{"id":2403,"date":"2004-08-24T12:49:19","date_gmt":"2004-08-24T17:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2403.html"},"modified":"2004-08-24T12:49:19","modified_gmt":"2004-08-24T17:49:19","slug":"guess-whos-worried-about-nevada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/guess-whos-worried-about-nevada\/","title":{"rendered":"Guess who’s worried about Nevada?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are at least two interesting things about the Bush campaign’s new TV ad<\/a> in Nevada. One is substantive, the other strategic.<\/p>\n

Today, Bush-Cheney ’04 announced the release of the campaign’s newest television advertisement, “Kerry’s Yucca.” The new advertisement highlights the divide between John Kerry’s rhetoric and his voting record on the issue of a nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain. “Kerry’s Yucca” will run in selected markets in Nevada.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before we get into why this commercial, like all Bush ads, is fairly ridiculous on the merits, let’s not overlook the fact that Bush now feels it’s necessary to take out ads in Nevada.<\/p>\n

Bush surely thought this wasn’t going to be a battleground state. It’s a historic GOP stronghold (backing the Republican candidate in every presidential race from 1968-1988), it has a popular GOP governor, and a Republican majority within its congressional delegation. In 2000, without significant effort, Bush beat Gore in Nevada by about 4 points.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Kerry’s campaign started running ads on Nevada TV. The Bush gang scoffed and offered bravado-filled remarks about how confident they are that the state will not be in play this year and how Kerry is wasting his time.<\/p>\n

Now, they’re singing a different tune.
\n
\nAs a matter of common sense, if Bush weren’t worried about Nevada, he wouldn’t have to spend money there in August. Kerry is making Bush work for states the GOP thought were in the bag. It’s a very encouraging sign for how things are going nationwide.<\/p>\n

And then, of course, there’s the ad itself, which tells Nevada’s voters, “Listening to John Kerry, you’d think he’d been against Yucca Mountain his entire career.” The spot goes on to explain that Kerry, at some unstated time in the past, supporting a nuclear repository at Yucca Mountain, which has been a volatile issue in the state for 20 years.<\/p>\n

The funny thing is, Bush shouldn’t be bringing up Yucca Mountain at all — Nevadans hate the president’s policy and resent his flip-flop<\/a> on the issue.<\/p>\n

Democrats regard Nevada as highly competitive, thanks to nearly dead-even voter registration and an issue that juts up like the rugged peaks rising from the brown desert floor: Yucca Mountain.<\/p>\n

In 2002, Bush signed legislation to establish the ridge of volcanic rock and ash — 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas — as the final resting place for 77,000 tons of the nation’s deadliest radioactive waste. Critics say that broke a promise he made late in the 2000 campaign, when he pledged that science, not politics, would guide his policy on Yucca Mountain.<\/p>\n

The statement, crucial to Bush’s victory in the state, was vague enough that many assumed he would oppose the project.<\/p>\n

“He lied,” said Jon Ralston, a nonpartisan political analyst in Las Vegas.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suppose the point of Bush’s message is that Kerry agrees with Nevadans now<\/i>, but he didn’t always. That’s great, except Nevadans think Bush is wrong now<\/i> and are pretty upset about it.<\/p>\n

In other words, Kerry came around to the right answer while Bush has been consistently wrong from the beginning. This<\/i>, the Bush gang feels, is worthy of an expensive ad buy. Brilliant minds, those BC04 strategists are.<\/p>\n

And as long as we’re on the subject, here are a few related items<\/a> to keep in mind, ala the Kerry campaign:<\/p>\n

* 2004 Bush “Pioneer” Has Lobbied to Send Nuclear Waste to Yucca Mountain; Nuclear Industry gave Millions to Bush and RNC.<\/p>\n

* In deciding to allow storage in Yucca Mountain, Bush ignored the GAO, the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, and Nevada legislators from both parties. <\/p>\n

* Kerry voted TWICE with Reid and Bryan to remove offending provision in that bill <\/p>\n

* Las Vegas Sun has said, “Kerry has been one of the few consistent friends Nevada has had in the U.S. Senate regarding Yucca Mountain.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think the Bush gang will have to think up some other line of attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are at least two interesting things about the Bush campaign’s new TV ad in Nevada. One is substantive, the other strategic. Today, Bush-Cheney ’04 announced the release of the campaign’s newest television advertisement, “Kerry’s Yucca.” The new advertisement highlights the divide between John Kerry’s rhetoric and his voting record on the issue of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}