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Friday, October 15, 2004

Hugh Hewitt's Weekend Symposium

Our big chance to get a link from the man himself, Hugh Hewitt!

Weekend Symposium 3: How deep a hole have John Kerry, Mary Beth Cahill and the Edwards dug for themselves? How lasting the damage?

Good question. My personal take? I think that the hole is very real and somewhat damaging, but I think it will be hard to measure. How do you poll for such a thing?

I think the damage is done amongst the "Security Mom" crowd, or even Mom's in general, and among gays.

First the moms: My mom has a beautiful painting on the wall of her office. It's of a Bald Eagle standing in a nest with a couple of hatchlings around her feet. She has a look of utter, deadly seriousness. It's been there for years, and when I was in high school I asked her about it. She told me she liked the picture because it portrayed how she felt about us kids. At the time, I thought that was silly, but now that I have three of my own, I understand completely what she meant. (The gentlemen at Powerline made a similar analogy yesterday at the bottom of this post). Anyway, I think Moms all across America are reacting this way to the flap in question. They don't like there kids being messed with, and they will be very sympathetic to the way that the Kerry/Edwards campaign is going after Ms. Cheney. (And I don't kid myself, they clearly are going after her.) Kerry having brought it up like he did was bad, tasteless, and very much out of line, but Elizabeth Edwards' comments about the Cheneys being "ashamed" of their daughter are truly reprehensible. It is that statement that will, I think, actually have the most impact on the election for the Moms.

Second: Gays -- I presume that there are at least some "undecided" gay people out there. (Though how one -- whatever your "orientation" can be, at this point, "undecided" is a bit beyond me....but whatever...) And my guess is that they won't look to kindly at a guy who is so presumptuous as to put words into the mouth of Ms. Cheney regarding her homosexuality, nor will they like the fact that he brought her up at all. It's almost like he took the gay vote for granted.

How lasting will the damage be? Oh, about eighteen more days, and then it will just be a footnote in a sad story of a pathetic politician's career.

One further thought: I don't believe for a second that this was an "accident". And I dont' think for one second that the Left doesn't view Ms. Cheney as "fair game".

posted by Nick at 16:24 | [Permalink] (0) comments

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