|
Edited on Wed Sep-01-04 01:04 PM by WiseMen
In early march, myself and others warned that the devious falsehoods being propagated by the President and his surrogates were being coordinated in such a way as to impugn senator Kerry's CHARACTER in the worst possible manner. The “flip-flopper” theme was a thinly disguised mortal assault on the senator’s character as a man of principle, of courage, of strength. Our call for a powerful response was largely ignored.
Both the Kerry campaign professionals and the independent 527’s supporting the Kerry candidacy, failed to get their heads around the importance of CHARACTER over ISSUES in the campaign that was about to unfold.
The Swift Boat Smear campaign has been toxic to the Kerry camp because in puts a sharp bayonet blade on the UNPRINCIPLED theme on which Rove had already spent $80M.
Kerry advisers really suffered from a "failure of imagination" regarding what the SwiftVets Smear could do. When Kerry wanted to go out and hammer the smear, they held him back for the simple reason that they were totally unprepared with a full conter-offensive – they had studied the charges (which had been already out on the net), they had not prepared rebuttals, they had no counter-Ads to run.
The independent groups were not better. They also had a "failure of imagination." They had been preoccupied with promoting a variety of favorite issues and getting celebrities to do cutesy Ads. The sad obsession is with defeating Bush, not defending Kerry.
Kerry is about to roll out a powerful fall campaign. The smear counter-offensive will create some backlash on Bush. Big things are about to happen, including the Kerry movies, “Band of Brothers,” and “Going Up River,” and the “Vote for Change” tour. But now Kerry is in another very dirty war that he cannot win alone. The attacks are vicious, treacherous and perverse. And Kerry, as our standard-bearer must not fight in the gutter.
Again, I say, it in now time for the rest of the progressive forces to rally, forget about what Kerry can do for us, forget about our pet issues, and focus on what we can do to raise Kerry up and cut the enemy down. We have to do whatever it takes to win back our country from the barbarians in power, for the sake of our constitution, our planet, ourselves, our children and our children’s children.
It is in our hands.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
