Posted on 09/01/2004 5:22:27 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
NASHVILLE, Aug. 31 - Democrats say they fear that Senator John Kerry squandered the capital from the Democratic National Convention as he spent August reeling from a frontal assault on his character and Vietnam War record, with many urging him to immediately sharpen his attack on Mr. Bush and make a more persuasive case for change.
Mr. Kerry's inner circle, aware that he will probably enter the closing eight weeks of the race behind Mr. Bush, has been huddled in strategy meetings and adding staff members. At the same time, some prominent Democrats outside the campaign have been calling for a new urgency and have been chafing at Mr. Kerry's decision to remain at his vacation home in Nantucket, Mass., this week, mostly out of the spotlight during the Republican convention. He did however, fly here tonight for a rally, and to address the American Legion on Wednesday.
"I want him to be campaigning like his life depended on it," said Representative Charles B. Rangel, Democrat of New York. "I don't want him to be playing football or surfing or bicycling. I want him to tell people we're at war and we shouldn't be at war, to talk about all of the things we used to have and we lost in the last four years."
In Virginia, where Democrats have been viewing the presidential race as winnable for the first time in decades, the state Democratic chairman, Kerry Donley, said he, too, thought it was unwise for Mr. Kerry to have hunkered down this week. "You have to take the campaign to the people," Mr. Donley said. "I'd like to see him out there right now."
As if on cue, Mr. Kerry arrived here late Tuesday night and told a deafening crowd inside a small airplane hangar that he had not been watching the Republican convention from his resort home in Nantucket, but that he had read that "all they're talking about is the war on terror, which the president yesterday said he doesn't think we can win."
"Well, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you something," Mr. Kerry said. "We can, we must and we will win the war on terror. And the way to win the war on terror is to fight a smarter, more effective war on terror. And that begins by having a president who brings other nations to our side to share the risk, to share the responsibility, to share the burden, share the cost. And I understand that working with other countries is not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength, and that's what we're going to do."
Thursday at midnight, Mr. Kerry will begin a four-day bus blitz in Springfield, Ohio, and the candidate and his running mate and their families will fan out to rallies in 22 states over the Labor Day weekend. Wednesday, the campaign plans to buy $45 million in television time to run advertisements in 20 states until Election Day.
Some of Mr. Kerry's own advisers, speaking on condition of anonymity, attributed his lost month of August to his own lackluster performance on the stump, as well as a few tactical blunders, such as his insistence, under prodding from Mr. Bush, that he would still have voted to authorize force in Iraq even if he knew all that he does now about the failure to find unconventional weapons. One of Mr. Kerry's confidants said Mr. Kerry had expressed frustration that the campaign seemed unable to gain any traction in recent weeks.
Other Democrats criticized what they see as a too-cautious campaign, relying too heavily on the election being a referendum on an unpopular president.
"They seem to be trying to figure out what to do here, and it's a little late for that, you know," said one veteran Democratic strategist, who like many others refused to be quoted by name in criticizing the campaign.
Stephanie Cutter, Mr. Kerry's communications director, insisted that the campaign remained on its long-term game plan.
But outside the campaign, some are even second-guessing the decision to make the Democratic convention so focused on Mr. Kerry's personal biography and war record.
"We're going to have to make a real strong case for change," said Robert T. Matsui, the Californian who heads the Democrats' Congressional Campaign Committee.
Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York said that he thought the campaign's handling of domestic issues was fine, but that Mr. Kerry needed to devise a sharper attack on Mr. Bush at the heart of his case for re-election: national security.
"We have them beaten on every issue six ways to Sunday, even on Iraq; the majority of people say it was a mistake to go in, except on the war on terrorism," Mr. Nalder said. "A lot of political campaign managers say you ignore it. I think you take him head on on it."
Mr. Kerry huddled in Nantucket in recent days with Mary Beth Cahill, his campaign manager, and several key advisers. His campaign said the sessions were preparation for his debates with Mr. Bush and denied persistent speculation about a looming personnel shakeup.
Several senior Kerry aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the addition of two former Clinton hands, Joel Johnson and Joe Lockhart, had improved both operations and the mood inside the campaign headquarters in Washington.
Mr. Johnson's role is to keep the communications team laser-focused on Mr. Kerry's core messages. Mr. Lockhart is to begin traveling with Mr. Kerry in Nashville and will work directly with reporters.
Some inside the campaign also said the coming weeks would bring increasing influence from several longtime Kerry strategists, including John Sasso, whom Mr. Kerry made general election manager of the Democratic National Committee, and Tad Devine, who already is one of the team's senior media minds and public voices.
"There's not going to be a staff shakeup," Ms. Cutter said definitively. "We are building up the team with the best and the brightest to take us through the homestretch."
Mr. Lockhart added: "Any idea that the senior leadership of this campaign is about to be changed is just not true."
The arrival of the new staff members came after several weeks in which Mr. Kerry was slow to respond to an assault on his Vietnam combat record and character, with largely unsubstantiated accusations, by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
"I wish he'd borrowed a page from Bill Clinton - when attacked, you respond quickly, that day," said Ron Oliver, the Arkansas Democratic chairman.
But Bill Carrick, a longtime Democratic strategist, said he would not have "gotten engaged in it" at all. "I think it is a distraction," he said.
Several longtime Kerry aides said that no matter how badly August had gone for Mr. Kerry, he still had the debates ahead and that he had shown that he performs best when his back is against the wall.
"This is still the guy who can dig deeper than anyone when it counts," said one veteran adviser. "What I hate is that they're going to make it about his ability to do that one more time, when it didn't have to be. Imagine the pressure."
David M. Halbfinger reported from Nantucket for this article and Jodi Wilgoren from New York.
Three thousand human lives, for starters.
Translation:
Kerry To Go EXTREMELY Negative, Will Blame Bush
What, comparing Bush to Hitler isn't negative enough? Oh, wait, that's just the lackeys in the 527's that are doing that now.
How can you squander something you never had?
In Democratic circles this may not be hyperbole, it may be a threat.
Yes, and next Kerry's peace process turned US debt to the world and Democrats. What a cheap way indeed.
These people are hypocritical snakes.
Indeed, hard want and needs are inherently threatening. The road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions.
Now wait a minute, Charlie. This is NOT Kerry's modus operandi. You have to understand your comrade before rushing to make recommendations. Now I, on the other hand, DO understand my comrade Kerry, and I want Kerry to tell people we should be at war, and THEN tell people we should not be at war. Alternatively, I would advise Kerry to tell people we're AT war, and then tell people we're NOT AT war.
Yep, I can see Hellery's minions are giving that pathetic JF'nK more "helpful" advice: Now is the time to be angry as well as ugly. Oh yes, that will really do it for Kerry....
Johnny needs to TELL THE TRUTH, I say.
This is all they can do now to keep their base charged.
Cluelesscrats...
The answer is that if they raise the War on Terror as an issue---no matter what Kerry says---Bush wins. If they address the Swiftboat ads, even if somehow they "debunk" them (which they can't do), Bush wins because the damage to Frenchy's credibility has been done.
Kerry's people are going to openly embrace the fringe and invite them to cause civil disobedience whereever he campaigns. They are going for the sight and sound bite of more NYC marches. That's his only chance. Mass Rallies. Like Chrissy said, Is this what the French Revolution looked like?
“Kerry Needs to Sharpen His Attacks”
Say many of the Democratic hacks
Republicans know
How to deliver a blow
And we are going to give sKerry the axe.
CB^))
They've got nothing positive to talk about.
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