May 28

Both President Bush and Sen Kerry will be at the dedication of the World War II monument on Memorial Day.

The Kerry campaign is preparing to spend in the region of $17m on television advertising during the month of June; interestingly, targeting the state of Virginia, which President Bush won in 2000. According to the AP:

"The Democrat's campaign has turned toward Virginia, believing that population shifts over the past few years had made the state more northern in its politics and more Democratic in its voting patterns. Kerry's advisers say the race is close in the state, and they believe the decorated Vietnam veteran also can do well along the coast, which has a heavy military presence."

A CBS poll shows that a Kerry-McCain ticket would hold a substantial national lead over Bush-Cheney.

Meanwhile, the Green Party has a month before its convention to decide whether to formally adopt Ralph Nader as its presidential candidate.

Howard Dean has a new day job.

Finally, Paul Krugman in the New York Times today highlights the potentially changing relationship between the Bush White House and the press corps. He says:

"Amazing things have been happening lately. The usual suspects have tried to silence reporting about prison abuses by accusing critics of undermining the troops — but the reports keep coming.

The attorney general has called yet another terror alert — but the press raised questions about why. (At a White House morning briefing, Terry Moran of ABC News actually said what many thought during other conveniently timed alerts: "There is a disturbing possibility that you are manipulating the American public in order to get a message out.")"

May 28

Despite recent stories, it appears John Kerry will accept the Democratic nomination at the Boston convention after all, while a new poll shows the challenger has erased President Bush's lead in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Despite some worrying lows, the Bush team is taking solace in yet other poll numbers that show Kerry slipping, particularly in character-related questions.

For example, the Washington Times reports:

"An ABC News/Washington Post poll released Monday shows that in the past 11 weeks, the percentage of Americans who say Mr. Kerry is "honest and trustworthy" has fallen 11 percentage points. The number saying he is a "strong leader" has dropped nine percentage points, and the number saying he "understands the problems of people like you" has dropped six percentage points."

But that's the way the cookie crumbles.

The 'McCain for Veep' story continues to rumble, with the New York Times reporting favourable comments by another potential contender.

Amid the latest terror warnings, Kerry himself, meanwhile, is at the beginning of a campaign stretch focusing on national security and reportedly raised over $2m at a single fundraiser in the pacific northwest.

(Interesting, also, that the new GOP ad banners featuring first lady Laura Bush and education policy seem to be cropping up above a number of specific Kerry articles - and the Journal-Sentinel piece linked to above had both a banner and a navigation bar ad - but there's nothing so far to suggest that it's a deliberate buying strategy.)

Finally, the Boston Herald has a piece on Kerry's new campaign plane.


"'In the event of emergency, my hair can be used as a flotation device,' Kerry quipped on board the inaugural flight of the refurbished Boeing 757 from Reagan Washington National Airport," the paper reports.

May 24


With President Bush about to go on TV (but live only on cable) - the first of what is supposed to be a series of regular speeches - to explain exactly how the handover of power in Iraq is supposed to work, the latest CNN poll doesn't make pleasant reading for the White House, with his approval numbers virtually unchanged from the record low two weeks ago.

Cold comfort for the Bush-Cheney campaign team is that John Kerry - still - hasn't been able to capitalise on the President's discomfort, and remains mired in the balance of a polarised nation; especially when Ralph Nader is factored into the mix.

According to the AP, "...Nader said he had advised John Kerry to choose North Carolina Senator John Edwards or Missouri Representative Dick Gephardt as his running mate."

Meanwhile, Kerry' idea not to accept the party nomination at the convention in August, so as not to give Bush a month's headstart on national campaign spending hasn't gone down at all well with everyone in the party.

And according to the Boston Globe, the GOP is gearing up to counter any advantage the Democrats might wind up with as a result of any delayed acceptance.

Talking of the conventions, there's a story that President Bush might not get things all his own way at the Republican party convention in New York in September. A certain resident of New Jersey may be planning to rain on the parade...

According to the New York Daily News: "Democratic operatives are buzzing that the Boss has been talking about staging a free concert somewhere on Sept. 2, when President Bush is due to address the Republican National Convention.

Besides getting out the vote, Springsteen hopes to provide "counterprogramming to the message the Republicans will be broadcasting," says a source. A spokeswoman for Springsteen would only say, "There are no confirmed Bruce shows for 2004."

In other politico-showbiz-related news, Time reports that with the adulation heaped upon Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 at the Cannes film festival, the filmmaker "could have been nominated, and elected, President for Life."

Time goes on: "The fact is that Cannes’ prizes, and the declarations made during the ceremony, have little impact on the mass of US moviegoers, let alone on the supporters of an incumbent President. Moore acknowledges this when he was asked what the effect of the Palme d’Or might be on Bush. The winner’s reply: 'He won’t know it exists.'"

Elsewhere, cartoonist Garry Trudeau, creator of the "Doonesbury" strip, is planning to use his May 30th strip to list the names of the 702 US service personnel killed in Iraq.