Rivals respond to Kerry's one-on-one debate challenge

[CMT]

From the Gephardt campaign:
"It's an understandable statement on the part of a candidate who's trying to crawl his way back into the top tier," said Erik Smith, spokesman for Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, "they're looking for gimmicks to try to revive his campaign. The Kery campaign has clearly stalled."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/09/15/kerry_responds_to_dean_seeks_one_on_one_debate/

[cjbuchanan]

1. Wow, that is an attack line

Everyone is starting to go after everyone else. Makes me think of Arnold and his gang-bang days. Bad joke.

Anyway, I'm sure everyone would love to have a one-on-one with Dean right now.

[ProfessorPlum]

2. whoa, them's fightin' words.

I'm sure blm will blame this on Dean somehow. :)

[blm]

5. Kerry's parry was a fair reaction to Dean's remarks.

You always want to distract from the original offense from Dean which always seem to go unjudged.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. The Professor can see into the future!

[ProfessorPlum]

10. It's these special glasses

.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. Gak!

[Cha]

16. You're too much, Professor Plum!

[ProfessorPlum]

9. what in the f*** does that have to do with

what Gephardt said about Kerry? Jesus, I was hoping you wouldn't prove my prediction true - that's why I made it.

Or am I missing your sarcasm?

[sandnsea]

3. Gephardt shoots, Lieberman defers

Lieberman's campaign spokesman, Jano Cabrera, said, "We defer to Governor Dean as to whether he's going to accept this challenge." So much for offending the other candidates. Whatcha gonna do now Howard?

(good zinger from geppie)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. But went on to say:

"Senator Kerry is trying to respark the rivalry that once existed between Kerry versus Dean, when Kerry was dominating Dean in New Hampshire and Iowa."

(good zinger from Liebie)

[sandnsea]

15. A measured political response

Hit both of them.

(honestly, I missed that last part)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. *chuckle*

Kerry campaign spokeswoman Kelley Benander said Kerry is not desperate, but was "simply responding to Governor Dean's challenge to meet face-to-face."


So stop calling him that.

[virtualobserver]

8. Why would Chris Lehane quit a campaign that is this well run......?

I'm baffled.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

11. Rats, meet sinking ship.

[janx]

13. Lieberman campaign's comment:

Lieberman's campaign spokesman, Jano Cabrera, said, "We defer to Governor Dean as to whether he's going to accept this challenge."


Dean could have made this into a two-contender race (Dean and Kerry) by "accepting this challenge." Instead, his campaign chose to leave the debates in place for the sake of the other candidates and the voters. So Dean was actually doing Lieberman a favor--yet does the Lieberman campaign admit it? No. Instead, it implies a challenge to Dean to "accept the challenge."

These D.C. types continue to insult the intelligence of the American people. Such a crock of you-know-what!

[babzilla]

14. the ouchiest part

"If he wants a challenge and he wants us to go face-to-face, I accept," Kerry said. "Let's get together. Let's have a debate. Let's talk about the real issues for the country and show people the differences between us."

One of the key differences at the moment is that Dean's campaign has momentum, and Kerry's does not.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

17. The comment from the Gep spokesman

was just mean. "Crawl his way back into the top tier..."?

I can understand the anger, Gep more than anyone can't let this race turn into Dean v. Kerry, but that's a bit snippy.

[dean4america]

18. is interesting how this is playing out

gep's attack is pretty amateurish in its delivery. i mean, "crawl his way back into the top tier"? guess gep ain't one for looking at the NH polls... you'd think lehane was working for gep now :)

lieberman's camp actually handled it pretty well - defer on point, then smack kerry and kind of dean about their previous scraps.

dean's camp still handled it best with trippi's letter - very professional (and the kucinich kicker on gephardt to sutbly stab kerry was good, too).

has any other campaign responded?