Why Did Clarke's Book Get Released Now?

by Mary

One of the attacks on Richard Clarke is that he timed the release of his book to take advantage of the timing of his testimony before the 9/11 commission. But, he didn't pick the time of the release - Bush did.

So why did the Bush administration decide that it was better to release Clarke's book now rather than last December? What did they think they would gain by holding it back from publication earlier? Did they believe they could better manage the negative press if it came out when Clarke was testifying before the commission? Certainly it allowed them to confine the negative press to one period. If the book had been released out of sync with Clarke's testimony, then the spike in media interest would have been raised at least two times and it is the repeated attention from the media that makes the story stick in the mind of voters. And it is certain that the Bushies held back the book so they could prepare for this damning indictment of their time in charge.

Did the administration gamble correctly? Can they destroy Richard Clarke's reputation and credibility enough to get the undecided and independent voters back on their side? Bush is correct that this is the biggest and most significant attack on his credibility and if Clarke's indictment stands, then his only real strength going into this election has been destroyed. Bush's entire campaign relies on:

• turning out their core voters (right now this is the religious right, Norquist's followers that hate taxes and spending for any social program, the extremely well off that want to keep their windfall tax cuts, and the corporatists that want to change the rules in America so they are always in charge)


• suppressing their opponent's votes (drive Kerry's negatives so high that people stay home, find ways to keep voters from the polls by intimidating African-American voters or others, and perhaps fraud - like the blackbox voting machines which can be compromised)


• Convince the independent, uncommitted voters that Bush is better than Kerry.

Who are these independents? Some of the polls I've seen show that the one group that is most up in play is the independent female voter (both the soccer mom and the working blue collar mom). They are the ones who continue to trust Bush to handle terrorism better than Kerry although on every other issue, they prefer the Democratic approach. They believe that a swaggering and aggressive he-man like Bush is better than a Democrat at confronting terrorists. Bush must keep these voters, because they are the key to the election. Everyone talks about the Nascar dad voter as being key in this upcoming election. Sorry, I think that is wrong. I think that the most important voters in the next election are these female voters who want someone strong enough to protect them (and their families) yet still think our government should do a better job on representing them and their families - for jobs, for education, for health care and in retirement - both for their parents and for themselves. If Bush doesn't keep them on the strong leader, strong on terrorism front, he loses the next election.

Clarke just sent a Tomahawk missile straight at the guts of the Bush campaign. No wonder they'd like to see him smashed to smithereens.