GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Oct. 30 -- Amy Morrison is noticeable at Saturday's rally in Michigan because of her red hair, and because she is shrieking and crying. Lately she's gone from worried that Bush might lose to terrified.
"I just want to touch him on the shoulder," she says, "I just need to see him in case I won't see him again. I'm so scared for him." She cries when she sees the first lady, she cries when she thinks the unthinkable -- "President Kerry." Now, instead of just the usual "Four more years," she pleads, "Four more years -- pleeease?"
It used to be that Bush country was the Kingdom of Supreme Confidence. Everyone in the president's orbit was doubt-free, self-assured, steady, alert at the helm. No one ever wavered or shifted with the winds (that's Kerry's thing). All that is still true, only now that buoyancy is strained.
Three days out, polls show the president within the margin of error in all the close states. History shows that incumbents who don't top 50 percent in the polls at this point are in trouble, since undecideds generally vote for the challenger. Democratic activists have signed up millions of new voters who may or may not actually show up at the polls. The war is a wild card that could tip the undecided voters toward Bush, but who wants to depend on that?
This weekend the president's schedule has him jetting to three states Saturday, two Sunday and six on Monday, and campaign officials are thinking of adding another stop on Tuesday afternoon.
Not that he'd ever betray any hint of nervousness. He feels "very at peace with this campaign," Bush told USA Today Friday. "I am incredibly optimistic not only about the campaign but about the country, and I hope people can see that in me. . . . You cannot fake optimism and you can't fake sincerity."
Still, gently, respectfully, the vultures seem to circle: It began with an interview that aired Monday on ABC in which "Good Morning America's" Charlie Gibson asked Bush whether in private moments he thinks about losing.
"I'm not there yet," Bush replied. In the USA Today interview Friday he elaborated: "It's because I don't believe I'm going to lose," and added that he's already outlined his first Cabinet meeting for a second term. Here, in the final stretch of the campaign, every stumble, every gesture, every symbol takes on outsize significance. Is the president getting irritable yet? Did he stare just a little too long and furiously at those protesters?
Friday morning in Manchester, N.H., Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling canceled a highly publicized appearance with Bush. Then, in the middle of the president's speech, confetti rained down 15 minutes early -- curse those local technicians! -- forcing him to continue a somber emotional speech with bits of red and blue paper clinging to him.
Everyone knows bad things come in threes. Could this be a premonition?
Reporters who travel regularly with Bush know the king is nearly unflappable in public, so look for signs from his court. Lately their ubiquity is somewhat suspicious: Dan Bartlett and Karen Hughes and Karl Rove are suddenly popping up at every rally, spinning hard. Friday night Bartlett called the Kerry campaign "desperate." He said the latest polls show Bush up in Ohio and Florida, and that the Kerry campaign could see it "slipping away." "It's close, but we're working very hard," Hughes says on Saturday.
Two weeks ago Rove sat in front of the wheel of Air Force One. Last week Rove was described in a pool report as having pranced to the back of the cabin with a surgical mask on, massaging the scalp of a correspondent, promising to "make the circumcision" and then adding something about going "commando." Are these signs that he is relaxed or that he is trying way too hard to put on a show of relaxation?
Bush meanwhile tried out a personal speech Friday that aimed for an insouciant brand of confidence, and didn't mention John Kerry, or "my opponent," or even "the senator from Massachusetts" once.
Instead he hit the Steady Unwavering theme maybe a dozen different ways. He called himself "consistent" or "true" or "steadfast," and said that "the polls go up, the polls go down, but a president's convictions must be consistent and true."
