Bush is desperate and on the run- they just played their best hand early

[NewYorkerfromMass]

Folks, the ads of the POW's and vets complaining about Kerry were supposed to come out later in the campaign.

Trying to portray Kerry as anti-American and featuring the Kerry-despising former POW's and vets were supposed to be their coup de grace. It has always been Kerry's main Achilles' because it goes to the heart of the "supporting the troops" mantra. Unfortunately for the beleaguered Bush team, Kerry's polling has been so strong that they had no choice but to play this hand now. I know these ads will have some affect, and Kerry's numbers will go down a bit, but when the dust settles Kerry will re-emerge on top. There is plenty of time to restore Kerry's support, and neutralize all the smears.

Timing is everything with these types of stories- remember the Bush DWI story?... Last weekend of the campaign- and it put Gore over the top.
At the very least, these ads were supposed to come out AFTER the GOP convention.

This will all be ancient history in 6 weeks.

[yardwork]

1. I hope you are right

I figure that the repugs have more dirty tricks ready to play.

I hope that the Swift Boat Liars are exposed so thoroughly that the public is skeptical of any further "revelations" that emerge about Kerry.

I'm glad to see MSNBC and the NYT doing their part in recent days.

[DemNoir]

2. I agree

They are still pursuing their Kerry will be dead by Labor Day strategy.
That will not be the case so what will it leave them with?

[Bertha Venation]

3. Breaking News on Tuesday, October 26: bin Laden in U.S. custody

I get mad too easily so I'm trying not to pay too much attention to the campaign. It's thoughts like this that scare me.

:scared:

[stinkeefresh]

16. heck, scares me too.

But there are reasons to doubt this will happen.

One thing I read recently pointed out that W has mentioned OBL's name voluntarilly only four times in that last year or so. I feel that if they thought they were going to catch him (or worse, if he was already caught and just waiting for Oct.) then Bush would talking about him all the time.

Remember, these guys are very good at pre-seeding the public conciousness with ideas so that when their big shoe drops, everyone is ready to respond "correctly". If they were optimistic, it would be non-stop "we must catch OBL!" from every right-winger and especially from the admin.

And that's just what you'll see if they do get on his trail. The instant they think they have a good chance to catch him, we'll be hearing about how important it is to catch him- probably from Bush himself. As long as they keep pretending he doesn't exist, I think it's a sign that we're safe from this kind of Oct. Surprise.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

17. But Bush said it isn't important it is to catch him

or at least he doesn't care- (Cave door open, cave door shut).
Besides, at this point OBL is not the problem, AQ is.

[Bertha Venation]

20. AQ is the problem -- OBL is the symbol. Catch the symbol and . . .

that's why I'm scared.

That Bush doesn't care is a given. He doesn't care about anything but his drives.

"Yeah. We need to catch him and stop al Qaida, but who cares? I'm on the course! Now watch this drive."

[Bertha Venation]

18. thanks

Sounds like some good reasons not to fear this O.S. very much.

[stinkeefresh]

23. yeah. the other thing

is that he may actually be damn hard to catch. And this administration isn't particularly, er, competant.

[Generator]

26. I gotta say this about Bin Laden

(I think he's dead, or if he's not dead, he's being protected by somebody with higher connections than lowly George W..but that's another debate all together)

If they really captured Bin Laden that close to the election, it would be impossible to not throw at them that it looks POLITICAL. To the hilt. In other words, here is an administration that doesn't make it their top priority to find the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks until it is crunch time to benefit THEM politically. Letting how many plans, plots, and American lives be risked in the meantime?

Of course, everyone will come back and say the American people are too stupid to care that it's political and it's obvious that BushCo are not really protecting us against terror but still I wonder.

It's become semi-mainstream to question the terror alerts, so I know Bin Laden in October would not be let go off as just another coincendence.

And, sigh, there's always Canada.

[liberal N proud]

32. I say morning of Oct. 31 for bin Laden announcement

It is the last Sunday before the Election. Sunday gets them all the talk shows and the pulpit. Reaches the most people in thier mind. Those who sit at home on Sunday and those faithful to him who are sitting in the pews.
And no time for Kerry to recover!
:scared:

[amber dog democrat]

4. Maybe you have a point - They may have cut their wolf loose - too soon

I will be astonished if they can find anything that can beat it. But don't count them out. at this point no lie is too horrendous, no innuendo is too far fetched.
There was the story about LBJ telling his publicist to get the word out that his opponnant in an earlier race had sex with pigs.
The publicist was supposed to have responded saying that we know this is not true.
LBJ was supposed to have said " Yeah, but make the son of a bicth DENY it "

We know they are desparate, but even wounded rattlers are dangerous.

[LynneSin]

5. Did you copy my thread?

I had just posted the same thing about 10 minutes ago that Rove played this smear tactic too early and there will be plenty of time for Team Kerry to recover from this. When Lee Atwater did the "Willie Horton" smear campaign against Dukakis, it happened just weeks before the November election and Dukakis had no time to recover.

Lee Atwater is in hell grumbling about how crappy of job he did teaching Rove the proper way to smear

(just kidding about the copy thing!! :loveya: )

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. I didn't (of course) but give me a link

and we'll argue about it. :)

[Beetwasher]

6. Yeah, I Think So Too, This Was Their Big Guns

and they had to pull them out early...I can't imagine anything more desperate or a more vicious smear attack than this...But then again, I will never underestimate the depths of depravity to which they will sink, so who knows!

[Downtown Hound]

7. And you know what the funny thing is?

Kerry's still winning. His numbers went up in the last Zogby poll. They went down a little in the CBS poll but he's still on top. They also went up in The Economist magazine poll. The only thing Bush has left is the RNC convention. Bush will probably have about as much success with that as he does with his State of the Union speeches.

Kerry will weather this storm, not to worry.

[kentuck]

8. I think you may be right....

I do think they are acting out of desperation.

[yellowcanine]

9. Also every smear that backfires helps to innoculate Kerry from the

next one. You don't think Rove is going to rest on his "laurels" do you?

[Chef]

10. Not so sure?

You underestimate these vermin. They may be the most incompentent goverment we have ever had, but they are skilled at the dark side of politics. Immagine six or eight more of these media consuming, issue smothering smoke screens played out over the next two months. I wouldn't put money on how low these douchbags will go to destroy this country.

[CarolynEC]

11. I've had that hunch, too, that they rolled this thing out early

Didn't this all crawl out from under its rock at about the time the staggeringly low job numbers came out? 240,000 new jobs expected -- 32,000 actually created.

I wondered at the time if the Bush admin, as it compiled the numbers and began to see how horrible they were, suddenly fast-tracked the smearboat nonsense as a distraction.

[faithnotgreed]

15. thats a good point carolyn. they had to hide the job #s somehow...

but as we know they have got smears lined up waiting as they have been doing from day one

but at least it shouldnt be able to get any worse ?
no matter - were fighting the good fight and its there we shall win

[John Q. Citizen]

13. My sentiments exactly

They went too soon and they forgot the story of "the tar baby."

Kerry has been through this before in previous campaigns and he always came out on top.

On my local MT ISP discussion boards the freepers are now playing defense, yesterday they were on offense.

I guess they thought desperate times called for desperate measures, suckers!

[KittyWampus]

14. Thanks For Your Perspective. I Hadn't Thought Of This

sounds really plausible.

And Kerry wasn't supposed to have raised as much money either. :)

[ApolloCreedLives]

19. I bet not that many people are following this story

I'm sure people have heard about it, obviously, but this is mid-late August, most people don't really pay attention to the campaigns at this time of the year and won't remember any of this stuff in the last week of October. News stories have their own lifecycle, and unless it's a world changing event like 9/11 or the Iraq war, stories like these die a quick death when the next big thing comes up.

Rove played his hand too early, and they don't have the cards that Kerry has.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

21. That is true too.

Very unfavorable news period.

[michigandem2]

22. you make a good point...

I will keep this in mind for the next 9 weeks...ugghhh its going to be a LONG 9 weeks

[A_Possum]

24. Well, the release of the book would be pre-scheduled

The first Smearboat ad and book release were timed together, and because of the nature of the publishing industry and distribution, that must have been scheduled for at least several months, probably timed for after the Dem convention and before the pugs meet.

However, this POW ad could have been moved up, especially with all the bad news for the Smearboaters.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

25. Yes. The POW ad started today is the one they moved up.

This issue is separate from the swifties, but their schedule is now FUBAR.

[fujiyama]

27. I hope your right

I do wish he had hit back immediately though. I liked his response yesterday but it should have been atleast a week earlier.

[quaoar]

28. I agree that Bush has shot his wad

These kinds of stories only stay in the news if there are new developments driving them. So the Swift Boat Liars would have had to have held back more of their accusations as they did with the Christmas in Cambodia story.

The only thing propping up the story right at the moment is Kerry's denunciation and the new info about Thurlow's own medal.

It will soon die out and we'll be back to Kobe, Michael Jackson and Laci Peterson.

[Jacobin]

29. It has only just begun

Dream on. We are dealing with thugs, criminals and psychopaths.

Before November, Kerry will have ten black illegitimate children, fourteen mistresses and a French poodle, and we'll discover that he sends money to terrorists and emails bin Laden daily for campaign advice.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

30. Further proof of the desperation folks:

Now they are calling Kerry crazy- (sez he "lost his cool")

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x765436

[NewYorkerfromMass]

31. Oh yes, I forgot to mention

they risked getting sued by Kerry for violating FEC law. :)