People think Bush is honest -- major failing of Kerry campaign

[hansolsen]

A clear majority of people in this country think Bush is a decent, honest, God fearing, Christian man. (latest Newsweek poll this week has 55% believing Shrub is honest).

This constitutes indisputable evidence that the Kerry campaign moles who argue for sweetness, moderation, and a turn to discuss the economy and other domestic issues, have their collective heads up their collective asses so far they are not getting any oxygen to their brains.

Bush is a lying, cheating, stealing bastard and the least Christian man who ever served in the Oval Office. If the Kerry campaign can't keep this election focused on George Bush's character from now until election day, they deserve to lose. AAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH

Kerry cannot and should not hide in the weeds and send out surrogates to do this so called "dirty work". This election is not about George Bush's competance, it is about his character. Discussing his character is the high road not the low road. Get on with it.

[displacedtexan]

1. That's what the current campaign theme is.

There are posts citing a coordinated campaign effort. Check GD2004.

[grannylib]

2. I agree - Chimpy has made his character an issue; let's show it for

what it is: nonexistant.
You are absolutely right: his faith is largely a sham (I don't doubt that he has some personal belief but it's all about him; I don't think he gets it AT ALL that God wants us to serve others); he's a coward and a war-monger and a liar and a thief and a whore for the PNAC which wants to build an American empire, build and test a whole host of new nuclear weapons, and run the world, God help us all.

He's filth, they're all filth, and I don't understand how anyone can think otherwise.

[Sandpiper]

3. Clinton showed the party how to beat the wingnuts

But for some reason, the rest of the party prefers to emmulate the Dukakis campaign model.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

23. That's because many hate the DLC

Of which Clinton was a member of. At least that's the impression I get reading many DU posts.

[fearnobush]

4. Sorry but Newsweek polled 38% repubs to 31% dems. Plus reality

has come back a bit since Newsweek also reported last week that 62% had those lofty media manipulated results.

[seabeyond]

5. it was hard getting past the l word, but now

democrats just flat out say lie. all over the place. all the time. the news though, everytime talking bush says he is honest a good christian man. this is what people are buying. and yes it is the most outragous of the lies. saying how christian and honest bushie boy is

[John Q. Citizen]

6. Time to start canvassing

your neighborhoods and getting the word out to the people who mistakenly think George is honest.

Kerry can say George is a crook, but he already has and that didn't seem to change the minds of the true believers.

Face to face neighbor to neighbor is the way to plant the seeds of doubt about george in the minds of those who don't know better. It may take more than the sound bites Kerry can deliver to change minds, and a person who knows the facts and is willing to present those facts one to one has a much higher chance of creating that change.

Time to roll up your sleeves and go to work, hansolsan. Kerry is a great candidate but he needs our help to win.

I feel I've had sucess at the doors in educating voters on the facts.

I'm also goingt to show F-911 to some of my nieghbors when the DVD is released.

Keep fighting the ignorance and we will win!

[hansolsen]

16. I'm sending letters to the editor (calling Bush the Prince of Abu Ghraib)

for authorizing torture, and I'm talking to people, but I'm also trying to influence the campaign, which does not seem on track.

For example, in the famous "midnight" sppech Kerry did after Bush's convention speech, Kerry said Bush "misled" the nation into war. Which is true and which is a character issue. Kerry should have repeated that charge every day in every speech. But he has not. He has dropped that charge, no doubt because certain (who, I'd like to know)advisors want to keep Kerry above the fray and "clean", so as not to offend swing voters who like Bush.

This kind of thinking is killing this campaign. Being a Kerry supporter is getting to be like being a Minnesota Vikings fan (the toughest job in sports). I'm from MN, I know.

[Generic Other]

7. Self delusion is a form of lying

Are you saying the majority of Americans are liars?

[ramapo]

8. So disturbing

It is just so very disturbing

[Meshuga]

9. Major win for the media

That's the perception they want of the candidates and that's what they are having.

[chookie]

10. Bush's "character" is a laughable lie

The guy is a shameless liar, a fraud, and one of the most dangerous men on the planet.

But I guess being honest about facts like this sounds nasty.

Indeed, all Kerry has to do is recite Bush's record and be accused of hate speech.

As I have said all along -- one of the things Bush has going for him is that not only do most people, inexplicably, fail to comprehend how evil he is, but when you talk factually about him and his policies and his actions, it sounds nuts -- which reflects back on the utterer of those facts!

Combine that with people being unable to comprehend that "it" could happen here.

I used to wonder how Hitler got into power. I don't have to anymore -- I can see it happening in my own time, with my own eyes.

This is a topic often discussed here -- the absolute incomprehensibility of Bush being considered "honest" and a man of "character." Au contraire. The "good" Bush is a utter fictional creation -- the facts are quite opposite.

Reality doesn't seem to matter to American voters any more.

[seabeyond]

11. i am around the fundies that go to church sunday and wed

adn i have told a good ten or more, bush is not a christian and not an example for me to live a christian life. and not a single one has challenged me on. i would have thought would have pissed them off, and they backed down quick on it. i dont think ultimately they are willing to fight that one. i say, anytime you have the chance, debunk that myth too. and would like to hear it come more out of the left, right doesnt own religion, and bush is not a good example of spirit led

[pretzel4gore]

12. it's the news media who, many think, is honest!

(poor guy james! putting up with nazipoo callers, yet remaining decent despite it (shakes haid))....
the news media is largely owned and operated by criminal traitors who need to be put down someday. question is: does Mr Kerry have the ruthlessness the job needs? even men like john macain should do time for abetting the bush gangsters, and mccain is a friend of Mr Kerry!
btw the only reason folks think news is honest is cuz the news tells them so; just like few realize cheney basically selected hisself vice prez; maybe the devil told him to!
>not only does the mass media tell the people what they THINK, it tells 'em what they THINK they THINK they THINK! at least that what the nazopoos tells the nazipoo mediawhores! It's of course a lie!
MISTER kafka, what have yall done!
:) :) ;)

[SoCalDemocrat]

13. this is also our failing

Its a failure of this campaign to allow Bush to paint himself as both honest and likeable. Two complete lies. This administration rivals the Nixon era for dishonesty. What administration before this one has been less transparent and cloaked in secrecy?

Why do we suck so badly. Why can't we even get the truth out on the airwaves?

[SoCalDemocrat]

14. push polling anyone

SO many media outlets are willing to go partisan to win an election.

I wonder why they didn't poll the same audience and ask them if they think Kerry is a decent, honest man? I bet they would of gotten a better score than Bush.

Why don't they ask if people think Bush is dishonest? It's all in how they push the poll and who they poll. Multiple polls I've heard are polling more Republicans than Democrats as another way to skew results.

The fix is on.

BTW: 52% of a country thinking you are decent and honest is NOT what I would call a good result.

I think McCain is decent and honest, and he's a Republican.

[Kahuna]

15. I agree. They should have redefined bush as a misleader...

from the very start.

[snippy]

17. It is not just the Kerry campaign's failure. The democratic party should

have been working to establish this as overwhelmingly obvious to everyone over at least the last year and probably over the last two years. It definitely should have been done well before there was a democratic front runner let alone a nominee.

Except for the American media the entire world knows that Bush is one of the most compulsive and incessant liar in the history of American politics.

There is no subject so somber, serious, or shallow that Bush will not lie about it. The only other option is not to lie. And that apparently is something Bush can not do.

For example:

Bush says he fell off his bicycle because of the heavy rains and he watched on television on the morning of 9/11 as the first plane hit the first WTC tower and John McCain has an illegitimate Negro daughter and Bush would veto McCain-Feingold and the yawning boy was not there and was not yawning and besides he was standing some place else and Richard Clarke had complete access to Bush and Rice which proves that Clarke was out of the loop which is Clinton's fault but the White House revealed that Clarke briefed the press on background about Bush fighting terrorism which means that unnamed White House sources may not be identified even when Bush wants to and everyone except Bush himself knows where he was during his National Guard service but it was Clinton's fault that Bush did not show up for duty which was after Bush volunteered to go to Viet Nam but before he was no longer required to take a flight physical and about the same time that God ordered him to smite Saddam because the 70 lines of embryonic stem cells and more arsenic in the water and more mercury in the air and the completely safe air in New York City folowing 9/11 prove that republican science is better than sound science and the Bush administration did not illegally conspire to illegally reveal the identity of a covert CIA operative which resulted in 2 million new jobs being created because democrats support terrorism and are not good Americans just as the Jews were not good Germans which is why Bush said he would veto the creation of both the Department of Homeland Security and the 9/11 Commission but now claims credit for their creation and the White House cooperated with the 9/11 Commission which is why the White House withheld documents and called the republicans on the Commission before Clarke testified and why the White House did not coordinate the attacks on the integrity and bipartisanship of the Commission and why Bush and Cheney negotiated with the Commission that the two of them would testfy one time only but never again since the dental xrays prove that Bush spoke with the CIA director everyday and did not ignore either the repeated warnings of the dangers of al Qaeda and Osama or the August 2001 intelligence briefing specifically warning of the upcoming 9/11 attacks because the United States is a nation with a mission and that mission is to bring freedom to every single person in the world which will cut the deficit in half if you do not count those parts of the deficit which will increase under Bush which is Clinton's fault but the boxes from China were labeled "Made in USA" which resulted in 2.6 million new jobs being created even though the $400 billion Medicare prescription drug decorative turkey was not labeled $550 billion and was passed without bribery or criminal deception and was not criminally promoted by the Bush administration using taxpayers' money for propaganda purposes which proves that government spending under Bush has gone down if you do not count the increased government spending under Bush which is Clinton's fault just as acts of terrorism have decreased since 9/11 if you do not count the increase in the number of acts of terrorism and Bush's plane to Baghdad was spotted because before Saddam bought the uranium and became an "urgent" but not an imminent threat which is Clinton's fault Bush had no plans on his desk to invade Iraq since the invasion was not planned before Bush took office even though it was the subject of his first national security council meeting in February 2001 and in December 2001 when plans for the invasion were being finalized Bush said he was focused on the military operations in Afghanistan and then the Carrier Costume Party was too far offshore for the Navy to make a large enough "Mission Accomplished" banner to describe the WMD we have found in Iraq some of which Saddam was giving to Osama for following Saddam's plans and using Iraqi hijackers on 9/11 which is Clinton's fault but everyone who pays income taxes got a tax cut which created 3 million new jobs and allowed Iraqi oil revenue to pay for the cost of the reconstruction of Iraq after the invasion by a small number of troops who would be greeted with floral program related activities except for the dead and wounded troops who are being brought home secretly which is Clinton's fault since Bush is the one who hugs the mothers and the widows and the wives and the kids and since Bush does not watch television news he did not know about the republican torture pranks occurring in Iraq until he saw the pictures while watching television news and that is why Bush who will use the jawbone of an ass to force OPEC to open the spigots and who is responsible for good economic numbers but not bad economic numbers which are Clinton's fault wrote the poem that he did not write blaming Laura for dropping the dog.

Ridiculing Bush for his compulsive and incessant lying should have become common.

FIRE THE LIAR

[hansolsen]

18. Wow, what a sentence. Marcel Proust is smiling tonight. N/T

[buycitgo]

20. hahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa. keep forgettting to save that!

thanks for bringing it up every now and again

you are SO right about everybody but the MEDIA knowing the obvious

I called a radio show a few weeks ago and used the emperor has no clothes analogy, along with through the looking glass, referring directly to the media for perpetrating the myth of a competent, honest bush presidency

and this was on Jim Warren's show. he's the political editor of the Chicago Trib. his guest, to whom I addressed my comment, was John Dickerson, who'd just interviewed Bush for TIME, and elicited the ''catastrophic success quote''

they, of course, weren't buying my contention that the media are complicit in propping up this psychotic halfwit

[usregimechange]

19. Ha, I phone bakned today and a Dem who is voting for Bush

told me she was voting for him because he is a Christians and an "honest man."

[hansolsen]

21. Why shouldn't she believe it, Dem bigfoots have been reluctant to cross

Shrub because they are afraid of the voters -- they are afraid to tell the votes the truth because the voters might not like hearing the truth -- at first.

Of course, a good case can be made that bigfoot politicians who are afraid to speak the truth to the voters shouldn't be entrusted with running the war against terrorists, but then again Shrub doesn't tell them the truth either.

In this election truth is an orphan.

[SpecialK84]

25. I think you called my mom.

I got rather rude with her when she said she wouldn't switch parties to be a registered Republican even though she is a rabid Bush supporter.

I told her she was a shame to the word Democrat and, as far as I was concerned, no longer my mother. I was serious. In my opinion blood is no thicker then water ... being related to someone means nothing.

I cannot, and will not, respect and/or associate with anyone who so blindly supports a liar and a murderer. It's pretty simple, even if that means disowning members of my own family.

I would rather be completely alone and have my dignity and morals intact then surrounded by people, however much they "love" me, and not be able to look at myself in the mirror in the morning.

[Armstead]

22. Damn right. He's incompetent, dishonest, callous and arrogent and phony.

Sesems to be like a lot of fodder for an oppositional campaign.

[spanone]

24. Your premise is based on the polls and they really don't mean anything.

a CLEAR majority. Bullshit.

[hansolsen]

30. Well I hope you are right about how many people are buying the Bush

Rove spin that Bush is God's candidate, but can we agree it is still too many and the race is too close for comfort. Can't we agree here at DU that George Bush's character should be in play in this election, and that Kerry himself must confront Bush on issues of character.

[ItsMyParty]

26. Actually (and I'm the first to be surprised) they are starting to turn it

on. I kept screaming for three years to friends that the only way we were going to take him down was to destroy him personally--not just his policies, etc. because of this total media creation of the "good, decent, GI butt slapping, patriotic, God fearing, second son of God shit". It's the only thing he has to stand on. AND, now they really are starting. They are calling him a liar about his war record. They are pointing out that every choice he makes is s wrong choice. They are saying he was dishonest about the war, etc. It seems like one big theme right now is: Liar, AWOL, lousy judgment, manipulator, etc. They are going for character and brains.

[npincus]

27. People think that Kerry Flip-Flops, but Bush "reverses positions"

it's Kerry's fault for not pounding Bush on his Flip-Flips, and actually using (co-opting) the word "Flip-Flop" to describe Bush's numerous policy reversals.

I don't know why the hell he hasn't done that from the get-go. Really stupid mistake.

[Elidor]

28. Your title is dead wrong

It's a major failing of the American news media, and the Kerry campaign has to fight with one hand tied behind its back because of it.

Now that John Sasso and James Carville are on board, you'll notice that anyone in the campaign who spoke up for moderation is too busy moving to their new office in the utility closet to defend the position at present.

I honestly think the news media in this country are a bigger threat to democracy than Bushco.

[hansolsen]

31. I don't disagree that the corporate owned and managed media is

problem number one in the country right now. Here is how I would rate the threat to America on a 100 point scale:

Saddam Hussein who couldn't find his own ass in a dark room 2

Hitler and Japan, who killed about a half million Americans 50

Stalin's Communist nukes which could still kill all of us 75

Osama bin Laden if he gets his hands on a few nukes 25*

Loss of our free press if corporate ownership solidifies 100

* I'm open to reconsidering this number

Meanwhile the Kerry campaign knows the media is on Shrub's side. That is all the more reason to go nuclear on making Bush's character ground zero of this campaign. It's no holds barred now.

[ItsThePeopleStupid]

33. nailed it.

May I add that the Kerry campaign is a start up company and not likely to be a well oiled machine, ever, get used to it. Rove/Bush is a well oiled machine, so that's a disadvantage. Another disadvantage is all of the major media that want to acquire more outlets, and Bushco wants to let them while Kerry won't. I have been noticing the sloppiness, outright rightwing bias, and incompetence of the media since November 2000 and that's just because I started paying attention.

[andym]

29. Bush built this reputation in the last campaign

Bush built this reputation in the last campaign and reinforced it in his first year in office (9/11).


The first rule of painting is that once you have an established public persona, it's very difficult to reverse it. The Governator is a good example--his pubic persona saved him from the various charges of ethical lapses and won him the election.

OTOH, Kerry is still not well known nationally and can be painted at will by the media savvy right. This was a problem for all of the potential nominees, btw, and I wrote about it back in the pre-primary days here.

So, Kerry can (and probably should) criticize Bush, but it won't remove the dry paint on Bush that depicts him as an honest god-fearing man. It will be written off as partisan attacks.

To repaint Bush will require either major news stories that eat away at his publicly established persona, or controversial commercials that attract the news media. For example, the idea of bringing up his cheer-leading days at Andover to eat away at his macho image is a good one. Documenting his shifting positions on why America is in Iraq is another one.

However, remember repainting is difficult, because you first have to scratch off the old paint. Even in the physical world, it can be lots of work.

BTW, The most important thing Kerry can do is to use the media to establish Kerry as a great guy, honest, trustworthy, with a sense of humor. He needs to paint himself, before Rove and company finish the job that they started with the Swifties. Yucking it up on the TV late night talk shows would be one way to do this.

[depakid]

32. Kerry has an honesty issue or two himself

For instance, during the primaries, he promised not to run a Dukakis style campaign- and then turned around and did just that- costing us both the momentum and the lead.

By failing to go after Bush and by failing to anticipate and adequately respond throughout July & August, he's allowed himself to be put in this position by the Bush camp- and it's going to be very difficult now to change peoples' perceptions. I've come to the point where I agree with you- it's too late now for the surrogates to do the dirty work. He missed that chance. Now Kerry has to do it himself- and he has to generate enough controvesy to get airplay.

If he isn't willing to do that, if he isn't willing to straight out say to the American people what Bush is and what he stands for, then like Dukakis, he shouldn't have sought the nomination....

After the heat he's taken, no one will fault him for getting tough on Bush's character... in fact, people are (and have been) screaming for it.