Can the Democrats counter the campaign machine built by Bush and Karl Rove?
Nothing against Rove, but every political cycle we have some genius who is supposed to be sensational. Sometimes the strategy works once, but it may not work twice. Jim Baker was a fabulous campaign manager for George Bush against me [in ’88]. But 1992 was a different time, and it just didn’t work. They ran a lousy campaign, despite the fact that one of the smartest guys in politics — Baker — was running it. Q: This will be the fourth time that a Democrat has run against a candidate named George Bush. Which campaign will this one most resemble? A: None: 9/11 and the national security thing have made this a different campaign. Bill Clinton is as effective a campaigner as anyone I know, but there’s no question that it was a much more vulnerable Bush in ’92 than in ’88. Clinton had the good sense to do what I didn’t do, which was to get ready for the attack campaign and have clear and effective strategies for dealing with it. If I had done that, I can’t tell you if I would have won it,
