Matt Drudge has an interesting account (apparently based at least in part on an upcoming Time story) of a dinner President Bush gave for five governors after his speech to the Republican governors on Monday:

"Bush was jovial, confident," TIME reports. "He told the group—George Pataki of New York, Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Jim Douglas of Vermont and his Floridian brother Jeb—that the presidential race would be close but that he would win. Bush’s legendary self-confidence was on full display."

This week the President’s re-election team will air its first television ads of the presidential campaign, "a salvo designed to re-establish the President in the public mind as a decisive, principled leader, uniquely equipped to strengthen the economy and win the war on terrorism," Cooper and Dickerson write.

Bush advisers say the spots will not go after Democratic frontrunner John Kerry. "We’re going through a process: first, correct everything that’s been said about the President, and then we’re going to correct the impressions about the [Democratic] nominee," says pollster Matthew Dowd.

The Bush campaign has asked focus groups about the Massachusetts Senator. Not surprisingly, officials say, he comes across just as Republicans have tried to caricature him: aloof and ambivalent. "He is not a look-you-in-the-eye kind of guy," one tells TIME.

If they really intend to "correct everything that's been said about the President," they'd better get going. They only have until November.

Posted by John at 12:11 PM  |    |  

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