Looking Backward, Marching Forward
Josh Marshall (over at Talking Points Memo) has a good dissection of the Bush reelection team's strategy: play up Reagan and the ills of John Kerry... don't mention your own candidate too much.

Now, how many days of leaving the site that way will it take before people start to see the obvious: that President Bush's campaign staffers believe that pushing their own guy isn't a particularly good political strategy and that bashing Kerry or grasping on to Reagan nostalgia is far preferable?

You really gotta see the George Bush reelection site--truly a Republican masturbatory fantasy come true.

The Daily Kos has some cause to be hopeful with some polling numbers and links to a few articles noting that some specific strategies in dealing with Kerry might be backfiring, including the whole Flip Flop Rope-a-Dope. Here's the quote that dKos notes from this LATimes article (member info: name-bornflippy; pass-flipper):

But for Bush, the flip side of the flip-flop charge is a deepening perception that he is too rigid: By a resounding 58% to 16%, poll respondents said the phrase "too ideological and stubborn" applied more to Bush than to Kerry.

Bill Baggett, a retired accountant in Commerce Township, Mich., said he preferred Kerry's willingness to change his mind over what he saw as Bush's intransigence. Kerry's flexibility, Baggett said, "to me is a sign of intelligence."