And the Kerry campaign strategy with Bush people is generally just that: ok, we aren’t going to get them, let’s leave them alone and not waste too much time and bad feelings arguing with them. Focus on what we’re doing, do it well, and who cares what they do? When the campaign IDs Bush supporters, and the reason to celebrate is not because they are then targets for voter suppression or even persuasion, but simply because the campaign can save money by not wasting its time and mailings trying to convince them. More for the swing voters and getting out the vote.
But in the Republican playbook, finding Kerry supporters is just the start of all the ways to fuck with them. At least Bush canvassers are often pretty dumb and self-defeating about it. It’s one thing to go negative on ads. But they often go negative at the DOOR. You walk up to someone’s house looking to deride John Kerry, and no matter how you try, your face twists and you look nasty and uninviting. It leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths even if they are on your side.
Hyping the threat of Iranian nukes
and minimizing the Bush precipitated Korean crisis:
His snuffling giggle that sounds exactly like Beavis. Or is it Butthead? Either way, it is incredibly creepy and grating, particularly coming from the person occupying the Whitehouse.
Wait a second…
We need less troops in Korea because our capability per troopita has gotten better?
Shit…why don’t I feel safer?
-Joe
Maybe because North Korea’s troops have gotten better too? Heck, I hear that we’ve deployed (pdf) a multibillion dollar antiballistic missile system that doesn’t work yet, just to fend off PRNK’s nuclear missiles. It’s amazing what can happen when you bypass the normal defense development cycle in order to get a program up and running. Another four years of Bush, and we’ll probably have imaginary starships exploring the Magellenic clouds too.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_08/004549.php
Instead of, like, defending our nation, the CIA is now busy preparing reports for the Bush re-election campaign.
Bush is so pathetic, he’ll even lie about his choice of cheese:
While I can understand the Bush camp’s desire to paint their guy as just a regular working-class Joe, faking one’s taste in cheese is getting downright desperate, if you ask me…
Technically, neither Cheez Whiz, nor American cheese are cheeses. They are Cheese Food Products.
Sorry, but I opted out of “Distinguishing and Analyzing Physical Characteristics of North American Dairy and Dairy-Like Food Products 101” while in college.
The funny part is that the Bush campaign started it, by trying to deride Kerry over his choice of cheese on a Philly cheese steak.
Normally, the Kerry folks would have better things to do with their time, but when you’re up against a crew with the attention to (trivial) detail that the Bushies have, and a press crew that’s more into those trivial details than anything actually policy-related, you do what you have to do.
The letter that Bush’s guy tried to give Max Cleland
How do they lie? Let me count the ways:
- That’s why so many veterans are troubled by your vote AGAINST funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
Kerry voted for a version of the funding bill that would have reduced Bush’s tax cuts slightly in order to pay for it, as opposed to the version that simply borrowed more money. It happens all the time that Congresspersons vote for or against different versions of the same bill, while supporting the underlying measure, depending on which strings are attached. Bush opposed certain versions of the funding bill, too - most notably the one Kerry supported.
- We served honorably in Vietnam and we were deeply hurt and offended by your comments when you came home.
I assume they’re referring to when Kerry reported on what vets had said at the"Winter Soldier" meeting. Are they impugning the credibility of the vets who told Kerry what they had done and seen? If so, they should have the guts to say so. They don’t, of course.
- *You can’t have it both ways. You can’t build your convention and much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam, and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up. There is no double standard for our right to free speech. We all earned it. *
The Constitution that gives us all the right to free speech doesn’t give us the moral right to shamelessly lie. (It also doesn’t legally protect libel and slander.)
- *You said in 1992 “we do not need to divide America over who served and how.” Yet you and your surrogates continue to criticize President Bush for his service as a fighter pilot in the National Guard. *
There’s a difference between criticizing who served and how, and criticizing their failure to be honest about the nature of that service. Big difference.
- *We are veterans too - and proud to support President Bush. He’s been a strong leader, with a record of outstanding support for our veterans and for our troops in combat. He’s made sure that our troops in combat have the equipment and support they need to accomplish their mission. *
Which is why families of our troops were having bake sales to raise money for body armor.
- And he’s praised the service of all who served our country, including your service in Vietnam.
While refusing to condemn his surrogates when they publicly air the vilest lies about that service.
Well, that’s plenty for now. What slimeballs. And of course the real slimeball is Bush, who unquestionably put them up to this. He’s good at getting others to do his dirty work, oh yeah.
So you’re saying that it wasn’t the words “WHY DO YOU HATE AMERICA?” in the Crayola style?
I guess I owe someone a beer.
-Joe
Makes just about the same ammount of sense as having a war against terror! How can you have a war against a noun?
I don’t know how many of you have seen the video of the Bush twins at the GOP convention last night, but believe it or not, I’m going to give Jenna and Barbara a pass; you can watch them yourselves, and decide what you think.
But they’re introducing their dad, the President, who popped in by video feed. When he appears on the screen, there’s what looks like a softball game going on behind him. (For all I know, the players could be real; however, I doubt the game was.) Bush is standing somewhere on the first-base side of the field. When he first appears, the batter in the box is a lefty, and we can clearly read the number on his back: 43. While Bush speaks, he hits the ball, runs towards first (and off camera). Next batter is also a lefty. The number on his back: 43. Same deal. Third batter’s a righty, but he briefly turns on his way into the batter’s box so we can see the number on his back: 43.
I don’t think there’s anything particularly evil about this; I just think it’s kinda ridiculous to go to that much trouble for something that trivial. But it’s their campaign, their money.
I turned it off after the sex in the city “joke” <ahem>
I don’t get it, are they trying ot go subliminal on us with the 43rd pres thing? Let me get this straight, they actually wasted time filming a bunch of people with 43 jerseys on? WTF?
Just a coupla twins quotes:
From their parents, they’ve learned:
Sorry. Just couldn’t resist.
Nor could I resist this one:
May God make it so.
One shorthand for distinguishing between the former and current Presidents Bush has been to refer to them as ‘41’ and ‘43’ since they’re the 41st and 43rd Presidents of the United States. From there, ‘43’ took on a life of its own as a shorthand for Dubya.
That’s too complicated. Bush was probably just trying to commemorate the 43 million dollars he gave to the Taliban back in 2001.
And then there’s this:
How did this arrogant squirt get to be our president??
Well, genius, your mother is a former First Lady. She wouldn’t be intimidated by the Oval Office. If she seems subdued by it, it’s because she has respect for the office in both the literal and figurative sense. Which you do not.