Cheney and Perceptions

Dick Cheney went to Hawaii last night.

And the reporting is an interesting look at the media's two-minute game to try to bring this election in for Kerry.

The AP writes:

"We are standing just a few miles from Pearl Harbor, the site of a sudden attack ... Three years ago, America faced another sudden attack," Cheney told a crowd estimated by his aides at 9,000, the vice president's biggest crowd at a campaign event.

Cheney said that "the clearest, most important difference in this campaign is simple to state: President Bush (news - web sites) understands the war on terror and has a strategy for winning it. John Kerry does not."

Fair enough so far.

But then the story goes on:

Though it seems a huge task for Bush to actually win a state that has been a Democratic stronghold, Cheney's overnight trip is aimed at fueling the perception the president's re-election is assured.

Nationally, however, the latest national polls show the race to be extremely tight.

That's been a talking point the last few days: "The President is playing the perception game, like he did by campaigning in California in 2000 - to create the perception that he can win where he really can't"

Never mind that the polls show extremely tight races in most of these places.

Kerry's campaigning in nothing but blue states; I wonder why that is?

Perceptions?

Someone tell me with a straight face that the media's not in the tank.

Posted by Mitch at November 1, 2004 07:42 AM | TrackBack