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BUSH WON ON MORAL ISSUES - WHAT A JOKE!
Wed Nov 3, 2004 12:11
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BUSH WON ON MORAL ISSUES - WHAT A JOKE!

Posted on Wed, Nov. 03, 2004

Exit poll: Moral issues, religion key Bush win in Missouri

JIM SALTER

Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Missouri voters view President Bush as a strong leader with high moral values and a deep religious faith, an Associated Press exit poll showed.

Those attributes helped Bush carry Missouri over Democratic challenger John Kerry, according to the poll conducted Tuesday of 2,264 voters for the AP and television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. Results were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, higher for subgroups.

"He embodies the Christian values our family believes in," said Kerry Maggard, 36, a homemaker in Columbia who voted for Bush.

A quarter of all Missouri voters said moral concerns was the most important issue. And nearly nine in 10 of those voters favored Bush over Kerry.

One in 10 voters said a strong religious faith was the candidate quality that mattered most, and more than 90 percent of them favored Bush. Nearly one in five said strong leadership was most important, and nearly nine in 10 of that group favored Bush.

"I think he simply did very well because of God and country issues that play very well in Missouri," said Ken Warren, a political scientist at Saint Louis University. "Security mom sort of things - patriotism and moral values."

In 2000, Bush won handily among men but lost narrowly to Al Gore among women. This time, he had a slight advantage among both men and women.

Bush, a Methodist, was favored by about six in 10 Protestants. Among white evangelical and born-again Christians, who made up about one-third of voters, Bush carried about three-quarters of the vote.

Meanwhile, Catholics were nearly evenly split between Bush and Kerry, who is Catholic.

In an Oct. 1 pastoral letter published in the archdiocesan newspaper, St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke wrote that no Catholic should vote for a candidate who supports "intrinsically evil" acts that include abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and gay marriage. Bush opposes all of those, while Kerry is an abortion rights supporter, favors stem-cell research and said decisions on gay marriage should be left to the states.

About half of all Missouri Catholic voters came from St. Louis city or St. Louis County.

In the governor's race, Democrat Claire McCaskill did best among those who said that economy/jobs, education and health care were the top issues. Republican Matt Blunt was favored by those who said the top issues were abortion, gun control and same-sex marriages.

McCaskill excelled in the state's big cities. Blunt was strongest in rural areas and small towns. The suburban vote was nearly evenly split.

In the U.S. Senate race, incumbent Republican Kit Bond won a fourth term by receiving nearly three-fifths of the male vote, and he even did slightly better than Democratic challenger Nancy Farmer among women.

Many political experts believe Missouri is growing more conservative, but that was not reflected in the exit poll. Just under half of voters called themselves moderates, while about one-third said they were conservative and one in five said they were liberal. Those numbers were nearly identical to four years ago.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/special_packages/election2004/10081470.htm

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Satiric ‘Billionaires for Bush’ Expose President’s Policies

Exposé of Bush's Abuse of Power
See What's In Store For The Future
HTTP://www.ucpress.edu

"Fascinating . . . Ambitious . . . Scores big . . . Provocative and informing, if not downright shocking. . . . Veering Right has to be considered an overall success."--MICHAEL GAUSE, Beyond Chron

"If the election is as tight as the pundits indicate and the margin of victory is a relative handful of votes, a newly published book could - 'could,' mind you - make a difference. . . . The average citizen will be shocked by the list of offenses attributed to both the president and the attorney general. A ... thoughtful, informative book." --Provincetown Banner

"An impressive work of argumentation, well timed for the election year, that will cause plenty of head-shaking indeed."--Kirkus Reviews

"Few have the knowledge, ability and credentials that Charles Tiefer does to explain to general readers (as well as scholars) how the Bush II administration has twisted and turned the law to support its radical political agenda. Veering Right is a very important (not to mention timely) work because Tiefer has done it so lucidly and compellingly."--John W. Dean, Former Nixon White House counsel and author of Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush

"With this book, Charles Tiefer places the administration of George W. Bush under his experienced magnifying glass. Veering Right is a brilliant exposé of abuse of power at the highest levels. Tiefer understands that seemingly obscure legal maneuvering can have enormous political and policy ramifications. This book lays bare the questionable legal foundation on which Bush II constructed his signature domestic and foreign policies. Veering Right should outrage anyone who cares about the rule of law and the principle of open government."--Representative Henry Waxman

"Veering Right is a wake up call for Americans who believe that today's intense political conflicts are no more than partisan squabbling with nothing at stake except the spoils of victory. Tiefer has seen the new 'Radical Conservatives' up close in Washington, and he is convinced what is at stake are the basic American values that have guided policies for generations. The critical question he poses for us all is whether we are ready for the sweeping consequences of the extreme rightward trend in both domestic and international policies."--Richard C. Leone, President, The Century Foundation

"This book shines a piercing light into the veritable black hole of Bush Administration secrecy. Tiefer's documented exposure of unrelenting White House political point-scoring, with his deft uncovering of its radical ideological patterns, may just let in enough sunlight to awaken the media's scrutiny and criticism from its deep coma."--John Podesta, President, Center for American Progress, Clinton White House Chief of Staff

DESCRIPTION (back to top)

In this searing indictment of current administration policy, Charles Tiefer, a distinguished scholar of national legal affairs and former solicitor of the House of Representatives, argues that President George W. Bush methodically manipulates the law to promote right-wing causes. The beneficiaries of these machinations range from frontline pro-weapon and anti-women's rights groups to major industries that profit from lax environmental standards and military intervention in resource-rich regions. Accessibly written, legally rigorous, and meticulously documented, Veering Right demonstrates how the administration's already-ample arsenal for accomplishing ideological goals was expanded with weapons such as Attorney General John Ashcroft's social crusades and the polarizing 2004 election campaign. Tiefer lays out a compelling case for how the administration consistently erects barriers to media and congressional oversight that might expose covert motivations to public scrutiny. With an eye on the future, the White House is building a durable and potentially dominant machine for pursuing ideological goals by awarding lifetime judgeships and by exchanging favors for campaign funding. This book presents eye-opening evidence that ultra-conservatives could achieve previously unimaginable successes during a second Bush term.

As a former Solicitor of the House of Representatives, Tiefer possesses a wealth of insight gleaned from decades of no-holds-barred investigations and judicial struggles. His wide-ranging perspective takes into account cultural changes, constitutional issues, partisan and electoral developments, and political personalities. The most exhaustive analysis to date of the Bush administration's real agenda, this book provides a rare insider's view of the strategic, devious, and potentially overpowering ways that presidents make ideological use of the law.

Veering Right Documents How

* President Bush's secrecy and deception undermined the democratic process by misleading Congress and the public about international and domestic matters ranging from doctored Iraq weapons intelligence to covered-up drugmaker subsidies paid for by seniors

* Bush's first term lays the groundwork for even more extreme right wing policies if he is re-elected. This agenda includes tilting the nation's tax structure against the middle class in Democratic states, weakening traditional Medicare by concentrating rising costs on poorer and sicker seniors, and exporting jobs via the trade fast track

* John Ashcroft used religiosity and race-baiting to build his political career and, after 9/11, blocked questioning of his abuses--ranging from concealed undermining of the Bill of Rights to promoting the intolerance of the religious right--by labeling it as suspicious and even treasonous

* Bush turned the public's reaction after 9/11 away from the logical Saudi suspects and against Iraq in a spectacular double-play to push his agenda in the world's oil patch

* Secretary of the Interior Gail Norton and her crew of lawyer-lobbyists ran the public's resources and its pollution controls like a candy store for pariah industries

* Bush's domestic legal gambits around big money paid off in 2004 with a historical gross campaign war chest as a quid pro quo for favors rendered

* The Bush Administration dismantled international legal regimes ranging from arms control and women's rights to global climate control and international tobacco regulation

* Bush's unilateralist alienation of potential support abroad hobbled both the Iraq occupation and the effort against terrorism
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10281.html