a sentence structure

[Joe]

Kerry told a crowd that he believes "there are reasonable Republicans out there who know that there's nothing conservative or mainstream Republican" about Bush's handling of the economy.

I get confused by the sentence structure with the blue part. I mean, I understand the rest part of it. And also, what does it mean? Does Kerry believe that Bush's handling of the economy is conservative or bad?

Thank you very much.

 

[Casiopea]

Kerry told a crowd that he believes "there are reasonable Republicans out there who know that there's nothing conservative or mainstream Republican" about Bush's handling of the economy.

I get confused by the sentence structure with the blue part. I mean, I understand the rest part of it. And also, what does it mean? Does Kerry believe that Bush's handling of the economy is conservative or bad?

Thank you very much.

First of all, we really don't know what Kerry himself believes since he doesn't refer to himself directly--rather, he refers to "reasonable Republicans".

...there's nothing conservative...about Bush's handling of the economy.

Bush's handling of the economy is not conservative.

...there's nothing mainstream Republican about Bush's handling of the economy.

Bush's handling of the economy is not what the majority of Republicans would agree as being conservative in nature.

 

[RonBee]

It is no wonder that you are confused. So is John Kerry. Kerry seems to think that most Republicans think that cutting taxes is a bad thing. He seems to think that he understands Republicans better than Mr. Bush. The word mainstream refers to those who are in the majority.