BUSH DEMOCRATS? An interesting posting on Democratic Underground from “saracat” of Phoenix:

I had a horrible experience canvassing today. We went out canvassing Democrats today to ask them to support Kerry and our local candidates. We were in apartment complexes and lower middle class housing. The young Democrats living there told us they were voting for Bush! We even met a young marine who said he was just back from Iraq and supports the war, which is why he is voting for Bush. These people have nothing and they are the ones Bush is hurting the most, and yet they support him. And they are registered Dems and young. Why is this happening. I thought our base was solid. This is very frightening. We walked for five hours and only met two people who supported Kerry on our Democratic list! What does this mean?

The San Jose Mercury News, meanwhile, reports on a Kerry campaign appearance that exposed the horrors of the Bush economy:

At the Daly City event, Lori Guy, a 35-year-old high-tech worker from San Jose, was held up as an example by Kerry as a victim of bad credit-card policies.

She told the crowd how her employer, a large semiconductor manufacturer whom she did not identify, cut her salary after she moved West in 2000 to take a job. Her credit card bills piled up and she got socked with late payments, but she had no place to turn until she finally got back on her feet.

In an interview later, however, Guy said she is still employed by the company and after two merit raises in the past year she now makes more money than she ever had.

“I just want people to know there was no place to turn when I got in trouble,” she said.

THE PRESS PARTY NEW YORK – Thousands of Republicans and even more thousands of journalists have come to town for the GOP convention, which is a first: In its 150-year history, the Republican Party has never held a convention in New York. Most of the action is in midtown and downtown; our Upper East Side neighborhood seems completely untouched. So it felt a little odd donning our press credentials Saturday night and climbing on the M31 bus for Columbus Circle, site of the big press party.

It was big all right. The venue was The Shops at Columbus Circle, an indoor mall (a Manhattan rarity) at the Time Warner Center. Three or four floors of the cavernous mall were open to the assembled guests, as were the stores. We stopped in a Borders bookstore, where we would later pick up a copy of “My Life,” Bill Clinton’s autobiography, for use as a comedy prop – more on that later. Dozens of booths from New York restaurants offered samples of their fare, and numerous open bars featured good-quality liquor.

The enormous mall barely contained all the journalists and others who showed up; more than once we were standing around talking when security politely asked us to move so that traffic could flow. We didn’t spot any of the press or other celebrities in attendance, including Mayor Giuliani, Don King, Wolf Blitzer, and Jim Lehrer, though we did run into numerous press acquaintances.

The party officially ended at 11, and Editor & Publisher reports police “corralled the stragglers after 11:30, out the door, and onto Columbus Circle.” We managed to stay till 12:10, however, by hiding out in the Whole Foods Market in the basement, where we chatted with our Wall Street Journal news-side colleague Tom Herman. Finally we were rousted by one of the caterers, who kindly offered to let us take home some leftover loaves of bread. We declined, citing our half-assed effort at low-carb dieting. She replied:

“I like the way you put that: a half-assed effort.”

OUR EVER-EXPANDING INFLUENCE

“The AIPAC Kerfuffle” – headline, Jerusalem Post, August 29

COMEDY IS NOT PRETTY Sunday night found us, for the first time ever, performing a stand-up comedy act. Are we nuts? Probably. National Journal’s Hotline, the online newsletter for political insiders, invited us to participate in their show, co-sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform, on the strength of our review of the Hotline show at the Democratic Convention last month. Apparently the theory is that those who write pointed criticism must be better than the people they’re criticizing at whatever it is the latter do. It’s a dubious proposition, for if it were true, surely we’d be the Democratic nominee for president by now.

So how’d we do? It’s hard to say. We thought our material and delivery were all right, and we got some laughs, especially when we recited our never-before-published Clinton impeachment limericks (our Borders purchase was for the setup bit). But the laughs weren’t as uproarious as we’d hoped, perhaps because the audience was tired: We were the antepenultimate act, and the show, which started half an hour after the appointed time, had already gone on nearly two hours. Indeed, many in the audience had already left by the time we got on stage.

Some of the acts that preceded us were quite amusing. We especially liked ATR’s Grover Norquist, who we already knew was funny, and Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia, who had a hilarious Bush vs. Kerry slide show. Mr. Kingston’s best bit was a slide that he said showed John Kerry in Vietnam training a fellow serviceman. It actually showed Michael Dukakis in a tank with a space-suited Kerry Photo shopped in over his shoulder. We also got to meet Joe Piscopo, the opening act, whom we’ve long admired for single-handedly saving “Saturday Night Live” from complete unfunniness in the first season (1980-81) after the departure of the original cast.

After we finished our routine, the Hotline guy who invited us said, “You were funny, but you violated the cardinal rule of comedy: You went too long.” This even though when we asked him last week, he told us it wouldn’t be a problem if we exceeded the allotted time. We were insulted, but upon reflection we were more sympathetic. After all, the Hotline guys aren’t professional show-biz managers any more than we are a professional comedian.

Our friend Hilary, who accompanied us backstage, remarked that the show would have been better at half the length and with an open bar. As it was, the crowd must’ve been pretty parched, since no beverages were provided them at all. Hilary’s suggestion sounds good to us. If they’d done it her way, we doubt we’d have made the cut, so we’d have been in the audience enjoying a martini instead.