Inside Politics

Zell vs. Matthews

“Sen. Zell Miller fought back against Chris Matthews Wednesday night, leading to a very animated interview session when Matthews pounded away at points Miller made in his convention speech,” the Media Research Center reports at www.mediaresearch.org.

” ‘I wish I was over there where I could get a little closer up into your face,’ Miller yearned from a position inside Madison Square Garden while Matthews remained at MSNBC’s outdoor set. Miller shot back at another point: ‘You’re saying a bunch of baloney that didn’t have anything to do with what I said up there on the rostrum.’

“An angry Miller soon opined, ‘I wish we lived in the day where you could challenge a person to a duel,’ and, recalling Michelle Malkin, he commanded: ‘Don’t pull that kind of stuff on me like you did that young lady when you had her there brow-beating her to death.’ Matthews repeated his maliciously false claim that Malkin ‘was suggesting that John Kerry purposely shot himself to win a medal.’ ”

Bush’s numbers

The latest Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll shows President Bush with 49 percent of the vote and Sen. John Kerry with 45 percent.

This is the first time that Mr. Bush has reached the 49 percent mark in the tracking poll since Mr. Kerry wrapped up the Democratic nomination on Super Tuesday (March 2). It’s also the first time Mr. Bush has been up by four percentage points since April 26, according to the Rasmussen Web site (www.rasmussenreports.com).

Mr. Kerry reached 49 percent a few times after his convention, but neither candidate has reached the 50 percent mark.

Three-quarters of the interviews for yesterday’s report were completed after Monday’s convention speeches by Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. Half were completed after the Tuesday speeches by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and first lady Laura Bush.

Panic and disquiet

“Those politicos and interest groups who have been doing polling, focus groups, and dial-a-meters this week are so far keeping their data to themselves, so we can only guess how the convention is playing with real people,” says the Note, a daily political summary by ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html).

“And now the hurricane, the dismissal of the Kobe Bryant charges, and the Russian hostage crisis threaten to limit the bounce-inducing echo chamber of the last two nights of the Gotham confab,” the Note said yesterday.

“Still, there is no mistaking that today, the Bush campaign is feeling in control and confident, and the Kerry campaign is trying to stifle intra-party feelings that are running from panic to disquiet.”

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