How Bush can destroy Kerry fast

The Hill ^ | 3-3-04 | Dick Morris

[Indy Pendance]

The Democratic Party chose a nominee Tuesday who probably cannot win the White House in November.

In opting for Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and turning down Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Democrats have broken from the pragmatism and moderation that dominated their party’s profile under Bill Clinton and Al Gore in the 1990s.

Their party has now moved back to the liberal extremism of Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis that characterized the 1980s — with the same predictable result.

It is now up to President Bush to take advantage of this by implementing a three-part strategy in the coming campaign.

First, his paid media must attack Kerry’s voting record to define him as an ultraliberal. There are likely those in the White House who are urging Bush to run positive ads. That won’t work. Even if positive ads produce a small, short-term bounce for Bush, events soon will come to dominate, and the impact of those ads likely will evaporate.

But if Bush uses the next eight months to educate voters on Kerry’s opposition to the death penalty, his vote against the 1991 Iraq war, his poor attendance record in the past year and his opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act, he could put this election away by defining Kerry right now.

Kerry has not been tested. He was nominated by running in the shadow of Howard Dean. Throughout the fall, all eyes were on the former Vermont governor. When he crashed and burned in late January, Kerry, as the liberal heir apparent, inherited his disappointed voters.

Meanwhile, Edwards never got the money or the momentum to run a decent race against Kerry because Gen. Wesley Clark — remember him? — crowded the field. By the time Edwards got Kerry one on one, the number of primary states stretched his resources to the point where he could not afford it.

But now, Kerry is a fair and inviting target. Bush has to zero in on him and push him to the left right now. Whether Kerry ever consorted with Jane Fonda is beside the point, but Kerry’s voting record is not.

Second, while his anti-Kerry ads are running, the president himself needs to make Americans understand that the war on terror is still atop our national agenda. He needs to elevate the sense of threat so that his advantage as a war president begins to count.

Kerry has also made a big mistake in backing the criminal-justice approach to terrorism, seeking to transform the war on terror into a series of DEA-style busts. Voters recognize that Bush is right when he says that this is a war against nation-states that sponsor terror, not a hunt for criminal bands in the mountains.

Pundits say that Kerry’s admirable war record makes national security irrelevant as a campaign issue. They couldn’t be more wrong. His efforts to defund the CIA and his opposition to the funding of the Iraq war are all key targets for Bush.

Some of those who have Bush’s ear may urge him to speak more about the economy and less about terror. This would be a big mistake. Bush must use his profile as president to make Americans understand how crucial staying the course in the war on terror is to our safety. Bush has lost a lot of support among women with the war in Iraq. But he can restore that support by stressing the need to make America safe from terror attacks and to stress how important it is to stick to this task.

Finally, Bush must begin to pull American troops out of Iraq after the handover in June. He should leave a sufficient number there, in safe, secluded bases, to intervene if the bad guys try to come back in power. But the daily drip of casualties must end.

President Johnson kept the troops in Vietnam and lost. President Nixon was withdrawing them, and he won.

If Bush’s ads and surrogates savage Kerry while the president raises the profile of the war on terror and his foreign-policy team brings the troops home, this race could be over long before either Bush or Kerry is officially designated as the standard bearers of his respective party.

[Cold Heat]

Dicky is on both sides of this issue, I suspect.

[johnb838]

When I hear "First Responder" I think "Free Federal Handouts To Municipalities". Dick Morris always sounds so sure of himself. Kerry should be beatable. I understand there aren't a lot of undecideds though, so it's going to be about getting out the vote.

[Cicero]

Well, I usually take anything the toe-sucker says with a grain of salt. But for once, almost everything he says here is correct. The RNC needs to hit Kerry hard, and the best place to hit him is on his liberal, peacenik voting record and his obvious unsuitability to protect our country from dangerous enemies.

[blanknoone]

I am really torn about this. My own perspective is that Bush has to use his ads to educate the voters about Kerry's background because the fawning liberal press will never do it. Not 'negative' per say, but educate people about where he has stood and stands on important issues. Show America that he is a liberal and Kerry is done.

Now that Morris essentially says the same thing, I have to seriously reconsider...although every bone in my body says that is the right course of action, if that is what Morris says, its probably wrong.

[Howlin]

Can anybody name ONE THING Dick Morris has been right about?

I'll wait!

[GailA]

I've already offered to supply quotes or statments for our County GOP. Thank you for caring.

The majority of Americans support the DP, especially for child killers.

[Cold Heat]

AAAHHHHHHHHH

MMMMNNNNNNNnnnnnnn

bbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

No!

[LisaMalia]

The only thing that is required to ruin Kerry is to ask him how he's going to win the War on Terrorism, or is he going to choose to just hunker down, pull the shades, and wait for the next Sept. 11th?

OK, you tell me....WHO'S GOING TO ASK THE HARD QUESTIONS? I'm still waiting for ANYONE in the mainstream media to ask him about this post Vietam anti-American activities, let alone how he'll deal with the war on terrorism.

[Cold Heat]

Bush will not go negative, but surrogates will inform the public of the truth about Kerry.

[BooBoo1000]

Idea number one (1) put Morris in charge of Pizza. No 2(2) Leave Kerry alone until after the convention. Let the Dims get stuck with this bozo. Don't worry for right now. Just let them rave and rant.

[terilyn]

That's great, and you're most welcome.

Even here in Liberal Lakes, aka Minnesota, we support the death penalty for killers of children.

Once again Kerry is on the wrong side of right.

[LisaMalia]

Well, I usually take anything the toe-sucker says with a grain of salt. But for once, almost everything he says here is correct. The RNC needs to hit Kerry hard, and the best place to hit him is on his liberal, peacenik voting record and his obvious unsuitability to protect our country from dangerous enemies.

Apathy is what got us 8 years of Bill Clinton as our "commander in chief". I'm not advocating a smear campaign, just get the facts out about Kerry.

[dc-zoo]

You might want to give that set of feet of your's a makeover if you hope to attract toe-suckers.

[Jim_Curtis]

Bush should run mostly positive ads.

Kerry is a walking/talking negative ad for himself. Let everyone else ( us ) educate the people on what a pile of puke Kerry is.

I would go against popular wisdom and make ads that deal with Kerry's attacks because you can redirect the attack within the ad and the ad can't be called negative.

The way we educate the people on what a traitor and piece of filth that Kerry is is by using Kerry's old tactics. Protest every event where he shows his face and carry signs that define the true Kerry. There will be fights and the media won't be able to ignore us.

The only thing that we need to start right now TODAY is a call for Kerry to release his service records because it is still fresh in everyone's mind that Bush released his.

[Always Right]

Morris is usually wrong, but I thought this was very reasonable advice. I am not sur why everyone is jumping on him. Bush can beat Kerry now by pounding his left-wing voting record.

[HardStarboard]

>>>But I'm not a talking head on Fox News so what do I know?<<<

You bring up a hell of a good point that I hadn't heard floated before. I think you got it right!

Have Fox call me - I'll vouch for you as someone that has a thinking head as well as a talking one.

(Their in short supply on mainstream TV these days)

[torchthemummy]

"Bad advice. Getting rid of Kerry before the nomination will bring up Hillary."

That's why Morris is wrong about not starting with positive ads. The positive should be accented until Kerry has the nomination (about 2 weeks) then when that is finalized start smart (not negative) ads that highlight Kerry's stances, statements etc. When you couple this with an albeit shaky Iraq essentially under it's own power July 1, the hopefully quick to follow Sadaam trial, the later Republican Convention (after the Dem's in Gay Massachusetts), the ability if necessary to pick a different VP (Cheney is no egotist and would never be elected in his own right as great as he is), September 11 observances just days later and then, just days later, the McCain-Feingold's stipulation of no negative ads sixty days before the Election (presuming the FEC's conclusion is that the Soros-type 527's are outlawed) then you've got four more years of a very moral man in office. By the way I am against McCain-Feingold but it clearly seems that this is a great example of where the Dems should have been careful about what they wished for. And if the FEC does not shoot down the end-run through the 527s then we can fight fire with fire. Ads with direct quotes of Kerry in 1971 in front of congress, quotes from his book, quotes to the Harvard Crimson to hand over control to the UN for our forces would be devastating. WE here in Freeper Land are in essence the Goerge Soros' of the right, highlighting what needs to be said while disallowing the dems to paint our Prez with their cheapshots of him being a divider, liar, propogandist etc.

[uncbob]

Kerry gets destroyed then the democrats will pull a NJ and change candidates

[holden]

That's right, BabaBooey, Dickie just wants to see Bush do the crucifying of Kerry before the convention so Hitlery can step up as the only viable candidate "to beat Bush." If the Clintons have to do their own undercutting of Kerry, Hitlery won't be able to lead a unified party from November onward to 2008.

Wait for Kerry to solidify whatever he can muster at the convention, then go after him. It'll strike the biggest blow to the dims, and allow the longest coattails for President Bush.

60 pubbie Senators, here we come! Wholesale impeachment of dim activist judges! Yahoo!

HF

[VadeRetro]

His efforts to defund the CIA and his opposition to the funding of the Iraq war are all key targets for Bush.

Don't forget to mention his abysmal record on defense spending in general. We'd have an Air Force of F-4 Phantoms and B-52s if it were up to Kerry. No Patriot missiles. No Tomahawk cruise missiles.

We'd be equipped about the same as we were in Vietnam.