Posted on 08/31/2004 11:07:03 AM PDT by george wythe
Things couldn't look better for George W. Bush. Even before the Republican National Convention began, the president had started to register a bounce in the polls—coinciding with the successful Swift boat attacks on John Kerry's character. Bush has accomplished what no one would have dreamed of in July. He has forced Kerry to build his campaign around Vietnam and events that occurred more than 30 years ago, while Bush has deftly wrapped himself in 9-11 and is fighting today's real-time war on terror.
At the Time Warner media gala over the weekend, James Carville blew up at the mention of Kerry's campaign: "They're a perpetual committee listening to aperpetual focus group, and it's got to change," Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post quoted Carville as saying.
(Excerpt) Read more at villagevoice.com ...
strategery:
The science and art of using all the forces of a nation to execute approved plans as effectively as possible during peace or war while simultaneously allowing the enemy to flummox himself.
Why was the Kerry campaign caught so unprepared? Why such a clumsy reaction?
Did the Kerry campaign expect the old media to cover up this story?
Kerry had already built his campaign around Vietnam all by his own self. It was the one and only issue presented as reason to elect him president.
Since President Bush has nothing to do with the righteous Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, he certainly didn't "force" Kerry into this untenable position. No, I'm afraid Kerry is flawed and it is simply becoming apparent.
That line is priceless.
I can't wait what Bush will "force" Kerry to do next.
I hope a Deaniac scream is not in the works.
I noticed that too. Amazingly, the message got out through ads and now they have raised even more money. Notice how the media first ignored them, and now are lobbying everybody from the President on down to stop the ads. Thats hypocrisy in pure form.
> It’s no wonder he and his wife are in some kind regroup think.
Questions of the day:
When did Teresa learn the truth about Kerry's medals,
and how did she take it?
When did Teresa figure out that Kerry is the
Designator Loser for 2004, and that the Clinton
"advisors" are in fact the sabotage team, and
she's footing their bar bills? How did she take it?
Good observation.
Kerry's political mess is SELF INFLICTED. Bush had nothing to do with it (other than watch quietly).
Should be interesting who they bring in to 'save' the campaign.. Estrich would be fun.
I wonder if Kerry will bring Carville in to save his bacon.
"Did the Kerry campaign expect the old media to cover up this story?"
Yes.
" He has forced Kerry to build his campaign around Vietnam and events that occurred more than 30 years ago,"
Hahahaha! Kerry has been talking up his "war hero" story since the 'rats primary debates, in order to distance himself from the anti-war lunacy of Howard "yeeeeeaarrrrrrggghhhh!" Dean and the rest.
> Why was the Kerry campaign caught so unprepared?
Because the basic routine had been working for 30 years.
> Why such a clumsy reaction?
Because Kerry's arrogance would not permit him to have
a contingency plan (some leadership, eh?), and even
though the Clinton "advisors" knew it, they weren't
about to push it, since it was useful to the sabotage
strategy.
> Did the Kerry campaign expect the old media to
> cover up this story?
Absolutely. Lots of tacit and explicit admissions of that.
Someone should have told the dems that you need to have a reason for voting FOR someone. Then when negative things come out, you have something to fall back on.
Kerry's only positive is that he has been running for president since age 16. Now he's stuck. His only platform is that he will spend more money than Bush. Except on defense.
I am surprised, however, that Bush and the Republicans were able to design the Democratic National Convention and write all their speeches. I didn't know that.
Correct. Kerry has been running away from his record [or lack thereof] on the US Senate.
IMHO, the Iowa Democrats chose an empty suit, because Howard Dean was too raw for them. Then the rest of the lemmings followed suit in New Hampshire and elsewhere.
Expect to see lots of Hill this week, and even more afterwards. Also wonder if some of the fired staff won't blab to reporters about life in Kerryland. Faux pas by the candidate, that he's hands on...and so is the missus....She Who Must Be Obeyed! Should be amusing when they start talking.
Which the media might well have done, if the Kerry campaign had given them ANYTHING to hide it behind.
Kerry & Co. would run the country just as effectively as they're running their campaign, and it's going to be plenty hard to round up people who want to vote for 4 years of this.
Kerry chose to make his campaign about his 4 months in Vietnam. Other veterans were incensed by it. Bush had nothing to do with that part of the political equation, the fact that Bush is such a superior leader and visionary notwithstanding.
In a word -- yes. The old media did a pretty good job of it until the first SBVfT ad was broadcast. They completely ignored the early May news conference and thought that they could keep the lid on the story indefinitely. They thought wrong.
August 2004 will go down in history as the beginning of the end of the 'mainstream' media's ability to control news content.
I expect Carville would rather save his own career by staying out of this mess, than make a futile attempt to save Kerry by jumping into it.
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