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Keep him? Dump him? They Were Just Wondering...By Rick Horowitz
Dear Dick: It was so good to see you at the rally last Tuesday -- it's been a long time! The entire state committee was just thrilled to have a visit from the Vice President of the United States. It was great, as always, to hear you fire up the troops for the campaign. Not that they aren't fired up already, of course, and who can blame them? There's so much riding on the outcome this November, I know that every one of us is going to do absolutely everything we can to get President Bush re-elected. You were in and out of town so quickly (and I certainly understand tight schedules!) that we never did have time to sit down together and schmooze. So I figured I'd just drop you this note instead. Verna says hi, by the way -- she was delighted to see you, even from a distance, and made a special point of telling me how well you looked. She said campaigning must agree with you! She's right, isn't she? About how campaigning agrees with you? There's nothing quite like getting out there on a bus and shaking a few thousand hands to really put you in touch with ordinary people. Still, I just don't know how you do it day after day -- I know if it was me, I'd be looking for a place to hide. (Maybe one of your "undisclosed locations"! Ha-ha!) And that's not to mention all the wear and tear physically. I think it's great that you're up to it. You are up to it, aren't you? As I'm sure you heard, the race out here is still very, very tight, just like it is in so many other states. Kerry keeps closing the gap, but we're confident that with a good turnout, we'll be able to hold him off. Pretty confident, anyway. We just keep pushing all the positive news we can find, on Iraq and on the economy and everything else, and of course we're hoping there won't be too much negative news. Speaking of negative, weren't those poll numbers on you the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen? Only 21 percent favorable? They must have called a Democrat retirement home! There's no way those numbers are accurate -- we all know what an asset it is having you on the ticket. It was great, by the way, to see your lovely wife on TV the other day. She's looking as beautiful as ever, and what a mind! I was just fascinated when she started talking about how that whole same-sex marriage question should be left to the individual states. With all the talk (everyone from President Bush on down) about how we need a constitutional amendment to prevent that kind of thing, it was so interesting to hear a contrasting view. Send her our best. Anyway, both of you are tremendous assets, no matter what the polls say. Besides, I'm sure they're wrong -- the local dogcatcher does better than 21 percent! And if you were down anywhere like that, you'd be such an enormous drag on the ticket, we'd certainly be seeing evidence of it, which we're not. And you're not seeing any evidence of it either, I'm sure. After all, you'd be the first to know, wouldn't you? And you'd be the first to do something about it. If it was true. Which I'm sure it's not. As long as we can turn out our base, we won't even need all that many undecideds. I almost forgot: John McCain is coming out here next week for a speech. There's no predicting that guy, is there? But he sure knows how to move the needle! And -- this is so funny! -- he pulls exactly the kinds of voters that our guy doesn't get. Not that we absolutely have to have those kinds of voters. I'm sure we can probably win perfectly well without them, and I know that you and the president are up to the challenge. You are up to it, aren't you? Tom Ridge stopped by a couple of days ago -- what a great guy! (I'll bet he's never had a 21 percent favorable rating, even by mistake. Not that I'm blaming you.) It's just something about the way Tom comes across. The same with Colin Powell, or Bill Frist. I guess some people have that aura, even when they're not standing in the spotlight. Can you imagine, though, if they ever were standing in the spotlight? If one of them was on the ticket with the president, for instance? Wouldn't that be something? Hypothetically, of course. See you at the convention! Posted 7/15/04. The
latest news and the latest commentary from Rick -- that's a winning
ticket in anyone's book!
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Rick Horowitz
