Something interesting I just saw

[FreedomAngel82]

Being bored on Saturday and waiting till my family and I go out to dinner like we usually do I'm watching older video's of 2004 from the campaign. Some have wondered if Bush was spying on the Kerry campaign and I wonder myself. I think he did because I'm watching when the Kerry campaign got done with the democratic convention and the cameras are following the press people on Kerry's campaign and talking to them. If you want to see this just go to c-span.org and type in "democratic convention" and than click "sort by date" and look for the date August 1st, 2004. I'm listening to a guy named Fritz Wenzel from the Toledo Blade. He made an interesting comment about the Kerry and Bush campaign(s). According to him Bush ran a campaign that was parallel to Kerry's. At this point the Kerry campaign was on there way to Ohio and Bush had just gotten there. It was very strange how they both stayed in the general states. Didn't Bush pretty much ignore the south? Kinda odd for a republican. Wenzel also said that they were only going to be about thirty miles apart. He also made a good point with Ohio and where Kerry went. He said that when Ohio has a good economy and everything going fine with that they tend to vote for their values and it's more conservative state. But the economy there (at that point) isn't good and that's why Bush is going there first.

[tulsakatz]

1. that reminds me of the 2000 campaign.......

I remember when Bush ran against Gore and a Republican friend of mine said that Bush and Gore had similar ideas. At that time, I really didn't know that much about Bush, I just knew I didn't want to see another Bush in the White House.

So now, I'm thinking maybe this is indicative of the way they typically approach a campaign?

[Sydnie]

2. I also remember that there was one town that they were

closer than that from each other. Like blocks away from each other. It turned the entire town upside down. Don't think that was Ohio, though it might have been.

It happened often though. In West Virginia too, as I recall.

[FreedomAngel82]

4. I think I remember that

I can't remember where either. I do remember the Ohio thing. Watching all the campaign's again you can see huge crowds. One part in Pennsylvania one reporter told how they were expecting 3-5 thousand and they got 17,000. It was something like that, but they got way more people coming out than they expected.

[Jara sang]

7. That was in Davenport, Iowa

I was in Davenport that day. I thought about going to the Kerry rally but the entire place was just nuts with both of them being there.

[Oceansaway]

10. Iowa was a 'swing' state too at the time....

i remember all the security because they were both in the Quad Cities and because of the beefed up patrols.....2 banks were successfully robbed...LOL.....dem poor cops....

[bluerum]

3. Hmmm,, this speaks to leaving room in your campaign for some

random stops and changing plans on a dime plan. If the other campaign can follow you know you have moles or are telegraphing your moves.

Personally, I think that you have to assume that every move is being watched and that some kind of neutralizing action will be attempted within 24 hours. Throw in a weekly improv activity to throw off the opposition.

I have always felt that the Bush campaign had access to detailed intelligence on the Kerry campaign. On mean come on - the man is an idiot and can't think on ass much less his feet. Kerry should have exploited this and would have done better had he shown a little more go for the throat junkyard dog in his political personality.

Lets hope the dems in the '06 and '08 adopts some better campaigning tactics. The gloves have to come gentlemen.

[FreedomAngel82]

5. Did Kerry give out his campaign schedule?

Was it all to the press?

[SPKrazy]

6. Most Southern States Weren't Up for Grabs

Ohio was, and both campaigns spent enormous amounts of money there (the real problem in politics today, only a rich man can run and compete)

I do think that Kerry should have focused on states like Arkansas which was pretty close running going into the election.

I don't know if Bush spied on Kerry, he might have, but I don't think your example really proves it.

It isn't hard to figure out where the other campaign is going.

I'm a West Wing Fan too, and I miss John Spencer already!

But think about the campaign on that show, they pretty well know where the other candidate is campaigning as it comes out without much effort. (it isn't a secret usually)

[FreedomAngel82]

8. I still wonder if Bush spied on the Kerry campaign

It wouldn't really surprise me. Hopefully we'll know with hearings about the whole NSA deal. I wouldn't be surprised if he was spying on some republicans too to blackmail them and keep them in line like Frist and McCain and maybe even Hagel. Oh and John Spencer was definitley a favorite of mine on the show. :( Not going to be the same without him. It'll be interesting to see what happens next on there. But back to the Kerry thing: would Bush's campaign know Kerry's schedule that a head of time though? :shrug: I didn't follow politics until back in October of 2004 so I missed all of that. Also, now a guy who is being interviewed from the Boston Globe, not sure where, stated how they've had huge crowds everywhere since the convention.

[SPKrazy]

9. Maybe So

I don't think B* worried about Kerry anywhere, because I believe that he stole this election in Ohio, just as he stole it in Florida.

I don't think we've had a truly elected President since Clinton.

Apparently you don't have to be elected anymore to be President.

[justgamma]

11. Don't know if Kerry was spied on, but I do know

that if I wanted to find out where Kerry would be, I had to go to the Republican website to find out and it gave me the willies.
I couldn't find Kerry's schedule anywhere on his site. The cons had his whole month's schedule posted on their front page.

[Catherine Vincent]

12. He probably did spy on Kerry.

And Kerry was right about Bush and Cheney, they're nothing but a bunch of crooks!

[seabeyond]

13. you know how i could see them using the spying in the campaign

and that was a good point you made on that. and bush itinerary was changing at times.

but what i saw was something happened and we would start saying something about bush. and then bush would come out and say the dems were doing it. would leave mouth hanging open, cause was a bullshit, but then stopped the dems from using it cause it would be like childish saying it about bush after having us accused of it. this is interesting. i am going to think about that time from the angle of the campaign being spied on.