Posted on 09/02/2004 3:07:45 PM PDT by RWR8189
The Kerry high command comes to New York City to tell reporters that they're just where they want to be.
New York
IS THE KERRY CAMPAIGN IN DISARRAY? Over the last week, as Republicans gathered in New York City, another, perhaps more interesting, political story developed in Boston, Nantucket, and Washington, D.C. Upset about the way in which they think the Kerry communications team mishandled the controversy over the anti-Kerry veterans group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, many Democrats said it was past time Kerry shook up his communications team. And while "shake up" probably isn't the best way to describe what's going on in the Kerry camp--at least not yet, anyway--there have been changes.
On Tuesday, for example, the campaign announced several new hires, including former Clinton flack Joe Lockhart, who is now a senior adviser to Kerry, and Joel Johnson, another former Clinton hand, who will now handle the campaign's rapid response. The Wall Street Journal's Al Hunt reports that "insiders say there might be more moves in the next few days." Here is Hunt:
If there is a change--Sen. Kerry privately is said to be "bouncing off the walls" in frustration--it has to be imminent as the eight-week campaign is in full swing by Labor Day. "We have 48 hours," acknowledges an insider.
Late on Wednesday, the Kerry camp called representatives of the Christian Science Monitor, which has been holding informal breakfasts and coffees for print journalists and campaign officials during both the Democratic and Republican conventions. The Kerry campaign wanted to talk to journalists, and quickly, so a last minute breakfast was held Thursday morning in the Times Square Hilton. Usually these breakfasts involve about 30 reporters posing questions to 1 or 2 campaign types. Not this morning. Instead there were six Kerry campaign officials at Thursday's breakfast, all high-level personnel: Mary Beth Cahill, the campaign manager, Tad Devine, senior strategist, new hire Joe Lockhart, pollster Mark Mellman, Doug Sosnick, and Stephanie Cutter, Kerry's communications director.
For a communications director, Cutter was remarkably silent. She didn't say a word. Maybe that's because she, along with senior strategist Bob Shrum, has taken most of the blame for the Kerry campaign's ham-fisted response to the anti-Kerry veterans. Shrum, by the way, wasn't in New York this morning. Cutter's silence and Shrum's absence lend some credence to reports like this one, from Wednesday's New York Daily News:
Democratic insiders have been saying for weeks that communications director Stephanie Cutter and media consultant and strategist Bob Shrum are two top aides who need to be replaced.
"But a second Democratic source noted, 'The question is, Is it too late? Has too much blood spilled?"
Or this one, from Thursday's Washington Post: "The Kerry campaign is getting tagged with a criticism that haunted Al Gore in 2000. It spends too much time reacting to polls and focus groups. The target of some of that criticism is Bob Shrum, who was a senior strategist for Gore."
The Kerry campaign staff assembled at breakfast on Thursday were, of course, on message. This is a campaign that believes the American public has already made up its mind about George W. Bush: "I think the voters have decided they do not want to reelect the president," Devine said. "And I think that's manifest today."
The Kerry camp said they've miscalculated, however, specifically in the campaign's response to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. "We didn't understand the degree to which [the Swifties] would become the focal point for August," Cahill said. And Devine said the campaign had trouble coming up with a response: "Whenever you make a decision to engage an issue like this on the candidate level, that's a very difficult process."
Polls show Bush gaining ground in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday the Annenberg Election Survey released data showing the president had a 53 percent approval rating. Both campaigns expect Bush--barring any major blunders in his acceptance speech tonight--to come out of the convention several points ahead.
Kerry's team isn't worried--publicly, that is. "We always knew that August was going to be a difficult month," Cahill said. The reason is campaign-finance regulations, which state that a candidate must use public funds starting from the end of his convention. Kerry's convention was a month earlier than Bush's, thus giving the president a whole extra month to spend money from his campaign stash, and leaving Kerry defenseless when the Swift boat veterans began their ad campaign. Bush ends August on offense; Kerry on defense.
But things can turn around. On Friday, Kerry unleashes a $45 million barrage of television advertising in key battleground states. A new communications strategy might prove successful. And the race is still close. "We are competitive dollar for dollar in the fall," Cahill said. "This race starts tonight."
Matthew Continetti is a reporter at The Weekly Standard.
< "I think the voters have decided they do not want to reelect the president," Devine said. "And I think that's manifest today." >
Ummm...now drink your Kool-Aide like a good boy.
For example, I think the "John Kerry says/John Kerry does" ads probably inflicted far more damage than the Swifties, because it directly attacks his talking points (with his own words). For a lot of people, those ads probably crystallized a nagging but previously undefined dislike for John Kerry.
Funny how Hitlery and Blisters bolted NYC despite their promise to Kerry to be "truth detectors" during the RNC.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--clintons0902sep02,0,4596954.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
"...probably crystallized a nagging but previously undefined dislike for John Kerry."
Fortunately for me, my dislike has never been undefined nor has it needed crystallization.
Kerry's convention was a month earlier than Bush's, thus giving the president a whole extra month to spend money from his campaign stash, and leaving Kerry defenseless when the Swift boat veterans began their ad campaign.
Yeah, that $500,000 SBVT ad buy just rolled over the Dems.
Releasing his records wouldn't have cost Kerry a cent.
"Whenever you make a decision to engage an issue like this on the candidate level, that's a very difficult process."
Being caught in a lie with your pants down requires some very skillful lying, on the level of Clinton.
"We've got 'em right where they want us"
> ... the bottom line is that the Kerry campaign still
> doesn't understand that their real problem is their
> candidate and his baggage.
To be more precise, the long-time Kerry loyalists don't
understand that they have two problems:
1. their candidate, whose past is a failing fiction, and
2. the Clinton people, who orchestrated the emergence of
Kerry as the Designated Loser, and who are on hand to
ensure that he loses (by just a little, but loses).
I call this the betrayal within the betrayal, and the
Kerry loyalists are likely still in denial on both scores.
The Clinton members of the campaign know exactly what's
up, and are now working to narrow the loss, so that there
will be a messy aftermath (recounts, suits, etc).
"Releasing his records wouldn't have cost Kerry a cent."
Rumor has it that releasing his records may cost him the election.
We haven't yet really made it into a dissection of Kerry's record. Wasn't he elected senator sometime since the Vietnam War?
LOL! Very true!
Cheers!
Kerry's political campaign is history and those close to him know it.
Oh, please. they know 95% of what the Swifties say is true, so they lashed out the only way they could - call them liars and not let any reporter ask Kerry a question.
Exactly. The ONLY response that would have Kerry ahead right now would be coming out with the truth, and that truth being that Kerry really is the War Hero he claims to be.
Since they did not go this route, I guess it just wasn't available to them.
Love the metaphor.
You got it.
Is anyone else as astounded as I am that the Rats nominated this guy? Maybe it speaks to their dearth of leadership, but you could send a dog with a note to deliver the message that Hanoi John was a traitor and conspirator with our nation's enemies.
Not a good message during wartime.
You must realize that whenever a hard-Left person says "America", "the American people", or "voters", they inevitably mean themselves.
Well, that's because you thought that having the MSM in your pocket was all the ammo you'd ever need. Arrogance always turns on its master; just ask the good and dead, child of second cousins, Schicklegruber: he wanted nothing to do with 'Jewish physics.'
And Devine said the campaign had trouble coming up with a response: "Whenever you make a decision to engage an issue like this on the candidate level, that's a very difficult process."
That's only true when you don't have the truth on your side, or your opponent has you so boxed in that no matter what direction you choose to move in, a bludgeoning awaits. They've flanked you on your right, they've flanked you on your left. There's tons of old voice that can be re-played, there's tons of voting records that can be made known, and only you know what else might comprise a set of crosshairs.
Who hates you, baby?
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