WP piles on -- Analysis: Kerry Playing into GOP Hands

[DeepModem Mom]

Analysis
Kerry Comments in August Have Him Playing Into GOP Hands
Democrat Trying To Make Up for Setbacks on Iraq

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 8, 2004; Page A09

With one simple answer (would have voted for Iraq authority, at Grand Canyon appearance), Kerry stepped on his message for the week and provided the Bush campaign the political ammunition it sought. Kerry has since struggled to explain how he would handle Iraq differently -- and more effectively -- than Bush, as polls have shown voters losing support for his ability to do a better job than the president on this issue. A new USA Today-Gallup poll showed Bush has doubled his lead on handling Iraq over the past month to 13 percentage points -- 54 percent to 41 percent -- to help him pull ahead of Kerry overall for the first time this campaign.

Many Democrats say the flap over a two-year-old vote is illustrative of the mistakes made by the Kerry campaign during August and the obstacles he must clear in the next two months -- a penchant for engaging in fights over his past, conveying complicated positions that make it hard to draw contrasts with Bush and allowing a loose campaign operation to respond haphazardly to incoming fire.

At the same time, the exchange showed how successful Bush and his allies have often been at drawing attention away from their own vulnerabilities by methodically portraying Kerry as all over the place on the big issues of the day. As the Grand Canyon incident and a similar fight over Kerry's Vietnam War legacy showed, Kerry often played into the GOP's hands over the past month....

***

Kerry fought with aides over how aggressively to respond (to the Swift Boad ads) -- initially staying silent despite his better judgment, friends say. Eventually he did fight back to defend his medals, and many of the charges have been discredited. Aides say Kerry may soon apologize for some of his most heated comments during the Vietnam War protests of the early 1970s, a move that would rekindle the debate for a few more days....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3587-2004Sep7.html

[clydefrand]

1. He'll be criticized no matter what

he does or says. The repugs will keep up their barrage of stupid comments and fail to give us the truth about their shortcomings. BUT KERRY WILL WIN IN THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[saracat]

2. He shouldn't apologize.Those remarks are part of the reason I am voting for

him! I liked the Kerry of 1972. Many of us hope he is still there inside the Senator of today. He told the truth. He shouldn't apologize or minimize it,particularly not now with Abu Garib!

[Justice]

3. Here is the Problem: Media Keeps Repeating and Repeating Statement

imagine if this story said --

Bush Comments Just Before Convention Have Him Playing Into DNC Hands
Republican Trying To Make Up for Setbacks on Iraq; Show Can Win War On Terror

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 8, 2004; Page A09

With one simple answer (whether the US can win the war on terror, in interview with NBC's Matt Lauer), Bush stepped on his message for the campaign and provided the Kerry campaign the political ammunition it sought........
________________________________________

But you know what -- Kerry's comments get replayed over and over by the media (like the Swift Boat ads) and Bush's comments are allowed to just die away......

[Sugarbleus]

4. Well, hells bells, has anyone SEEN him anywhere???

How is he doing? (Polls notwithstanding). I hate cable news. They give 90% time to Bush and Cheney where ever they are; next to zero time to Kerry and I haven't even seen but a couple seconds of Edwards at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Julien Sorel]

5. Notice the conflicting message, and the abdication of responsibility:

At the same time, the exchange showed how successful Bush and his allies have often been at drawing attention away from their own vulnerabilities by methodically portraying Kerry as all over the place on the big issues of the day. As the Grand Canyon incident and a similar fight over Kerry's Vietnam War legacy showed, Kerry often played into the GOP's hands over the past month....

***

Kerry fought with aides over how aggressively to respond (to the Swift Boad ads) -- initially staying silent despite his better judgment, friends say. Eventually he did fight back to defend his medals, and many of the charges have been discredited. Aides say Kerry may soon apologize for some of his most heated comments during the Vietnam War protests of the early 1970s, a move that would rekindle the debate for a few more days....

So he is criticized for defending his Vietnam service in one paragraph, and then criticized for not defending it in the other. All the while, the article ignores the role the media played in the whole thing. The key sentence is here:

Eventually he did fight back to defend his medals, and many of the charges have been discredited.


This implies that all Kerry had to do was "fight back" and he "discredited" the charges. So the whole thing is his fault. In actual fact, the charges had been discredited in May by journalists who had read the Swift Boat book. In May. Yet you had tripe like "Kerry's now disputed medals" being written in August, by people who knew better. And of course, is this the media's fault for taking a non-event, a pack of already discredited lies and turning them into a story that dominated a month of a presidential campaign? Hell no! It's somehow Kerry's fault for his failure to "fight back." Yet the information discrediting the charges had been in several publications, and Kerry himself had had it on his campaign website as of August 7. I assume this information would have been disseminated to the media as a matter of course, but they were too busy fanning the flames of controversy to actually read it.

Like Willie Horton, like the Iraqi War buildup, when this campaign is over the media will engage in much wailing and gnashing of teeth, perhaps publicly flog themselves, asking, "What went wrong?" And then they'll go out and do the exact same thing the next time it's convenient.

I imagine a whore who allows herself to be beaten in exchange for a lot of money will regret it every once in a while, and promise herself she'll quit this time, that this was it. But as soon as the bruises heal and the price is right...

[incapsulated]

6. Oh, please God, no...

"Aides say Kerry may soon apologize for some of his most heated comments during the Vietnam War protests of the early 1970s, a move that would rekindle the debate for a few more days...."

Whose fucking brilliant idea was this?? Just when the Swiftliars are off the media for a week, they want to bring this up agian?!


:wtf:

[DeepModem Mom]

7. I think this is a time to follow the maxim, "Never apologize" nt

[bigtree]

8. I love these 'friends' who are sourced in this and the Newsweek article

that followed their bogus poll. Unnamed 'Friends' are the only sources for the claim that Kerry was angry, and they use that to springboard into the claim that his campaign was unexpectantly shaken. It would shock and suprise me if the Kerry campaign stuck to the same tack that they had before Labor Day, after the republican convention. Everyone who has been in one of these races knows the race shifts, tightens, and accelerates starting in September. The onlyt difference this year is the fact of the late republican convention which has shortened the time used to recover from the expected bounce from the opposition's convention. Most of what I see from the Kerry camp is not unusual or striking. It's just what I expected from his candidacy and his excellent team of workers and advisors.