An excellent Mark Shields column in extended- basically- he attended a focus group of retired PA voters- and was left believe they all though Bush had a huge credibility gap.
...Clyde, in his 70s, a retired federal official, was blunt: "I'm really concerned that the whole administration is lying to us." Audrey, a 70-ish grandmother: "I think he (Bush) lies a lot. That prison in Iraq, first they denied ... he lies a lot." To septagenerian Don K., his shortage of information about the Massachusetts Democrat is not a bar: "While we don't know much about Kerry, I know too much about George W Bush."
Article is here, copied in extended:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/28/bush/index.html
by Mark Shields
YORK, Pennsylvania (Creators Syndicate) -- This small city right on the Mason-Dixon line and just north of the Maryland border has a lot of history. During the Revolutionary War, from September 1777 to June 1778,York, Pennsylvania, was the capital of the United States.
In the election of 2004, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania could determine if George W. Bush or John F. Kerry has a political future. On November 2, the aging Keystone State may well be the electoral capital of the nation. That's one reason why I was happy to spend more than four hours here Thursday, listening to a couple of dozen undecided, retired voters express their opinions about the candidates and the campaign in focus groups expertly led by Washington pollster Guy Molyneux.
These voters are retired seniors. They are, we are regularly told, concerned -- maybe even obsessed -- about Medicare, prescription drugs and Social Security. While these issues were of interest to the voters in York, their overwhelming passion is the U.S. war in Iraq. They are seriously upset both with that war and with the president who insisted upon waging it.
Joe, who is over 70 and still active as a substitute schoolteacher, spoke for many: "We were too rash in going in. We had no allies. The image of the United States worldwide is probably as low it has ever been. ... We're the only superpower in the world, and now everybody hates us."
Josephine, a retired beautician in her late 70s, is "concerned we went into something we really don't know how to get out of." To Donald O., a Republican-leaning independent under 75, it's the U.S. mistreatment of "prisoners in Iraq," when "we've lowered ourselves to the rest of the world." Bill, in his mid-60s: "Our attack on Iraq was a gift to the terrorists."
The retired voters in York confirmed the remarkable results of this week's Washington Post-ABC News poll question, which asked: "Please tell me whether the following statement applies more to George W. Bush or John Kerry: He is honest and trustworthy." Bear in mind that supporters and admirers of the president almost always cite Bush's direct, unfancy, plain-spoken truth-telling as one of his most appealing qualities. But just a little over four months before Election Day, a 52 percent majority of voters believe that "honest and trustworthy" applies more to Kerry, and just 39 percent think those positive attributes apply more to Bush.
In York, Clyde, in his 70s, a retired federal official, was blunt: "I'm really concerned that the whole administration is lying to us." Audrey, a 70-ish grandmother: "I think he (Bush) lies a lot. That prison in Iraq, first they denied ... he lies a lot." To septagenerian Don K., his shortage of information about the Massachusetts Democrat is not a bar: "While we don't know much about Kerry, I know too much about George W Bush."
These voters and the poll question about "honest and trustworthy" explain the frenetic urgency of the White House's offensive to establish, over substantial evidence to the contrary, a partnership between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. With no weapons of mass destruction and no nuclear plants in Saddam's Iraq, to justify the pre-emptive war Bush desperately needs voters to accept the al Qaeda connection. Otherwise, his already diminished reputation for candor could be destroyed.
The York voters who lean to Bush base their support mostly on the incumbent's good intentions. Ken, a retired executive in his late 60s: "I'd give George W Bush some credit for getting something started on prescription drugs ... (which) still has more questions than answers." Barb, over 65 and a retired homemaker, says of the president: "He seems like a nice person, a people person."
Democrat James Carville says that the U.S. war in Iraq is "not a disaster. My (now closed) Washington restaurant was a disaster. Iraq is a catastrophe." For George W. Bush, a self-described "war president," Iraq and his shrinking credibility could well become a political disaster.