Ths Bush campaign is trying to lower expectations over the expected bounce they'll get from next week's convention. Two reasons for this. One, they may seriously think they'll only get a 3 or 4 point bounce next week, or two, and more likely, they think they'll get a bigger than 3-4% bounce - but not that much bigger - so this way any bounce bigger than 3-4% will be considered a great success since it BEAT EXPECTATIONS.
Now, what's interesting, is that the Bushies' "expectation" is to get a WORSE bounce than Kerry, who got around 5 to 6 points from the Dem Convention (at least according to this article). That strikes me as news, and it remains to be seen whether the media will realize this fact, or simply spin this as "Bush expects small convention bounce."
An interesting aside, check out this new lie from the Bush campaign mentioned in the article:
The Bush campaign watched with interest as Democrat John Kerry got only a delayed bounce of up to five or six points from his nominating convention in Boston last month.They decided it was a reflection of a divided electorate that left few undecided voters? Bullshit. The right-wing came out and denounced Kerry as having a no-bounce convention. They didn't argue that Kerry's bounce was only 5-6% because there were only a few undecideds. (I, however, did argue that at the time, and some of you didn't believe me - uh hum). No, the Bushies criticized Kerry, saying that the small bump meant the convention was a failure. And now, of course, they're rewriting history and the media is letting them.
They decided it was a reflection of a divided electorate that has left few undecided voters from which to get a traditional bump.
