When the history of this campaign is written....

[Leilani]

It will have turned on Kerry walking into the Rove trap...

{If I knew then, what I know now, I STILL would have voted for IWR.}

This is the discussion they have been having on Hardball.

Do you think this is correct? The panelists agreed it is much more important than Swiftboats, etc.



Note:sorry, my computer is missing quotes

[childslibrarian]

1. What is the Rove Trap?

For those of us that don't feel watching is good for our blood pressure.

[Leilani]

4. The Rove Trap

was that John Kerry voted yes on IWR.

If he continued to support that vote, then it would be hard to criticize Bush on Iraq.

And they figured he would continue to say yes.

The panel said he thinks like a Senator.

[lancdem]

2. Yeah, right

The election has two months to go and they're doing a Kerry postmortem? Please.

[Leilani]

6. They were not saying Kerry would lose

because of that vote.

They were saying it was really important.

[swag]

3. Same caliber of pricks who insisted stocks would outperform bonds

in 2004.

They're paid to sell sofas and tanning salon handjobs.

Nothing to see here.

Shut it off.

[NYC Liberal]

5. "When the history of this campaign is written.."

It will say that Kerry unseated Bush in a huge landslide, despite the "nattering nabobs of negativity"... also known as "reporters."

[istruthfull]

7. Don't get it

I don't get it. Bush goes down the road and finds out it is the wrong road but stays on it and he is a strong leader. Kerry goes down the road and finds out that it is the wrong road and adjust his course to the correct road and he is a flip-flop? The first is stupid and the second is intelligent.

[Hamlette]

8. When was the last time you heard a legitimate issue on Hardball?

I can just hear Chris being so ernest about this.

Lightweight. Entertaining at times, but a lightweight.

History will remember the wars. How then turn out. Do you know who voted for the Tonkin Gulf resolution? Neither do I. But I do know that LBJ pushed it. He gets the blame.

History will remember Iraq. The war, not the vote.

[flpoljunkie]

9. Daily Howler explains why Kerry's statement produced a flap...

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh081204.shtml

Why has Kerry’s statement produced a flap, since he has said the same thing many times in the past?In large part, it’s because of the way this statement has been framed in the press. In particular, the flap seems to turn, not on what Kerry said, but on what question he was answering. And depending on what news org you read, you seem to get a wide array of explanations of that.

To what question was Kerry responding when he made this familiar statement? Amazingly, no—we can’t find a transcript of the question Kerry was asked. And you know what happens in situations like that—inventive journalists start embellishing! What was Kerry asked that day? Every news org seems to spell it out differently. Here’s what Candy Crowley said in real time on CNN:

CROWLEY (4/9/04): Welcome back to Inside Politics. As we reported earlier, John Kerry, traversing the countryside, is in the Grand Canyon in Arizona. He was stopped by reporters and talked a bit. He was asked the question that George Bush put out there, which is, If you knew then what you now know, would you still have voted for the war on Iraq resolution?

Was Crowley quoting the actual question? There’s no way to tell from this report. But according to Crowley, Kerry said he still would have favored the resolution if he knew then what he knows now. But in the next day’s Washington Post, Jim VandeHei improved on that framing:

VANDEHEI (8/10/04): Responding to President Bush's challenge to clarify his position, Sen. John F. Kerry said Monday that he still would have voted to authorize the war in Iraq even if he had known then that U.S. and allied forces would not find weapons of mass destruction.

more...

[Leilani]

10. Sorry, everybody....Geeeeez!!

I thought it was an interesting discussion.

A lot of times, in campaigns, things happen, & only later do we realize how important that event was.

They were not saying the vote was good or bad, & they were not saying who would win the point.

[ibegurpard]

11. I think it's a bit early to be composing epitaphs.

eom