Four years ago, when one of the closest races in history was nearly over, BC00 announced that Bush was taking a break. In fact, while common sense dictated that the candidate work on shoring up last minute support, Bush took a day off.
And this year, he’s doing it again.
The presidency may be hard work, as President Bush said several times during the first debate. But his campaigning these days appears much less so, with a relatively moderate travel schedule and an unusually narrow list of targeted travel states.
Always fond of returning to his own bed at the end of the day, Bush has spent six out of the last seven nights at the White House, stepping off the campaign trail some days in time to catch the baseball playoffs. This weekend — less than two weeks before the election, typically a time for frenzied barnstorming — Bush is planning to spend two consecutive nights far from any battleground, at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Bush has already spent about 20% of his presidency on the ranch he bought as a campaign prop four years go; he doesn’t really need to go back tomorrow. The Crawford newspaper’s endorsement of Kerry not withstanding, Texas is not competitive and there has to be better use of a candidate’s time than clearing brush with 10 days before the election. So why’s he doing it?
Kerry obviously knows better.
Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts holds roughly the same number of campaign events each day as does Bush (between two and four), but Kerry has spent most nights on the road and is planning to campaign both weekends before Nov. 2. Given the intensity of the campaign so far and the neck-and-neck nature of opinion polls, the lack of urgency in the Bush campaign is remarkable.
“Remarkable” doesn’t quite cut it. Bush practically sabotaged his own campaign four years ago with a misplaced strategy that included time off and a trip to a Dem stronghold (California). Instead of learning from that mistake, he’s doing something terribly similar this year.
There’s no logical reason for it, but Ezra Klein makes a good case that I’m probably just not thinking hard enough.