The Kerry campaign is screwing up

[Onlooker]

It seems to me that the Kerry campaign has allowed his opponent to define Kerry's service in terms of his medals, while what's really important is that Kerry elected to serve his country and Bush did not. Whether or not you think (as Kerry's commanders did) that Kerry deserved the medals is not that important.

Further, Kerry should point out that he and other vets against the war saved 1000s of soldiers' lives by helping to end the war early, and they also helped Vietnam find its own way towards democracy. It amazes me that these prowar people are getting so much traction when even today there's no evidence to support the claim that the war served American interests. The Swift Boat Liars like other pro-Vietnam war lunatics caused countless deaths of American soldiers and should be held to account.

[klook]

1. I partly agree

It is important to emphasize service vs. shirking, but Kerry's integrity has been attacked and it's essential to confront that head-on. This is further differentiation from Bush, who has no real defense against the AWOL chargers.

[roguevalley]

2. I agree. How can Kerry be on the defensive against a person with *'s

record? It escapes me. :(

[A_Possum]

3. LOOK

These smear creeps have said Kerry LIED to get his medals and injured himself to get an early discharge.

You don't "allow" this, this is the lying charge made and Kerry is smacking it down with evidence and eye-witnesses.

With that kind of accusation, he can't just say, "but I went." He's been accused of the worst kind of cowardice, so of course he's addressing that.

Sorry if I'm irritated but after hearing Bob Dole's smears I'm steaming.

[soothsayer]

4. Relax. Kerry's running a clean campaign. The evil empire is desperate

Don't sweat it. The truth will out.

Wait for the debates.

[girl gone mad]

5. I agree that Bush...

is giving Kerry great ammo for the debates. What is less certain is just how badly the media will twist it to Bush's favor.

[VolcanoJen]

8. Yes! And, I think that running a clean campaign is the smartest strategy..

.. in the sense that it's just about the only thing that might keep the media on Kerry's side throughout this.

There's some morphing going on right now.... Chris Matthews, for one, sees this as a smear and is going to hold that position. The New York Times and Washington Post have printed anti-Bush versions of the Swift Boat Veterans' stories.

I think for Kerry to keep it clean is going to help him in the long stretch, and make him more sympathetic to the media... unless, of course, the media just turns on him and rips his throat out, along with the Bush Wolves.

Now that I've typed that, I'm feeling cynical again... :shrug:

[SayitAintSo]

10. Did you note the Bush mouthpiece would not confirm 3 debates

to Russert this morning though ? That was telling .... he asked 2- 3 times ... the puke didn't budge ... just kept changing the subject.

[King of New Orleans]

6. Have you read the stories that having been coming forth

just recently by veterans debunking the smear boat liars?

They are very impressive. I've personally learned alot.

[mmonk]

7. I agree he's been too soft

It's time to fight or have the campaign die on the vine. The republican party is a group of lying vipers. I say call them what they are. I can't tell you the name of ONE elected republican official that I believe has any character. Sometimes you have to get down into the manure to remove it.

[CaTeacher]

9. You are correct!

We should be emphasizing that Kerry (through his patriotic anti-war acivities) put pressure on the US to end the war--thus saving the lives of many people. That is what is important. Everyone who is criticizing--the life he saved may have been yours--or someone dear to you.

I LOVE THIS MEME!!!

[huckleberry]

13. Lawrence O'Donnell said on Hardball about a month ago

that John Kerry saved his life by stopping the war. He was adamant about it and that was really impressive!

[brainshrub]

11. Relax

The medals & valor issue is where Kerry is strongest.

The Bush campaign is attacking Fort Knox with a pea-shooter. Enjoy the show while the BFEE gets knocked flat on its butt.

[Llewlladdwr]

12. Umm.....Dude?

Vietnam isn't a Democracy.

[American liberal]

14. did any of you hear the shill on This Week?

When Stephanopolos (sp.) brought up Kerry's rebuttal to the swift boat assholes, the repuke immediately says something like, "I can't believe he's wasting his time talking about something that happened over 30 years ago when we have real issue confronting us now." I swear I wanted to throw something at my TV. It also pissed me off that the repuke was allowed to present his side with impugnity. Nobody challenged any of the lies that came out of his mouth. It was eery.

[Proud_Lefty]

15. Remember which campaign runs the media

We all got upset with Kerry for not standing up for himself and calling Bush a liar when he smears him with smut. I wrote his campaign several times. Now he's setting the record straight, and Bush has utilized the opportunity to say, "Come on. Get on with the real issues." The questions are directed through the interviewer and we don't own the media. I feel they are trying to answer the questions as well as they can. It's not about the soft money ads, it's about the validity of the claims they make, and denouncing them if they can't stand behind them. Those ads against Bush were based on fact. These against Kerry were nothing but lies. But the press doesn't give our spokes people enough time to get that out. Tad Divine tried on MTP and got some of it out, but not much before he was cut off.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. We just need a different mouthpiece.

[KharmaTrain]

16. Let's Stay Straight Here...Kerry Didn't End The War...

His testimony helped speed up "Vietnamization"...turning the fighting over to the ARVN (snickers allowed). This led to the sending of thousands of troops who were earmarked for Nam to other locals or stateside...and reduced the number of ground forces from over 500,000 to 100,000 or so.

Nixon, in 1971, was no sooner going to end the Vietnam War than let some young punk like Kerry and the other Vietnam protestors make it appear he was caving into their, and popular demands. If anything he stuck out negotiating in faith with the North Vietnamese until right before the '72 elections, and then to use it for an October Surprise..."Peace Is At Hand".

Kerry and my anti-war brothers and sisters saved millions of lives. First, the thousands who came home in on piece rather than be faced with another tour in that stink pit. Second, by making it politically popular for Nixon to announce periodic troop reductions that spared the lives of thousands already in the service or about to be drafted. Thirdly, it sent into motion the evaluation of the power politicians had over the military and the lives of our children. It kept our forces from another morass for 30 years, until this band of hoodlums came along with their war for profit regime.

The war ended when the right wing...to embarassed by Watergate...looked the other way as Indo-China was over-run by the North Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge...and then blamed the "libruls" for this...rather than their own incompetence. Destroying this myth destroys a major pillar of the wingnut movement.

[LynnTheDem]

17. I disagree.

If we can't trust Kerry now, to run his own campaign, then how can we and why would we trust him as President?

Some things ya gotta take on faith.

Add to that, he's done one damn fine job so far, especially considering it was only a few months ago that bush was thought a shoo-in and no hopes whatsoever for anyone else.

I'm going to trust that Kerry knows exactly what he's doing. :)

[LynnTheDem]

18. Another thought

WE ARE DEMOCRATS. WE ARE PROGRESSIVES. WE ARE LIBERALS in the JF Kennedy definition.

We don't do the muck RWWs do. And we don't want to sink down into the shit where RWWs wallow.

If we do, then we're just the same as they are, and that would be worse than losing this election, imo.

We can always keep on fighting when we're fighting clean.

The shrilling and yipping you hear about the SBLiars is only noise and only from that irrelevant minority focus group, the rightwingnuts. They aren't EVER going to vote for anyone other than bush no matter what, so they're unimportant.

Ignore them. They don't matter.