Christopher Ruddy
Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004

Kitty Kelley's nasty smear, forged military records and Michael Moore's cinematic hit job – the Democrats are sinking to new lows every day to defeat George W. Bush.

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Recently I chatted with Martin Anderson, my friend from the Hoover Institution and a close aide to Presidents Nixon and Reagan. Martin has advised every Republican president in modern times, including George W. Bush.

During our conversation I recalled when electioneering used to begin on Labor Day and didnąt take off in earnest until October.

Those days are gone, perhaps forever.

"You have to go back to the founding of the country, when candidates had duels, to find some parallel," Anderson said of the animus this campaign season has seen.

We discussed the reasons behind this political civil war. To Anderson the answer is obvious: The Democrats are desperate.

How desperate? Very.

As Anderson sees it, the Democrats are almost completely out of power.

He reviewed the political landscape for me.

The White House is Republican. And so are the Senate and the House. Even the Supreme Court predominates with Republican appointments.

At the state level it gets worse. In the last election cycle, a majority of state legislatures became Republican, and Republicans hold a majority of state governorships.

The largest four states in population have Republican governors: George Pataki in New York, Rick Perry in Texas, Jeb Bush in Florida –­ and we even snatched one from the Democrats in California with Arnold Schwarzenegger's election.

"We donąt realize how good we have it," Anderson suggested.

His analysis is unassailable per the known facts. Almost everywhere there has been a rising Republican tide.

So the Democrats, who have won previous elections using government largesse, do not control the very levers of government they need to buy off their constituencies.

The Democratic Party has made the White House central to its quest to regain power.

To that end, they are throwing everything they can at President Bush, including the kitchen sink.

According to Democratic Verse, Bush is guilty of every major sin. To

Michael Moore he is a warmonger and a toady of the Saudis. To Maureen Dowd he is a toady of the neocons. To Teddy Kennedy he is a bigger liar than Richard Nixon. John Dean and Sen. Bob Graham would like to see him impeached. MoveOn has compared Bush to Hitler. Democratic left-wing financier George Soros depicts Bush as a sort of Antichrist as well. (Surprisingly, the two leading Democrats who have engaged Bush with civility are Sens. Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton.)

Clearly, the Democrats view 2004 as the Armageddon election. If the Republicans win again, it could lead to an era of Republican dominance for a generation to come.

As NewsMax has chronicled, the major media, long the handmaidens of the Democratic Party, have also shown the same signs of desperation. The liberal media establishment has all but endorsed Kerry.

In addition to big media, big money is also going to Kerry.

Billionaires such as George Soros, Peter Lewis, Ron Burkle and Stephen Bing are backing Kerry, and they are putting their money on the table.

Even Kerry's campaign, which was almost insolvent by the time he won in Iowa, has come from behind to match or exceed Bushąs $200 million war chest.

My back-of-the-envelope accounting shows that the 'poor' Democrats will outspend the 'rich' Republicans by a factor of 2 to 1 or more.

Here's the rough calculation: Democratic 527s will raise more than $150 million over what Republican 527s raise. Add to that figure another $150 million the major unions have already committed to help Kerry get out the vote. That's $300 million cash flow for Kerry.

True, Bush's incumbency brings with it tremendous power and perks, but the No. 1 factor usually determining re-election for a sitting president is the economy.

And the economy continues to accelerate, albeit in a sputtering way.

High gasoline prices, which began to rocket upward at the end of last year and have shown little signs of abating, have stalled Bush's economic recovery and choked his re-election.

Even if gasoline prices fall, it is too late to quickly rev up the economy for this November's election.

Between now and then President Bush needs to make his case directly to the American people and explain why the economy may be stalling, or it's he who will face his last battle in this election Armageddon.

Editor's note: