "Daisy" ad suggesting the Republican would trigger nuclear war. Ronald Reagan did it against Walter Mondale in 1984, warning of the Soviet "bear in the woods." Mr. Cheney was using terrorism to distinguish President Bush from Sen. Kerry in the same way.

Yet there is good reason to believe that framework doesn't fit the choice of 2004. In important ways, incumbent and challenger have reversed customary roles. Look more deeply at the temperament and agenda of each nominee and you will see that the cautious candidate is John Kerry, and the risk-taker is George W. Bush.


That isn't how either man portrays himself. Mr. Kerry's Web site calls him "a man of conviction" who makes "bold decisions." His party convention sketched a picture of strong, principled leadership.<snip>

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