VetSmears are Killing Kerry. Smear has won. We destroy them or die.

[Raya]

We want to try to forget them. But focus groups and surveys
show that their smear campaign is just about the only factor that
transformed the Presidential campaign.

Just monitored Estrich on Fox reporting survey that shows
that Vet Smear has been the only effective 527 campaign and
alone is responsible for predominant view of Kerry, even among
many Democrats. Only 10% view Kerry's Nam service positively.

Kerry is like a dead man walking among most swing voters because
of the knife of Vet Smears.

Are we going to let this gang of Rove hit men walk off with
the election.

I am furious that Cahill let this smear as well as the
whole theme of "Kerry is an unprincipled liar" behind the
flip-flop charge stand.

[molly]

1. Go turn on your TV - the Saud connection is all over

plus the memo that * received 2 months before invading Iraq - many more to come.

[private_ryan]

5. dude

let's get real: the saudi ad is for us, to motivate the base. Cahill and Shrum should never run another campaign. We had a change to turn Bush into the pathetic human being that he is, but we decided to be positive.

[rockymountaindem]

22. No, the Saudi ad is not just for the base...

they're also about showing "hardworking, Christian" Americans that their golden boy is running about with Muslim oil-men who are both a. Muslim and b. rich, which a lot of people don't like. They will hopefully see the Saudis in the ads and say "gee, those people look just like Bin Laden, why are they still our friends?"

[private_ryan]

27. wrong

Bush is a "christian" and he's "tough on terraists". That's all those losers need. Never mind that they have no jobs or health care.

[Barney Rocks]

2. I think Kerry will

destroy them--perhaps at the debate when lots of people are paying attention. We have been fighting back! I think that TANG will pick up some momentum soon and destroy Bush!

[Fuzzy LaRue]

7. The debates will make a difference (I hope)...

The TANG thing is dead. The document flap blew that as an issue. Nothing short of the original documents will allow this subject to even appear legitimate.

[deckerd]

28. TANG is only dead if we fail to prove Stone FALSIFIED the docs.

Which we are trying to prove by illustrating that Buckhead lied and the
docs were either typewritten, or done by an expert forger. Forensic
evidence may point to forgery by someone with access to high-grade
specialty fonts formerly used by typewriters, access to an IBM Exec, or
EVEN WORSE for GOP, proof of a two-part document, i.e. a typewritten,
tampered original.

Please read the followng thread if you care about the truth coming out,
before or after the election:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x906750

The truth matters if Dems want to be the principled party and prove they are capable of DEFENDING THEMSELVES FROM ROVIAN SMEARS, this is how
you do it, BY CALLING OUT THE PARTIES RESPONSIBLE EARLY AND OFTEN...

[Fuzzy LaRue]

30. Deckerd, I admire your resolve...

Really, I do. But the public is a very fickle beast and even if it can be proven that those documents can be falsified, they will still be just that. False documents. It will be about the documents from now on, not about TANG. For it to ever be about TANG again, real documents will have to be found.

Keep plugging, don't give up in what you are doing. But CBS going on the air with "questionable" documents and then retracting them have set a very high standard for what ever documents turn up now.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

32. Have they murdered Ms Knox?

I'm sorry, but I hadn't heard that they had permanently silenced her or any of the other TANG witnesses to Bush's duty shirking.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=14&u=/nm/campaign_bush_guard_dc

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. Kerry will destroy them at the 1st debate.

I am sure of this.

[Tempest]

3. The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

Relax, make it a double.

Kerry is in very good shape with swing voters, young voters, women voters and minority voters.

Stop watching the polls. They don't know what the hell is going on, and some are intentionally misleading the public.

[captainjack]

10. dude, this is a pretty lax attitude

if we actually are ahead, then we need to get even further ahead so as to preclude this election from being stolen!

527's all the way!

[Tempest]

23. There's a big difference from being lax and being Chicken Little

I'm not saying it's in the bag, but the Chicken Little routine isn't helping either.

[Stew225]

4. I don't think, therefore

I am not.

[Union Thug]

6. This is called playing hardball.

In this game, you put aside principle and morals. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing that matters at this point is getting the chimp out of office. If this means launching every accusation, regardless of its veracity (truth means nothing to the fascist bushbots, after all), then so be it. If it means involving the Bush twins, so be it. Look what the bastards did the Chelsey.

Politics is a streetfight, plain and simple. If we want to win, we have to learn that fighting dirty leaves you alive to see another battle. Screw the high road. Put on the brass knuckles.

[captainjack]

8. we need to put pressure on 527;s to run counter-ads

showing bush flip flopping like crazy. and this was in less than 4 years!!!

the motherfucker has done NOTHINBG positive for this country and the left can't simply point this out to the nation? moveon, et al, needs to be doing far more. i honestly believe that such ads, and grassroots efforts, are where the election will be fought - not in the debates and not in the official ad campaigns.

unless they again disenfranchise millions of democrats in this election as well.

[progressivebydesign]

9. Oh BULLSHIT, only 10% view Kerry's service positively????

What the fuck are those people smoking? Turn off FOX. Now.

[hippiegranny]

25. I agree Caliphoto

10% of WHAT? Indeed.

[featherman]

11. I agree ... screw the high road... hit 'em with the hidden draft plan

over and over and over again. True or not, who cares? Make the bastards deny it over and over and over again.

[captainjack]

13. thjat's exactly their stragegy!!

make the other side defend stupid shit so the people ignore the bigger issues.

a draft would scare the shit out of every 18-25 year old and would send em flocking to the polls. and every parent would also tilt more towards kerry.

[acmavm]

14. The polls are skewed to favor bush*, CNN and Fox are full of crap,

and Kerry is not in bad shape.

The bush* golden image has been tarnished. Hell, even the newspaper in Crawford, Texas, his supposed 'home town' has endorsed Kerry/Edwards.

The only thing we have to fear is our own defeatist attitude.

[Mojambo]

15. Let me guess. Been watching Cable Opinion?

You are NOT getting an accurate view of reality.

[Uzybone]

16. So what are you gonna do with your fury?

Sit there and wallow in the past or start to do something to change this "perception"?

[ReadTomPaine]

17. When in trouble never doubt! Run in circles scream and shout!

"Cut the crap and pull yourself together." - James Carville.

RTP

[liberalnurse]

18. They have no impact here in Dayton, Ohio.

I've been around, as a nurse, in the community....no impact.

[CityDem]

19. Swiftees did some damage

Kerry was riding high in the polls after the dem convention. All he had to do was run out the clock on Bush and the election was over. The Swiftee ads started in early August and Kerry's numbers took a big hit. Failure to respond to these charges were catastrophic. Cahill and company failed to understand the impact of these ads and let the opposition define Kerry as someone with a weak character. Big mistake by Mary Beth.

[Raya]

26. Would Say So! Hart focus group, USA Today focus group, now Fox survey.

Walk into a bar in Missouri for God sake!

[marlakay]

20. f-911 & movie about kerry both coming out soon n/t

[bobbyboucher]

21. Baloney.

Pure baloney.

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. Why watch Fox? Why believe their surveys? I have not seen evidence

of the Swift boat liars having any sway whatsover anymore. :hi:

[bklyncowgirl]

29. Folks it matters because the media says it matters

Like it or not the charges stuck or maybe not the charges but the inferences drawn from Kerry's lack of response to them.

We liberals believe that if you tell people the truth that they will come around to a reasonable opinion. Kerry and his campeign apparently believed that legitimate news organizations would expose these guys for what they are. The fact is that they did and while it had some effect the damage was already done. Kerry let the New York Times fight his battle for him. That was a mistake. This was a vicious personal smear, a blood libel. Whoever convinced Kerry that he should be above the fray may well have lost this election for him.

The media takes a lie an insinuation and amplifies it until it becomes truth. These are scary times.

[Demi_Babe]

31. Kerry wins by a landslide...mark my word