The Kerry Campaign Needs to do This

[jmags]

In light of the fantastic New York Times article that blows the lid off the Swift Boat Vets the Kerry Campaign needs to pounce on this and make sure every single American knows the truth about the organization and their claims.

The new commercial is a decent start, but a 30 second spot only allows you to refute a fraction of the smears the Swift Boat Vets have made. I think the best way to further the momentum would be to run full page advertisements in the major newspapers (NY Times, Washington Post, WSJ, Chicago Tribune, LA Timse) and then in major newspaper in each swing state. That would allow the Kerry campaign to show how the biggest smears the group has made have been debunked, and go into more detail about the GOP ties the groups funding has.

Doing an ad buy like this would also mean the cable news networks will also talk about it, gaining the ad further publicity free of charge.

The only way Kerry loses this election is if fails to respond to these smearjobs. This group is bullshit, and the Kerry campaign needs to make sure every single American knows it. The recent speech and the new commercial are a start, doing something like this would finish the job, and begin to restore any seeds of doubt the Swift Boat ad may have planted in undecided voters.

What do you guys think?

[Nite Owl]

1. Yes, they absolutely must refute this

and Kerry has done a good job as of yesterday. It should have been done a week ago and I hope the truth will win out over a group of slimey liars. What the campaign needs to do is start their own attack about Bush*. God knows there is enough material and it won't be lies. They have spread lies and are now forcing the Dems to spend money on this and it moves aside the issues that need to be talked about. They were successful with this and it can't happen again. We can't be left only defending we have to make them defend their miserable record that they don't wnat to speak about.

[vetwife]

2. Edwards needs to call CNN on their Reporting as well

it is his job ! He can blast them for their lack of journalism comments. This is the Veeps job and keeps the nominee above the Frey.
Edwards should be really yelling !

[senseandsensibility]

8. I'm kind of puzzled by Edwards'

lack of visibility during this. What do you think is the reason?

[goclark]

3. They need Memes, not long statements

Kerry needs to say loud and clear...:bounce:

Repeat: "Smear, smear, smear, that's all you'll hear!!"
"Let's start talking about TODAY and TOMORROW!"

It should be said by everyone from Kerry on down.

There will not be enough paper and ink in the world to respond to all of the charges that will come at them from here on out. This is but the tip of the iceberg.

The reason I am saying this is because of the attention span of the voting public. Only the political junkies like us read and compare all the op ed's and see all the anti bush movies.

The rest of the people are like clothes on the clothes line - blowing with the wind.

I have had enough experience with teaching youngsters to know what works. Keep telling them the same thing in the same way, day after day after day. Then they start saying it for you.

We need to empower the American people to understand that it is what it is -- a smear campaign to divert the public from the real issues..jobs, civil liberties,the environment etc.

When we are talking about the Swift boats we are NOT focusing on TODAY or TOMORROW and we don't have time for that mess.
:bounce:

[Surface Map]

4. what Kerry needs to do is

start raising more hell and get pissed off. He also needs to file a lawsuit to destroy this BS. It will at least give the appearance that he is tough and he is mad before the election and he can drop it after the election or continue on to clear his name.

[TNOE]

5. This past week I have longed for the old days

in which Kerry could challenge Bush to a fight or a duel....

Now who do you think it would be that would not show up or run away? Wouldn't that prove whose really tough?

Bush ran away from Vietnam and he ran away on 9/11. Simple. They keep throwing these disgusting low level attacks at him - he needs to challenge Bush. The freeps would love all the blood and they could watch their "protector" get slaughtered and then will have to question whose side God is really on.

I am so ashamed that so many Americans are so damn dumb to even believe these allegations. Truly, truly pathetic...... I only hope and pray that most stupid people don't vote.

[skip fox]

6. You have to refute it if you've made a "thing" about it, but

refuting it puts Kerry on the defensive, and he's been on the defensive since prior to the convention.

If he doesn't start taking the offense, and making the debate about health care and education &c, he's cooked.

Sad to say.

[bigtree]

7. Sad to say you've missed the efforts of his campaign in this regard

The Kerry campaign addressed 4 other issues in addition to the smearvets, yesterday alone. Were you aware of these? If so, did you disregard them in favor of using webspace to criticize our own nominee? How many posts have you made highlighting the actual efforts of the Kerry campaign?

There are the responses to the swiftliars
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?ReleaseID ...
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?ReleaseID ...
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?ReleaseID ...

then there were statements on:

-prescriptions- "Americans Could Have Discount Prescription Prices From Canada Tomorrow if George W. Bush Would Give the Word; Bush Should Stop Tap Dancing and Support the Bipartisan Legislation"
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?ReleaseID ...

-Zell Miller Keynoting the GOP Convention
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?ReleaseID ...

-Cheney and Bush Were For A Strong Presence on the Korean Peninsula Before They Were Against It, Says Kerry Campaign
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?ReleaseID ...

-Kerry Outlines Health Care Plan to Bring Down Costs for Families, Strengthen the Economy, Create Jobs; Report Shows Skyrocketing Health Costs Have Led to Job Loss
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?ReleaseID ...

[skip fox]

9. Yeah, but what's making the tube.

(And before you attack me as a rube, you might want to attend to what I wrote. Kerry's message is not getting out there.


One wonders just HOW one can lose to a president who has ruined the economy, bankrupted the country, lead us into "mistaken" war, etc., etc. Well, we're seeing how.

Maybe the efforts of investigative journalist will take this Swift Boat stuff off the front page (as seems to be occurring) but then Rove will pick another mischaracterization for Kerry which he will end up wasting time (incl. the precious little allocated on national news), money, and energy refuting these.

My point remains, he needs to get off the defensive.

(And your intemperance is showing.)