"Kerry Must 'Reframe' Bush -- and Fast"

[Kanary]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0915-02.htm

by Robert Kuttner


"JOHN KERRY is in trouble because the Bush campaign has seized control of what psychologists call the "frame" of this year's presidential contest. Bush, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and company have framed the election starkly: Bush will keep us safe in a time of terror. He will put money in people's pockets by cutting our taxes, and somehow that will also be good for the economy.

"Bush and Cheney have also framed Kerry. He is inconstant, an effete elitist who lives in a lah-de-dah neighborhood, speaks a foreign language, keeps changing his mind on everything from Vietnam to Iraq. This signals that Kerry is culturally different from ordinary folks (like Bush) and that if he wavers on everything else, you can't trust him to be resolute on terrorists.

"If this imagery hardens, Kerry is toast. Experts who study how public issues become framed in people's minds, like Susan Bales of the FrameWorks Institute, say that you can't change views merely with evidence. You have to change the frame."

(snip)

If Kerry doesn't have the nerve to take on Bush, voters will conclude that he lacks the nerve to protect America. Kerry has about two weeks to break the frame before the election freezes into a lock."

Kanary

[Catfight]

1. I'm sorry, but I can't take seriously any thing written, "Kerry is toast."

[A_Possum]

2. Behind the times

Kerry framed Bush as The Excuse President today

It'll stick.

Get out your chewed up papers to wave while you yell, "The dog ate my homework!"

[Gloria]

4. It will stick if Kerry sticks with it!!! Its' a great framework but he

needs to repeat it ENDLESSLY!!!!

By the way, "the excuse President" is a "pattern"....my suggestion of yesterday was to establish the patterns of Bush....this is a key pattern...so damn it, stick with it!

As a corollary/alternative, Kerry can also say that Bush seems to "pass the buck" all the time....(and one result is: we pay for Bush's errors, in terms of safety and economics)

[A_Possum]

5. WE have to stick with it too

We have to start using it, like the pugs used the flip-flops.

We really need a visual to go with it.

[joeybee12]

3. I think her's got a good chance with "the excuse president"

Covers a lot of bases and reminds people why they don't like Adolph Jr.