OpinionEditorials.com - The Big Bush Bounce - Ryan Walsh is a high school student and columnist

OpinionEditorials.com - The Big Bush Bounce - Walsh: "“The Republicans have no idea how much harm they have done to themselves.”

That was Michael Moore in a USA Today column on the Republican National Convention. By penning such a blatantly miscalculated assessment, it’s almost as if Moore is attempting to demonstrate, beyond any reasonable doubt, how consistently and completely wrong a human being can be.

Although most observers never thought the GOP convention would hurt the president, many thought it wouldn’t help him much either. When polls showed little or no bounce for Kerry after his convention in Boston, the Beltway talking-heads explained that, because the country is so politically polarized, the number of the coveted “undecided voters” is simply too small. The explanation seemed logical, but at that time it was only half grounded in fact. If the Bush campaign received little or no bounce after its convention, then the assessment would be accurate.

But Bush bounced.

As I write, three comprehensive post-convention polls are in circulation. The Newsweek poll puts Bush at 52 percent among registered voters and Kerry at 41—a 13 percent margin bounce. A Time poll shows exactly the same numbers, marking “the first time since the presidential race became a two person contest last spring, there is a clear leader….” Zogby also has Bush up, albeit only slightly."

Ryan Walsh is a high school student and columnist for www.therightreport.com