What Team Kerry should do NOW

[BlueScreen]

Now that Kerry has the Boys from Hope helping run his campaign, I hope to God he uses the current interest in Bush's National Guard discrepancies as a launch pad to drive other discussions, like:

• Bush's complete mishandling of events leading up to 9/11. The allegations by Richard Clark and Michael Moore should be pushed to the mainstream media. What area do the American electorate find Bush strongest on? His ability to handle the war on terror: hit him hardest there. Show how ignoring Clarke's urgent meetings requests for 9 months show Bush's incompetence. Show how Cheney and Ashcroft told George Tenet that they did not want to hear any more about al Qaeda. Remind the public that Bush spent over 40% of his presidency on paid vacation while Clarke and Tenet were going crazy trying to get his attention about an imminent al Qaeda attack. Remind them that Rice handed Bush a PDB called "Bin Laden Determined to Attack US with Airplanes" during that vacation, and that he still-- chose-- to do-- NOTHING.



• Then, shift the story to what he did after the attack. How he let the Saudis and bin Ladens flee the country. Craig Unger has some great material on this in his book House of Saud, House of Bush. Use material from Senator Bob Graham's new book, Intelligence Matters to show how Bush thwarted investigations into the hijackers that threatened to expose ties to Saudi Arabia-- ties that may still exist! Remind the public that the Bush White House buried the Rand Institute report that showed how Saudi Arabia was the #1 sponsor of state terrorism. Show people that James A. Baker III, who is currently representing Bush in the upcoming debates, chose to defend the Saudi Royal family against the family survivors of those killed on 9/11. Dig into Bush's ties to the House of Saud, and how these ties led him to protect the Saudis instead of the American people.
  


• Show the public how the atrocities at Abu Ghraib were known by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft, and how they deliberately buried it from public view. Use evidence in Sy Hersh's new book Chain of Command to show how they chose to ignore claims of abuse filed by the International Red Cross for up to one year before Hersh broke the story.
  


• Enlist the help of friendly 527s to do your dirty work for you and let your candidate keep his hands clean. Use your media connections to help the above authors get rounds on the mainstream talk shows.

I strongly feel that the Boys from Hope should drive a narrative like this down the media's throat for the remaining 7 weeks of the race. Remind the public what Bush really stands for.

So people think that Bush is unassailable on the war on terror, eh? Show them incontrovertible proof that it ain't so. Put the White House in a defensive position for once, while you drive the attacks for a change.

What do you guys think?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. 9/11 is the key

Why in the world has Bush been able to say he's done a good job on terror? Just listing what he did, or rather, didn't do three years ago should be damning his administration. We need to get the information out.

[WiseMen]

3. Kerry has to put Strong Foreign Policy Team front and center, taking the

fight to Bush, no holds barred. A trumpeted "Summit" would be
a good start:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x804299

[BlueScreen]

4. I couldn't agree with you more, ayeshahaqqiqa, but...

the majority of Americans still labor beneath this false impression. They think they are actually safer with this simian in the White House than out of it.

Look, Bush knew he was weak when compared with John Kerry, the war hero. So what did he do? He launched a frontal attack on Kerry's war record: the Swift Boat gang. Here we are, 8 weeks after the fact, and what are we left with? Most Americans think that Kerry may not have deserved his medals, and he has essentially lost his war hero edge. The fact that this was conclusively traced back to the Bush team doesn't matter-- the damage was done. It takes some balls to go after a legitimate war hero when you yourself skipped service and couldn't even show up for the frickin' National Guard, but that's the genius of it-- the sheer audacity.

Kerry should do the same thing in attacking Bush's ability to lead the war on terror. I think the Kerry camp should stop just short of blaming Bush for allowing 9/11 to happen, but then back off and let the 527s and authors take it that last step. That way they keep their hands clean.

It's time Kerry really turned the darn boat around.

[still_one]

2. I agree, but I think it is going to be an almost impossible task

There is not much time left, and the image left in many minds is that Kerry is a flip/flopper.

If Kerry does not reverse this course we are screwed!!!

[opihimoimoi]

5. A definition of flip flopping must be presented. There is such a

thing a flipping and flopping. We all do it. Bush does it all the time, so what the hell he griping about..

Kerry flipps/ed to a better revised improved decision. What the hell wrong with that???