Bush won because Dems don't show a practical & emotional READINESS to

[blm]

to lead the fight on terrorism?

Yep....Bush's plans to fight the war on terror were so much more practical and emotional than Kerry's plans like securing the ports, shutting down their REAL sources of funding, and convening a world summit of all religions and their leaders to discuss ways to stop the exploitation of religion to perpetrate violence. And Kerry's intention to refocus on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and come up with a plan to get out of Iraq as diplomatically as possible wasn't very practical or emotional, either.

[Arugula Latte]

1. Well, actually, Bush didn't win.

If we had had a clean election, this would be moot.

[still_one]

2. well have the Democrats done anything to insure that it will be clean?

We have had since 2000 to do something about it

[Arugula Latte]

18. I know. I can't for the life of me figure out why

the people with the bully pulpit aren't screaming from the rooftops. When it happened in 2000, you'd think they would have learned. Ditto 2002. Ditto 2004. But noooooo.

[blm]

3. oops - this was meant as a reply in another thread.

Oh well. Hope it's not too confusing.

[LaPera]

4. If one wants to learn the truth, ...Kerry goes to bed after midnight

with an almost a five point lead and in the morning Kerry loses Ohio by 2.5 points near impossible, astronomical odds (a 7 1/2 point swing in a few hours)!!!! There were so many other states where this occurred besides Ohio, where ever there is a republican Secretary of State (the SoS counts the votes) But if no electronic voting machine manipulations (DieBold, owned by self confessed fucking republicans)...in Ohio, Kerry wins the state and is the president of the United States.

And this same outrageous manipulation is going on in Ohio today and every election...but the democrats won't, or are afraid or have head up their ass and WON"T address the obvious fraud...

You think this November's election will be any different? Rove and the republicans will be stealing every vote they can thanks to the "Help America Vote Act" the republicans drafted up in 2002...

Rove and the republicans have NOTHING to lose by stealing this November's election to keep a republican majority...its either steal the election or go to jail...Which would you do?

[Mythsaje]

5. I don't think Kerry was well-served by

saying "kill" all the time with respect to dealing with terrorists. It was too transparent an attempt to sound tough. Playing to the Repug meme.

A sly smile and a "we'll make sure they'll pay for their crimes," would've gone a long way, in my opinion.

But maybe that's just me.

[blm]

6. If you knew Kerry you would know he doesn't HAVE to attempt toughness.

Unless you bought the RW lie machines characterizations.

Kerry faced down alot o gunfire in his day. More than Bush's entire cabinet put together.He faced down the MAFIA to prosecute them. He faced down Nixon, Reagan and Bush administrations who set out to destroy him for his investigations of their corruption. Had we even a small slice of honest media, you'd know that Kerry faced down the lies of 2004, too. Broadcast media chose to NOT AIR most of Kerry's attacks.

The media pushed you to say Kerry ATTEMPTED to sound tough, whether you realize it or not.

[Mythsaje]

9. That's not what I'm saying...

He doesn't HAVE to pretend toughness. I'll accept that. But it came across as posturing, and I don't think he needed to do that at all.

And, no, that was MY intitial response to the way he put things. I am actually pretty much unaffected by the mainstream media--since I WILL NOT watch the television talking heads. And haven't for years.

[blm]

12. It came ACROSS that way because media had a storyline that was OBSESSIVELY

repeated. Bush LOOKS like a big SCARED fraud to us for everything he does because we all KNOW THE TRUTH about him. Fools like Chris Matthews get bewitched by Bush's image of manliness and the audience went along with it.

Most people in this country had no idea what Kerry's background was and the prism they had was provided to them by the corporate media.

I knew Kerry's background - he always rang true to me.

[Mythsaje]

15. I responded directly to the comment

not the spin that followed it. I winced when I heard it on the radio. I paid no attention to the commentary from the corporate media. I didn't even know about the swift-boating until I heard about it here.

I'm sorry, but you don't hunt down and "kill" terrorists. You capture those you can and fucking prosecute them--reveal their crimes to the whole goddam world. Eliminate those you can't catch, but don't focus on that. Act as though they're the criminals they are, not simply vermin we need to exterminate.

Don't blame my response on the RW media. I know it's comforting to do so, but it was MY gut-level response. It rang wrong in MY ears.

[blm]

16. Oh, I see. That part was what you heard, where he said hunt down

the terrorists in Afghanistan and kill them.

But, the rest of what he said was also important. That terrorism should be dealt with as a special forces campaign now and brought down to a manageable level and conducted as a law enforcement issue.

Heh - he took alot of mischaracterization on that comment, too, from the RW.

[Mythsaje]

17. From what I read here, he did...

I agree with the rest of what he said, it was just that comment that struck me odd and I didn't like it. It felt...forced. I don't know. I'm just relaying my initial gut response.

There's no doubt in my mind that he could have prosecuted the "war on terror" (I hate that phrase, btw...if it has anywhere near the success of our other "wars" Al Qeida will be running the U.S. by the time they're through) better than Bush and his chickenhawk regime without breaking a sweat.

[ComerPerro]

7. no kidding

[Asgaya Dihi]

8. It all got reduced to sound bites

Kerry had some good ideas but the press just didn't pick them up, it was all lost behind the swift-boating and other distractions of the sort. We really need to get the media fixed so we can actually talk about issues in substance rather than in short catch phrases, but as long as this is what we have now in-depth explanations just kill us.

I thought Kerry was at his best in the debates with a timer, short, to the point and concise. It's not ideal, but given what we're forced to work with in the media today I kinda wished his crew would have put the timer on him for the rest of the campaign too.

[blm]

10. The media needs a lot of fixing - Fairness Doctrine needs to be reinstated

for starters.

But, even with what we had how could ANYONE say that Bush showed he was practically and emotionally READY to fight terrorism and conclude that Kerry wasn't?

Kerry was FIGHTING TERRORISM PRACTICALLY since the 80s and especially since he got the largest terrorist bank closed down - the very same bank the BUshboy was making deals with the Bin Ladens and the same bank tand terrorists hat Poppy Bush and his crew were protecting from Kerry's investigations.

[Mythsaje]

11. That's what he should have said...

Simple enough.

[blm]

14. No kidding - Kerry's problem is that he didn't brag enough about himself -

he actually thought the press would have covered alot of that background. And the press who DID bother to say the truth about his background were NOT INVITED to say them on broadcast television.

[Asgaya Dihi]

13. Needs that, but more

I'd like to see the breakup of a lot of the media consolidation we have today, where we used to depend on hundreds of sources for our news and info we're now down to dozens of major ones with just five to ten making up the most of it.

The same people who own power plants and make jet engines and the detonators for every nuclear device in the US arsenal also propose laws in their own interest, hire lobbyists to pursue those interests, then get to decide what we see on the news about it and who gets to represent each side of the issues. Much of a conflict of interest there?

We need an impartial media, I can't see a way to get there short of breaking them up and establishing ownership rules to prevent this in the future.