Kerry getting Gored? Democrats fear 2000 deja vu

The Times (N.W. Indiana)` ^ | 5-1-2004 | RON FOURNIER

[Prince Charles]

Kerry getting Gored?

ELECTION 2004: Democrats fear 2000 deja vu: Kerry candidacy looks like Al Gore's

An AP News Analysis By RON FOURNIER AP Political Writer

WASHINGTON -- It's a recurring nightmare for Democratic strategist Tony Coelho -- the party's presidential candidate portrayed as a flip-flopping opportunist, ill-served by a strife-torn staff. It happened in 2000, when Coelho ran Al Gore's campaign. Now, it's happening to John Kerry.

Democratic leaders fear he's getting "Gored."

"What the Kerry people don't understand is, it's succeeding," Coelho said.

Scores of Kerry supporters like the former California congressman say their initial response is to remain hopeful, based on polls showing the presumptive nominee tied with President Bush while the Democratic Party is better funded and more united than in 2000. But they are worried about history repeating itself.

"No question, it's a rerun of 2000," said Donna Brazile, campaign manager for the former vice president's 2000 race.

"Every Sunday, Team Bush goes in overdrive by outlining the upcoming week's attacks on Kerry. It's followed by paid advertisements and assigning top-notch surrogates," Brazile said. "This is the exact moment in 2000 when Gore was seriously damaged as the Bush team painted the former vice president as a "serial exaggerator."'

Republicans are pressing the same points against Kerry, mocking him at every turn.

"How many times can a flip-flop flip before a flip-flop becomes a flop?" Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt asked in a recent news release.

Kerry has given the GOP plenty of fodder, including:

-- Voting against the Persian Gulf War in 1991, in favor of the use of military force in Iraq in 2002 and against final passage of an $87 billion reconstruction bill for Afghanistan and Iraq. Explaining that he supported an amendment that would have provided the aid by rolling back Bush's tax cuts, Kerry said, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." The Bush campaign turned the quote into an ad.

-- The Massachusetts senator, who supports higher automobile fuel economy standards, told reporters last week that he doesn't own a gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle. Asked whether his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, had a Suburban at their Ketchum, Idaho, home, Kerry put a razor-fine point on his answer: "The family has it. I don't have it."

-- For years, the decorated Vietnam War veteran has said that he threw his ribbons over a fence at the Capitol during a 1971 anti-war protest, not his three Purple Hearts, Bronze Star and Silver Star. However, in a tape of a television interview Kerry gave after the protest, he suggested that he also threw his medals.

Three decades later, Kerry accused the White House of drumming up a "phony controversy" to change the subject from turmoil in Iraq and a shaky U.S. economy. Supporters say the strategy is even broader -- the White House is throwing every conceivable flip-flop or character flaw at Kerry's feet, just as they did to Gore.

Early in the 2000 campaign, Republicans accused the former vice president of taking credit for inventing the Internet, a claim Gore never quite made. Bush's team also jumped on a suggestion by Gore that he and his wife were the models for the novel "Love Story." The vice president later said he was wrong, and chalked it up to a miscommunication.

Neither incident alone ruined Gore's image, but Republicans planted seeds of doubt harvested late in the campaign by Bush.

During a fall debate, Gore said he accompanied Federal Emergency Management Agency director James Lee Witt to a Texas fire zone. Gore's campaign later said he inspected the fires, but not with Witt.

It was a small mistake, but big enough for GOP vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney to say in September 2000 that Gore "has failed to speak the truth" about all sorts of things.

Sound familiar?

"They're painting Kerry as a liberal, and it's succeeding. They're painting him as somebody who flip flops, and they're succeeding," Coelho said, adding that the race is far from over because Kerry has time to show voters his own biography and character. The campaign plans to unveil new biographical ads as early as next week.

Coelho left Gore's campaign in June of 2000, citing health problems. The staff was torn by rancor.

Several Gore advisers who survived that mid-year purge now work for Kerry, including Bob Shrum, with whom Coelho clashed. Shrum fought with Kerry's first campaign manager, Jim Jordan, and first ad-maker, Jim Margolis. Both are gone.

Coelho said he's feels good about Kerry's prospects, even if the campaign structure makes him uncomfortable. Several other Democrats expressed similar views, but only on condition of anonymity.

A senior official at the Democratic National Committee said that while Karl Rove is clearly running Bush's campaign, Kerry's team appears rudderless.

Kerry has said he won't be a "wishy-washy, mealy-mouthed" Democrat, pledging to challenge GOP attacks in a way that 1988 Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis never did. But he may want to worry more about comparisons to Gore.

"I do think Republicans are trying to Gore him," said Waring Howe Jr., a Democratic leader in South Carolina.

EDITORS: Ron Fournier has covered national politics or the White House since 1993

[gitmo]

BC can be VERY charming in person. Don't underestimate him.

If you've ever spent time around a psychopath, you can spot that 'charm' a mile away. I remember telling my wife this about BC before he was elected.

[Former Proud Canadian]

Hold on there, WCF. Are those quotes from Brazile true? If so, like Rush says, you can't make this stuff up.

[gitmo]

When your life is a series of personas each selected to persuade a particular audience, any attempt by someone else to define you IS 'painting' you. There is no REAL you.

[MinuteGal]

Isn't Fournier the member of the journalistic wolf pack who gets to ask the first question of the president in White House press conferences?

His article appears to be written in sorrow AND anger that his guy isn't doing too well in the campaign. Hillaryous that he pins most of the blame on the candidate's staff, and not where it belongs, Allbore F'n Kerry.

Leni

[Brandybux]

Hi, Dem,

Phu-leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze, pretty pul-leeeeeeeeeeese, with sugar on it, hang around here and post on Election night next November.

Pretty, pretty please????

[Erik Latranyi]

Let's look at this from the uninformed average American's point-of-view...........

Clinton got away with all the lying and flip-flopping because it was someting new to politics and, in some way, almost "fun" for the American people to watch him wiggle his way through the contradictions (like watching Eddie Haskell on Leave It To Beaver).

With a good economy and a bad Republican candidate (Dole), Clinton was re-elected because there was no consequences to his actions (at the time).

In his second term, Americans were not happy with the Lewinski affair. But after years of Republican investigations and accusations that never had a conclusion, the waters were so muddied that the average person could not see the harm in some extra-marital sex (even though conservatives could see the truth about lying under oath, obstruction of justice, etc.)

In 2000, the dot-com bubble bursting was not realized by many people and the choice between Gore (a known factor) and Bush (and unknown) was contentious. This resulted in the Florida recount, again, caused by the Democrats running to the courts, but viewed by the public as a Supreme Court intervention.


After 9-11, all this has changed.

Clinton's irresponsible behavior is now historically linked to the terror attacks. Such "Eddie Haskell" behavior will not be tolerated the public for the near-term future because the consequences can be seen.

Bush has now defined himself and his Presidency, forever known as taking the war to the terrorists and preventing (as of today) another major attack on US soil.

The war in Iraq is viewed properly by the public as linked to the war on terror, regardless of Democrat hysteria. Americans were sick and tired of Sadaam thumbing his nose at the world anyways.

This month's huge losses of American lives is troubling. However, if there is a rapid wrap-up of the situation and a successful installation of the interim government, this operation will be viewed as a success by November.

The economic news is better than good. The attacks against Bush's character have all been repelled and the Democrats are not offering a clear alternative.

John Kerry is being increasingly seen as a flip-flopper, due to his own words that were irresponsible for any candidate to let slip.

However, the average American is still not paying attention to the whole campaign. Once the conventions are over and we are into September, the results will be cemented --- for a clear Bush win.

Of course, all this is contingent on ceterus paribus, al things being equal.

[Erik Latranyi]

Mr. Kerry will sweep the nation in electorial votes...

You stopped taking your medication again, didn't you?

[Larry Lucido]

Gee, I wonder what kind of open-mouthed tongue-kiss JFK is gonna have to plant on Teresa after his nomination speech to outdo Gore's personality? I don't even want to imagine.

[mikegi]

The fact that Kerry needed to take charisma lessons from Gore can't help, either...

[Steve Eisenberg]

The problem with Gore was that he was an awful candidate who looked awful on television and who ran an awful campaign.

I don't know what the point is of saying this. Gore won the popular vote by a 500,000 margin. And we are not going to have two elections in a row where the electoral college fails to follow the popular vote. No need for overconfidence.

[Condor51]

Yo TROLL get ready to meet the VIKING KITTIES...

Oh and get prepared to be ZOTTED!!

Se ya troll. Have a nice trip back to the DU

[csmusaret]

I know that Coehlo left Congress under a cloud, but I can't remember the details. Can anyone fill me in?

[dufekin]

You missed "McClellaned." That's from 1864, when Lincoln won a bare majority of the civilian vote, which became an overwhelming landslide when the troops--who were suffering terribly on the battlefield--voted to support their commander-in-chief. Even though many of the troops were drafted, even though they were supposed to support the anti-war candidate McClelland, the war hero...well, sorta.

He led a military debacle in 1862, marching a large army a hundred miles slowly through mud so deep some soldiers drowned in it. Once he got close to Richmond, he decided that it was too hot and humid and planned an evacuation. Once he returned to Washington, Lincoln inexplicably fired him. Well, at least McClelland didn't understand that he was supposed to take Richmond, not just sight the city and sail away.

[Joe Boucher]

How the hell many times do you dims need the votes to be counted before you can seel a victory in Florida?
This time are you dims gonna try to block service members votes because they mostly back Mr. Bush?
Maybe teach the stupid old folks of palm beach and ft. lauderdale to vote for someone other then the nazi Buchannon?
HOw can anyone with half a brain back this gigallo kerry?
Gold digging anti American turd that he is.

[fishbabe]

once again,its all dubya's fault...of course,if kerry had a belief system in place,he wouldn't be flip-flopping over every little item.....but,tony did'nt get that part of it..why?????because NO DEMOCRAT has a belief system,and doesn't have a clue on how to get one.....

[LS]

I think you are pretty much right. Given how some conservatives have jumped ship on Iraq recently, though, it concerns me that even though Americans KNOW that it isn't the right thing to do, they may still abandon Iraq if there are large casualties just before the election. Otherwise, you are probably right.

[LS]

"Psycopath." Interesting choice of words. The O.J. prosecutor in the civil trial said the same thing of O.J.---that he hated him going in, and that he was convinced O.J. slashed those two people to death, but when he went in to take the deposition from O.J., O.J. came in behind him and said, "Hi, I'm O.J.," and the guy just MELTED and began talking football!!!

[skinkinthegrass]

He's a dick.

short and...

..tell us, how you really feel!.. :))