Kerry's new strategy for the home stretch.

Great Debates
21

I think that Kerry’s response to the stupid argument: “Well, you voted for the war and said you would have gone to war yourself, so what differentiates you from Bush?”

should be

“It’s one thing to go to war, and another thing to go to war prepared. I would have done gone to war prepared for the post-war period, which would have saved billions of dollars, hundreds of American lives, and led to a more stable Iraq, which is exactly what this administration has not done. *That’s * what differentiates me from Bush”

Another way of responding is to say that, “Yes, I voted for the authority for war, but I never authorized macho cowboy-ish behavior that has led to nothing but problems in Iraq”

22

for kerry to get over the “flip flop” refrain he has to come up with a refrain of his own.

i suggest “texas chain saw massacre.”

kerry should say something like:

you don’t use a chain saw to cut butter. george bush used a chain saw when he jumped straight into iraq. he skipped all the usually steps… butter knife, paring knife, cheese slicer, microwave oven, jig saw, band saw, then maybe chain saw. instead of getting butter on the toast, he got butter all over the toast, dish, counter, table, chairs, cupboards, walls, appliances, ceiling, and everyone in the kitchen.

it is not flip flopping when you are trying out all the tools at your disposal to solve a problem. it is irresponsible and foolhardy to spill the blood of americans with out trying every other option and weapon.

23

In my recent OP I said that Kerry was weak. I’m glad I get to eat those words… partially. I don’t think he’s a flip-flopper; he just needed to say what he thinks more clearly, so that it sticks in the mind.

I’ll be waiting for results on the news and in the debates.

I think the strategy can work. The electoral count is completely chaotic. Last week it looked as though Bush could win in a landslide; now it’s practically tied again:

www.electoral-vote.com

What a wild election year.

24

Hmmm… I guess why I disagree with that analogy is that (at least in that example), it’s clearly a case of rights. Group one wants the right to go to nude beaches. Group two wants to deny group one that right. Sure, group two might phrase it as “the right to go through life without being confonted by nude-beach-attending perverts”, but that’s disingenuous.

So, I guess for me it’s not so much an issue of percentages as it is an issue of whose rights are being infringed. Their are certainly times when society as a whole infringes on “rights”, ie, the right to drive drunk. But I think it should take a lot more than (say) just a majority vote in a single referendum on the issue…

(Interestingly, I feel that both gun rights and gay marriage are issues that fit into this type of outline…)

25

I’ve been following that site too, and the seesawing figures make me dizzy. I guess that’s because it’s based on polls done on a state-by-state basis, by different institutions and polling firms, at different times – i.e., on any given day, the figures for one state might come from a different date and form than the figures from a neighboring state. But what can you do? A one-day nationwide poll just doesn’t tell us anything relevant about the electoral vote results.

26

Kerry wins big time with this strategy. Bush is weak on Iraq and all Kerry has to do is pound, pound, pound on the Iraq issue and the swing voters will swing his way. Most Americans know in their hearts that Iraq was a major fuckup, and all those flag-draped coffins and beheading videos are hurting Bush with regular voters. It’s not “happy news” y’know?

The flip-flop defense is a non-starter. It’s weak, it’s piffly, and it’s been out for quite a while. It’s well-known Repub bullshit and will only feed the faithful. Kerry’s got everything to win and very little to lose with a good, strong attack on Bush’s record in Iraq, which as we all know, is butt ugly. From Fallujah to Abu Ghraib, it’s just one long ugly mess, and it’s about time Kerry pinned responsibility on Bush and his evil clown corps of advisors.

27

If I were John Kerry, I would pose once, by a fireside, holding a pair of official Republican-issued Kerry flip-flops.

"Hi, I’m John Kerry, and I’m running for President.

I’d like to talk to you for a moment about flip-flops.

Sometimes you make the best choice you can based on what you know at the time.

Then you learn new things, and you realize it’s time to reconsider.

For example, George W Bush, our current President and Commander-in-chief, went to Congress and asked for our OK to take military action against Iraq if all else failed, so he’d have a strong hand when he went to the UN. I wanted our nation’s leader to have the greatest leeway possible, so I voted to give him that authority.

Well, Mr. Bush sort of skipped right past normal and reasonable steps. With no solid evidence and over many loud objections, he ordered our military into Iraq. Acting like a vigilante, he bypassed international justice and charged in overthrew a sovereign state. He said they had weapons of mass destruction and were going to use them in terrorist acts, but that wasn’t true and our intelligence knew it wasn’t true. And now we’re up to our armpits in a complicated international military and political situation that wasn’t America’s responsibilitiy. Now it is, and now our tax dollars are paying for it. And so are American families.

Would I flip flop? If I knew then what I knew now, would I still vote to give the President of the United States the authority to order US military into combat in Iraq according to his own judgment? Yes I would…if I thought the President of the United States was competent to make that decision.

But I now know, as you know, that he is not. This man does not know what he is doing. As a Senator I could no longer trust him knowing what I know today. As an American I could no longer trust him knowing what I know today.

As an American…can you?

Trailer: Vote for John Kerry. We can trust him to take care of America.

28

Sorry, AHunter3, but I just read that aloud and timed it–it’s about 1:30, or 3 times as long as a 30-second political ad should be, and 9 times as long as the average voters attention span. You hit 30 seconds at “skipped right past.”

29

I think Kerry’s made the right move by hooking up with new campaigners. For too long he’s been trying to stay above the fray. It hasn’t been working. He needs to fight back and the Clinton people know how to do that.

Except that a lot of voters have never heard of Karl Rove. Hell, a lot of voters probably don’t know who their congressman is.

The analytical voters have already looked back on the records of the two candidates and made up their mind. Nothing in the next few weeks is going to change their minds.

But there’s a lot of voters who have only been paying minimal attention. And their votes count just as much. At this point, it’s Short Attention Span Theatre. If Kerry can make a strong case in the next few weeks, by Election Day most voters will have forgotten anything they they were thinking this summer.

30

One idea I had for a hard-hitting ad against Bush would go something like this:

Bush saying “Bring it on” and then a very quick flash of a dead American soldier.
Bush saying “Bring it on” and then a very quick flash of flag-draped coffins
Bush saying “Bring it on” and then a very quick flash of one of the beheading victims sitting on the floor with terrorists standing behind him.
Bush saying “Bring it on” and then a very quick flash of …

You get the idea.

This should be a barrage of pictures for about 30 seconds, mixed in with Bush saying “Bring it on”, and/or other stupid stuff he’s said on the subject (like “Mission Accomplished”).

31

I get the idea, but I’m not sure you do. Not every American voter blames Paul for what Peter does. Bush didn’t cut off anyone’s head. Someone has already mentioned that the majority of Americans are right-wing assholes. If that is the case, then the left-wingers are rather clueless, presuming that right-wingers think as they do. They will not associate your pictures with dishonoring Bush, but with dishonoring the sacrifices made by those whom you are using for political expedience.

32

Actually, I agree with you, and I was planning on but forgot to add a comment that it would be interesting to see how people from the right might perceive this ad.

But this is nonsense. If you’re a leader who takes us into war and the war turns out to be a disaster for the country, even if you didn’t kill all the American soldiers with your bare hands, you can be blamed for your decision to go to war and your inept handling of it that resulted in all the deaths.

33

And one more thing: I’m sure nobody from the right will budge on their position on Bush, but a large percentage of the voters are independents/moderates and it is not clear what effect a barrage of such ads will have on them in the long run.

34

AHunter3, that was superb. If John Kerry reads this board, hire this person for your speechwriting.

35

If it were Iraqi soldiers cutting off the heads of American spies, you might have a point.

36

I agree, bravo. Thought Polerius’s rocked too, unsubtle as it is.

I’d be inclined to agree with you. . . if the majority of Americans hearing about Kerry’s strategy shift weren’t news/campaign junkies with clearly formed political leanings. Current undecideds and swing voters are still up in the air precisely because they don’t keep themselves informed about political events on a daily basis. So all they may encounter is Kerry’s harder-hitting ad campaign while watching Scrubs and Joey. Not the report on MSNBC or CNN about old Clinton guns helping Kerry revive his campaign.

37

But he hasn’t fired anyone. He’s just added new people, and it’s got a lot of press so it’s common knowledge. Then, once he gets these new people on his team we see a new message and a new strategy from Kerry. People may see through this for what it is: a plan to get votes concocted by his advisors, not what Kerry actually thinks. This furthers the notion that Kerry is a flip flopper who doesn’t stand for anything and costs him credibility with his Iraq arguments.

38

Great point, Moody. This is the crux of it. If you are correct, then my theory doesn’t hold water. However, I’m thinking that this is no longer the case. Because of the way that information flows so much more freely these days than in the past, even Joe Sixpack has access to this kind of information.

I’ve been recording Kerry’s new series of appearances this week with my DVR (TiVo like thing). Letterman had Kerry on and only did a few serious questions. However one thing they did talk about was the new advisors Kerry had hired and how that impacted his new strategy. Live with Regis and Kelly had Kerry on and the subject didn’t come up. I’ll keep watching.

39

And what, pray tell, has Kerry been saying that he does not actually think? Please, be specific.

40

I have no idea. Nobody does. And that’s the problem.