I'm sick and tired of hearing Bush complain about how John Kerry is so "liberal" and that he's out of (or at least on the "left bank") of the "mainstream." I've always thought it was a bullshit argument to say that someone earning the vote of HALF of the country is "out of the mainstream" but with this "Bush Supporters don't know what Bush stands for" report (real title,
"The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters"), there's a conspicuous opportunity to the Kerry campaign to pound Bush as out of touch.
Because for all his complaints, what Bush is implicitly admitting is that he is out of the mainstream (which is why he relies on people misunderstanding him to support him), and that Kerry's positions are quite popular.
Here's why: "Majorities incorrectly assumed that Bush supports multilateral approaches to various international issues -- the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (69%), the treaty banning land mines (72%); 51% incorrectly assumed he favors US participation in the Kyoto treaty -- the principal international accord on global warming... Only 13% of supporters are aware that he opposes labor and environmental standards in trade agreements -- 74% incorrectly believe that he favors including labor and environmental standards in agreements on trade. In all these cases, there is a recurring theme: majorities of Bush supporters favor these positions, and they infer that Bush favors them as well."
EXCEPT, WELL, MAJORITIES OF BUSH SUPPORTERS ACTUALLY DISAGREE WITH BUSH. If substantial majorities of the voting public agree with Kerry's positions, as the numbers above strongly suggest, Kerry not only has a higher ceiling when it comes to potential supporters he can reach, but a Kerry victory would come with a much larger mandate (if he seizes it) than most people realize - because the half of the country that supports Republicans doesn't, actually, support Republican policies, and a President Kerry could flush such contradictions out. Republicans may well be holding a weaker hand than they pretend to have; it's just a question why we keep letting them bluff us into believing them...