The issue isn't the war or the economy, it's character: Bush is a liar

[PurityOfEssence]

That's what needs to be driven home. George W. Bush is a liar. His first and every instinct is to lie, and that's because he has the interest of himself and friends at heart.

Why is this administration so secretive? They're up to no good.

We should simply repeat George Bush liar repeatedly and let them scream. The very act of refuting the various issues will cast light upon them, and this is one of the most ugly things one can tar a person with.

This, above all else, will sway the election. He's unprincipled and scorns the essence of our government: he thinks this is his monarchy, and it's maintained by lie after lie after lie.

Lying is much worse than flip flopping, and he's done it in every sphere.

"I hardly even knew Ken Lay before 1994; in fact, I think he supported Ann Richards in that election." He THINKS Lay supported her? She got $20K; Bush got $143K. Bush lobbied an Argentinian Senator in 1988 to grease through a pipeline deal.

And on and on and on.

The important thing is to chorus it endlessly and force the issue. Tag his name with the word. Bush lies. Make it ring in their ears, and make them deploy to counter it.

Then they'll hear about Haiti. ("Aristide has resigned for the benefit of his people", when he was led away under an armed Marine guard...)

They'll hear about all sorts of things they've never heard.

[zulchzulu]

1. Is President Bush Lying Again?

I'm going to do some indy ads with this as a theme...

AWOL

[PurityOfEssence]

20. "We never said SH had anything to do with 9-11"; there's footage. Use it.

He said this in one spectacular feat of "gosh, what are you talking about" that I know of; I've seen the footage, and it's a corker.

The man can easily be hanged by his own words; so far, the best ad I've seen is the empty factory with the recordings of him blathering about a new economy and all the rosiness just around the corner.

The Cheney denial of "being pretty certain" about the Prague meeting with Atta that the Daily Show cut with the original was brilliant.

[xray s]

2. Pinnochio noses

The repukes have their flip flap tongs to wave around. We need Pinnochio noses to wear at Bush rallies.

[kentuck]

8. That is an excellent idea !

Pass it on to the campaign! :)

[DieboldMustDie]

21. Of course you can't get in to a Bush rally without signing a loyalty oath.

:grr:

[villager]

3. yes, yes, yes!

Impugn his "character" at every turn... Get these pricks on the defensive... The Repubs have never seriously been on the defensive since about, what, 1964?

They are liars, thugs, cheats and it can't be said too often or too loudly...

[PurityOfEssence]

10. It's all they have: hero worship of the butch, decisive leader

and it must be crushed. That's the real heart of the "strong leader" crap: you always know where he stands. Well, with a liar, you don't.

There really is a sad element to their wimpy hero worship of this little nobody, and it's such a joke that it can blow up on them if a light's put on it properly.

Real men don't lie, they speak plainly and take their lumps.

Where's that footage where he's saying that he's going to go back to the U.N. to get an up or down vote on attacking Iraq--even though he says he'll attack anyway--just to force the "loser" nations to go on the record? Where's that snotty little bit of bluster? He never had the character to live up to it.

He lies about everything. He's not even from Texas: he's a Connecticut Wanky in King Ronnies Court. He's afraid of horses. He wasn't a fighter pilot; he never even soloed. (Not sure about that last one, but I don't think they have proof that he did...) This is classic Republican campaigning: make them prove that he did. Maybe they can trot out one solo flight, maybe more, but it'll all show the previous strutting to be deceptive. Call him 2nd Lieutenant Codpiece for his swaggering about the Lincoln with that stuffed uniform. Make him squirm.

He checked the box saying that he didn't want to be available for foreign deployment, but recently said he'd have gone if called up.

There's lots of misleading and insinuation, but there are plenty of real live lies too, and it's a tag he won't be able to shake.

Like Homer Simpson says: "It's funny because it's true..."

[acmavm]

4. Yes bush* is a liar, and oh so much more. He's a fraud, he's the

predecessor to Ken Lay (Harken Energy), he's a sadist (Karla Faye Tucker and all the other death row inmates), in fact, he's pretty much an all round sinner kind of guy.

But if I have to settle for liar well then so be it.

[Lourde_Green]

5. Damn straight

Bastards are talking about OUR CHARACTER? At least Clinton didn't hurt anyone! Junior led us into a fucking war!


*The king is dead- long live the king*

[The_Casual_Observer]

6. So what? Dictators have to lie once and a while.

However is it a lie when a dictator does it, or does it simply become the truth from that point forward?

[kentuck]

7. Yes, he is a "liar"....

but so is a "flip-flopper". At least, that is the impression they wish to leave with people when they say "flip-flopper". It's a clever way of saying "liar" without sounding too harsh, but those that hear it know it is a disqualifying character flaw. It is a deadly political label.

"Liar" is not politically correct enough to be accepted by the electorate, even though that is exactly what he is. We need another word that means the same but will not be instantly turned off by the voters. I think "misled" is the word. It means deceived or lied. Bush is a "misleader". He intentionally "misled" us into war. Everything he has done, he has "misled" this country. Although "liar" hits him right on the nose, "misled" will be a more effective word to defeat him.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. "Mislead " is for shit

It then looks like you don't think you have a case to call a guy a liar. If the guy lies and it's a fact, then the guy is a liar.

[kentuck]

13. He's a fucking idiot too.

You wanna say that in public debate? Sometimes Democrats are just too damn honest for their own good. :)

[The_Casual_Observer]

15. Oh man you KNOW I would!

Someday it will happen, I mean somebody is going to do it sooner or later.

[kentuck]

16. And you would get a lot of applause too...

But you would not get the votes you need to win. A moral victory is not enough.

[PurityOfEssence]

19. "flip-flopper" means "spineless"; that's not what they're saying

When they tar Kerry as a wishy-washy shilly-shallier, they're impugning his bravery. They hint around lies here and there, and the pessimism screed is just more blustering macho crap. Remember: the Republican credo is about being some forthright cowboy warrior type. To show the dauphin as a sidewinder is an eye-opener. We would be beating them to the punch to show the deliberate pattern of liar.

I don't mean having this as a bit of the argument, I mean focusing the whole thrust of the election on this deliberate deception being the dominant character of the man: he doesn't care about the common folk, he's shifting the tax burden onto them while taking away regulations that protect them.

I wouldn't worry that it's language that's too strong: the hero-worshippers want some action here. They say Kerry's too unwilling to slug it out, well, this'll send them reeling. They can't bellyache about us being big meanies to them--even though they will--after what they've done. In fact, their whining can be used as delicious ridicule.

Kerry's stolid and somewhat weary demeanor is the face of an honest man. They could get great mileage on the tack of "had enough, yet?" approach.

[wtmusic]

11. The "liar" route is problematic

Too many people think the word sounds unpatriotic and vulgar. I know that's insane, but IMO swing voters will think it sounds radical and retreat into their comfortable ignorance.

OTOH, it's hard to retreat from "first net job loss since the depression", "interest on the national debt is second only to defense in government spending", "$500B deficit", "slashed funds from No Child Left Behind", "raiding Social Security", etc.

Remember, all they would have to do is find one instance where Kerry had lied...

[hansolsen]

28. We cannot retreat on the issue of Buhs's character. We must make his

character ***the*** issue of this election. Yes, many people refuse to see the dark side of George Bsh, but you and I can see it. That is not "radical". It is not "radical" to rage against a man who misled this country into war.

The lie he told is that the evidence of WMD in Iraq on his desk was certain. We know that the evidence on his desk was anything but certain. he lied. what is there not to understand about that??

[IndianaGreen]

12. Well, if we are going to be accurate, we must say that Bush and Cheney

are war criminals that should be arrested and send to face trial at The Hague.

[kentuck]

14. That's right, IG...

But we know that's not going to happen...We have to communicate the truth to the most people that will buy it in order to win the election. If the truth is too stark, they won't buy it. You have to spoonfeed it to them.

[PurityOfEssence]

17. Aaah, accuracy schmaccuracy; just hit them with factual mud

There are worse things that these guys are guilty of: they're avid proponents of the subjugation of most of mankind; that's worse than being mere baby-killing war criminals.

Seriously, though, that's too big of a leap for people to make, and it's so shrill--accurate though it is--that it will sound like the ravings of fringy nutcases. People can believe he's a liar; they've seen it themselves. It rings true. It bugs many of them. It's wrong. Their Mommies told them it's wrong. It's pervasive: once someone gets in the habit of lying, then they just continue, sealing Daddy's records, sealing Gubernatorial records, shutting down Freedom of Information Act releases, closed-door meetings with Petroprofiteers as the rest of us struggle with gas costs, abetting the extortion of California to sustain crooked contributors, lying to their investors (Harken and Halliburton), lying about draft issues, lying about Global Warming, lying about laying down on the job with endless vacations and endlessly lying about lying.

Call 'em War Criminals, and you're a kook; call 'em liars, and it just smacks of the truth. People will be embarrassed to side with them.

[shraby]

18. I advocate calling a spade a spade.

He's a liar and a thief. If a person has those two attributes (or even one) no one can ever trust them again.

He lied about soooo many things.
He stole the presidency.

[DieboldMustDie]

22. You left out "murderous thug"

:grr:

[PurityOfEssence]

24. I left out "Messianic Juvenile", too

Just going for the visceral and universal here.

I know you're just having fun, but I want to attack his character in provable ways that disgust everyone. His reluctant warrior schtick will inevitably sucker far too many, and they'll even retaliate for us picking on a humble servant of the people having to do regrettable things to protect us. The lying will stick. Lying is a core personality flaw, and is a sin against one of the basic tenets of society; it's also amply provable, and the very defense of him brings forth revolting example after example.

[auburngrad82]

23. Exactly

That's my number one gripe with the Bush administration. They have never been honest with America.

[cthrumatrix]

25. there is soo much to choose from...jobs, lies, personal history etc...

he's a puppet who has been used by corporations/PNAC

[goodhue]

26. Yes, he is Wrong!

[Feanorcurufinwe]

27. Pew poll:The most frequently used negative word to describe Bush is 'liar'

That was in February... do you think he's done anything to convince people he's not a liar since then?

Moreover, when asked for a one-word description of Bush, equal percentages now give negative and positive responses, which marks a dramatic shift since last May when positive descriptions outnumbered negative ones by roughly two-to-one (52%-27%). The most frequently used negative word to describe Bush is "liar," which did not come up in the May 2003 survey. The president's job approval also stands at an all-time low. Just 48% approve of his performance as president, the first time in his presidency his rating has fallen below 50%
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=203

[hansolsen]

29. I agree. This election will turn on Shrub's character not his competence.

The American people cut the incumbent, the "man in the arena", a lot of slack to make mistakes. But they cut leaders very little slack if they lose trust in that incumbent.

Bush has a poor track record to run on, so he is trying to make this election all about John Kerry, who he attacks relentlessly. The Kerry campaign has little success in keeping the discussion focused on Bush's failures in office, in part because of the reluctance to overtly oppose the war in Iraq. Today's statement that "this is the wrongwar, in the wrong place, at the wrong time" is a step in the right direction.

But we need to go further. Kerry has said Bush misled the nation into war. He needs to keep driving that message home, because this goes to the issue of character. There is a dark and evil side to George Bush. soem people can see it and some can't.

He lied about WMD in Iraq. He said the evidence on his desk of WMD in Iraq was "certain". We know for a fact the evidence on his desk was anything but certain. He mischaracterized that evidence. He misled the country about that intelligence. He cherry picked the intelligence to lead the country to war.

He approved torture at Abu Ghraib. He can deny it only because he carries a letter in his pocket from his lawyers saying nothing is torture unless the abuse does permanent bodily injury to the victim. This speaks volumes about George Bush's character.

He smeared Kerry with lies about his heroism in Vietnam and has refused to back off those smears.

I could go on and on.

This election is not about George Bush's competence, it is about his character. He is running as God's candidate. That cannot be allowed to stand. He is the least Christian man who ever served in the Oval Office. If we allow that to stand we will lose this election and we will deserve to have lost.

Whenever Kerry begins to speak to these issue, someone from the campaign comes forward to stick a sock in his mouth. Whoever that someone is, needs to step aside and let the candidate run for office. If he runs on his character vs Bush's character we will win.

So say I.

[Bandit]

30. You are right of course but LIAR is too harsh... Use lacks credibility

The screams will drown out your message unless you temporate it some. The important thing is to get the message out. The bush* administration has lost all Credibility.