Truth Must be Told re John Kerry's Campaign. Flame away.

WiseMen

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Sat Sep-04-04 07:25 PM
Original message

Truth Must be Told re John Kerry's Campaign. Flame away.

Edited on Sat Sep-04-04 07:48 PM by WiseMen

John Kerry is the best candidate for the presidency the Democrats have had in the last half-century.

But, it is now clear that the Kerry campaign has wasted much of the $200 million it has spent to date, given that a quick $200k Ad buy, by the SwiftVets, could so quickly hobble Kerry's march to victory.

Let’s briefly look at the misapprehensions of the campaign:

1. It’s about Character NOT Issues. The entire Bush campaign has focused from the beginning on making John Kerry unacceptable as President and Commander In Chief. Regardless of the “issue” at hand, the principal theme of the Bush campaign is that John Kerry is a shamelessly unprincipled self-promoter who has no strength of character or purpose. The Swift Smears and the RNC insult-fest merely brought this theme to its ecstatic and logical climax.

The Kerry campaign and the progressive 527s simply failed to effectively counter this theme and continue to feature a variety of pet issues, deluding themselves that these issues have relevance even without an effective vindication of the Candidate's honor and integrity against the relentless smears. BUT, THEY DO NOT.

2. It’s National Security, stupid. We may want to pretend otherwise, but an incumbent President can usually determine the debate. In a post-9/11 world with bombs dropping in Iraq, it is impossible to deny Bush his chosen field of battle. The campaign must be fought and won on the field of war on terror and the terror of war, or it will be lost. The failure of the campaign to confront the President head-on 9-11 and Iraq and recent attempts to say “we are moving on to jobs and health-care” is fundamentally misguided.

3. It is the Negative NOT the Positive that counts. Unless the 2004 election is made a referendum on the Bush regime, on its deceit, on its malevolence, on its incompetence, the Democrats will not win. The failure of the sitting President is the only reasonable justification for a midstream change of government. The challenger must, of necessity, run a primarily “negative” campaign, which rips the façade of success off the regime in power. The Kerry campaign has self-defeatingly carried the rules of the primary over into the general election, without either the full recognition of the ruthlessness of the foe they are up against nor clear commitment to show the great evil and harm done the nation by the man in power. The undecided are undecided because they don’t pay attention. It is usually bad news that gets the attention of these good folk.

The campaign clearly lacked the strategic brain needed to keep pace with Mr. Rove. The “no problem” crowd has been wrong. Yet, regardless of what happens with the Kerry campaign reorganization and strategy, progressive forces must rally and stand in the gap, to do whatever it takes to win back our country from the barbarians in power, for the sake of ourselves, our children and our children’s children.