Posted on 09/05/2004 11:40:25 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
September 6, 2004 -- WASHINGTON The long knives are out for Democrat John Kerry's campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, as infighting rages while his slumping campaign struggles to come back against President Bush. "You'd think they could find a man to throw overboard one of these days," zinged Republican strategist Mary Matalin, a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney on NBC's "Meet the Press."
She said Democrats blamed 1988 loser Michael Dukakis' stumbles on campaign manager Susan Estrich and Al Gore's 2000 fumbles on campaign chief Donna Brazile, and "now they're trying to blame poor Mary Beth Cahill" for Kerry's missteps.
Cahill was fingered as the chief scapegoat in a leak to Newsweek magazine, which claimed a "furious" Kerry railed at her for failing to answer attacks on his Vietnam record.
For days, "Kerry ripped into Cahill" over TV ad attacks from anti-Kerry Vietnam vets, and then he "screamed" for someone to call old pal Thomas Vallely, who'd helped defend him before, Newsweek said.
Asked yesterday if Kerry waited too long to hit back, Cahill told CBS, "We answered it on our own time."
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The infighting came as Time and Newsweek polls gave Bush an 11-point lead. Kerry aides concede Bush leads by at least 3 or 4 points.
Kerry took yesterday off instead of going on a Sunday TV show to jumpstart his campaign. He's done no interviews in more than a month, since the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth TV ads challenged his Vietnam and anti-war record.
Instead, to try to shift to offense, Kerry yesterday put out a statement suggesting a possible Bush cover-up of ties between the Saudi government and 9/11.
Bush spokesman Scott Stanzel called the claim "baseless" and suggested Kerry has hired Michael Moore as his "new foreign-policy adviser."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6153895
Noone here or in the MSM seems to mention that Bush's post convention bounce has not been fully measured since most of the polls were done during the convention even before Bush's speech. I still think there will be more bounce coming.
"You defend me!"
"No, YOU defend me!"
The latest rumor I heard was, that when the Newsweek poll came out showing Bush with an 11 point lead, kerry and his top campaign strategists all rallied around the hooka to see if they could come up with a winning strategy.
Matalin! You actually spotted cases of men perceiving that women accept blame more readily than men?
That caption came out wrong... Does anyone know what I meant to say? (I think I need to turn in for the night...)
Kerry Statement on Allegations Made in Senator Bob Graham's NewBook 'Intelligence Matters'
Great cartoon. Thanks.
If you would like to help the Swift Boat Vets ( as I have, and I urge all to do-- even a few dollars will help ) kindly click on this logo:
If, perchance, the top "click the pic" link is not visible, click here:
-John Kerry- some selected, informative links...--
Judge for yourself- see the SwiftVet ads here:
Take a look at these three short video clips, especially the last one. You will walk away with a heavy heart.
Here is a link to page full of video and audio links.
"Stolen Honor" is at the top.
The newest SBV ad:
SwiftVets Ad #4: Kerry Trashes Medals -- An Insult to Vets, Say Shipmates
So? Lots of people (real and imagined) are quoted in articles.
Matalin works for Cheney. She is no one's campaign manager.
Thanks for the good post.
You are most welcome.
How about taking a few days off then coming back and giving a speech about the country's "malaise." Yeah, that could work.
Golly. The MSM 527 asked Cahill if they waited too long? The MSM did all they could to ignore the ads, just as Cahill told Kerry to do. Sounds almost like: "Why didn't you give us our talking points sooner? We'd have gone after them, too!"
With a typical margin of error of 3-4 points on national polls, that probably means that Kerry's internals are showing a Bush lead of 6-8 points -- they trim the MOE off of that when they talk to the media.
Let me get this straight......Kerry is demanding an investigation based on what is in Bob Grahams book.....whoa!
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