Dupe - Please Lock - Sorry

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/07/opinion/07krugman.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

<snip>

What is clear is that whenever political debate turns to Mr. Bush's actual record in office, his popularity sinks. Only by doing whatever it takes to change the subject to the war on terror - not to what he's actually doing about terrorist threats, but to his "leadership," whatever that means - can he get a bump in the polls.

Last week's convention made it clear that Mr. Bush intends to use what's left of his heroic image to win the election, and early polls suggest that the strategy may be working. What can John Kerry do?

Campaigning exclusively on domestic issues won't work. Mr. Bush must be held to account for his dismal record on jobs, health care and the environment. But as Mr. Hedges writes, when war psychology makes a public yearn to believe in its leaders, "there is little that logic or fact or truth can do to alter the experience."

To win, the Kerry campaign has to convince a significant number of voters that the self-proclaimed "war president" isn't an effective war leader - he only plays one on TV.

[mike_c]

1. Kerry musn't try to convince them by "out-Bushing" the boy king....

He has to offer alternatives (as in other directions-- real alternatives that distinguish him from Bush), AND he has to undermine the public's faith in Bush's "war leadership." Otherwise those "swing voters" we hear so much about will say "well look, even John Kerry says we should have a war on terror, so dubya can't be all wrong, can he?" Then they'll give Bush the benefit of the doubt.