This thread is dedicated now to who do you think will win on Nov.2, aftering seeing the performances in the debates and after 3 -1months or so since the conventions. Who will win this election?

your poll is confusing mind explaining it.

The bottom two is to determine your opinion who will win this election. The American people or American capital. Because this is a election more then just two candidates.

Source: WashingtonPost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/)
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35246-2004Oct15
Title: "Press Corps Gets Rarefied Access"
Date: October 15, 2004

Dan Froomkin reports, in his WashingtonPost.com "White House Briefing" (Oct. 15, 2004), on the hullaballoo surrounding a five-minute appearance put in by George W. Bush (with Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle and Arizona Sen. John McCain) for the press pool aboard Air Force One:

The last time President Bush ventured into the rear cabin of Air Force One to reassure the press pool that everything was okay was on Sept. 11, 2001.

Yesterday's five-minute visit on a flight from Phoenix to Las Vegas came after three widely panned debate performances that have arguably given Democratic challenger John F. Kerry the momentum going into the final weeks of the campaign.

So it was time for spin from the highest level.

Bush insisted he is unworried. "I feel great about where we are," he said.

But his very appearance was interpreted by reporters as a sign of how eager -- possibly even desperate -- Bush is to put the debate phase of the campaign behind him . . . .

. . . . Bush, in blue shirt and no tie, came to the back of the plane shortly after takeoff attended by two Republican officials, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Gov. Linda Lingle of Hawaii -- who between the two of them took up almost half of the visit answering questions that had not been posed to them (308 words to Bush's 309) . . . .

. . . . Of course, if Bush had stayed holed up at the front of Air Force One, today's coverage might well have suggested that he was hiding from the press, licking his wounds. When you're President Bush, sometimes you just can't win.

WashingtonPost.com (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35246-2004Oct15)

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20041014/i/r282669339.jpg
A rare appearance: President Bush, with Gov. Lingle and Sen. McCain, speaking to the press aboard Air Force One. (Reuters/Yahoo! (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/041014/ids_photos_ts/r282669339.jpg))

The links thus far provided for today's "White House Briefing" should remain permanently. Froomkin's observations are generally a daily item, and the updating link can be found here (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/administration/whbriefing/). It's mildly more entertaining than combing Google News (http://news.google.com/), but one should not look past the value of finding the headlines for themselves.

In any case, specific commentary on this issue would, coincidentally, constitute a mere restatement of most of Froomkin's article, so I'll skip it.
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• Froomkin, Dan. "Press Corps Gets Rarefied Access". WashingtonPost.com, October 15, 2004. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35246-2004Oct15

Image Credit: Reuters/Yahoo! See http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/041014/ids_photos_ts/r282669339.jpg

Source: Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/)
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34164-2004Oct14.html
Title: "The President Vanishes"
Date: October 15, 2004

Richard Cohen, in the Washington Post:

For months now I've dropped bets on the presidential election like Hansel (of "Hansel and Gretel") dropped pebbles. For honor and money, I've wagered on George Bush, not because I wanted him to win but rather because I thought he would. Now I'm changing my mind. It's not the tightening polls that have done it -- I knew that would happen -- but rather something I could not have predicted. The president is missing.

The president I have in mind is the funny, good-natured regular guy I once saw on the campaign trail -- a man of surprisingly quick wit and just plain likeability. I contrasted this man to John Kerry, who is as light and as funny as a mud wall, and I thought, "There goes the election."

Where it has mattered most -- the three debates -- Bush has been wooden, ill at ease and downright spooky. He makes bad jokes, cackles at them in the manner of a cinematic serial killer and has lacked the warmth that he not only once had but that I thought would compensate for a disastrous presidency and give him a second -- God help us -- term. In short, he could take over the Bates Motel in an instant.

Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34164-2004Oct14.html)

On the plus side, Cohen relies heavily on Jon Stewart in the article. To the other, though, conservatives at least are tired of the discussion about Bush's intelligence, although Cohen presents an outline sketch for the argument, including the observation that, from April until now, Bush has been unable to give a substantial answer to the question of regrets.

Had Bush admitted that things went wrong with Iraq, he could have been himself. But he was out there three times telling us what we know is not true. This was Kerry's problem when he was defending his vote in favor of a war that he never, in his gut, thought was a good idea. When he finally was able to say how he really felt, his campaign took off. The man settled into his own skin. He had the better argument. The camera picked it up.

Bush, though, has been hobbled by artifice . . . he was only rarely the politician he used to be -- crushed, not empowered by incumbency. If I could, I'd wager differently. The man I bet on no longer exists.

Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34164-2004Oct14.html)

I suppose I take a less-pessimistic view. Like Cohen, I would have bet on the President to win his election on November 2. At least, until these debates. But more convincing to me was not just what I saw in those debates; after all, Bush does not have my sympathies except for the fact that he's a human being, and Saddam Hussein even gets that, so it's not much. What is so convincing is the fact that people seem to be waking up to Bush's ... er ... inadequacies. Difficulties. Whatever.

Certes, the man Cohen would have bet on, and I as well, seems to have vanished, but so has that wellspring of forgiving ... um ... whatever ... the voters and press alike seem to have given the President. Perhaps all that happened is that the debates put enough light on Bush to show that he's translucent at best.
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• Cohen, Richard. "The President Vanishes". Washington Post, October 15, 2004; page A23. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34164-2004Oct14.html

Want wood?