Posted on 09/06/2004 2:51:58 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The downside of last week's convention was that the Republicans performed brilliantly. The upside is that it may finally have lit a fire under John Kerry.
He has waged the most lackluster campaign so far, but the spectacle at Madison Square Garden, where he was attacked, often unfairly, and mocked relentlessly by the Bushies, seemed to revitalize him. Immediately after the convention wound down, Kerry starting acting like someone who wants to win this election.
....... Talk to Democrats almost anywhere, and you hear their desperation over this campaign. They want mightily to remove George Bush, but are experiencing a mixture of anger, terror and despair. Anger at the Republicans' lies about Kerry's record and their own. Terror over how well the Republican message resonates with other voters. And despair over Kerry's less than dynamic response. They can see the election slipping away if his campaign doesn't dramatically change course.
Even so, there's a well of optimism in these Democrats - maybe it's just plain, old-fashioned hope - that Kerry can still pull this thing off......a group of young Democrats watched Bush's speech on three plasma screen TVs, they booed as the president ticked off the points of an agenda that is growing increasingly more conservative, ......
Melanie McEvoy, 35, and Jeff Altman, 38, both told me they had decided on the spot to go to Florida a week before the election to help bring out the Kerry vote.
.....The Democrats are certainly motivated enough. At 8 o'clock on the morning after the convention, Jeri Famighetti joined 500 other New Yorkers who boarded buses headed to Pennsylvania to spend the day stumping for Kerry. Her sense of urgency is so great that this is the first campaign she's worked on since Hubert Humphrey's against Richard Nixon.......
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Let 'em weep. There's no "milk of human kindness" left in me for those who have relentlessly trashed our President.
As far as I'm concerned that is backwards:
The upside of last week's convention was that the Republicans performed brilliantly. The downside is that it may finally have lit a fire under John Kerry.
Take a look at these three short video clips, especially the last one. You will walk away with a heavy heart.
Just what we need in PA, 500 more screamers without a message.
It is good that it lit a fire under Kerry - it means Kerry will continue to fight the wrong way.
Dems equate a lit fire with throwing mud. Throwing mud CAN work - if it is the right mud at the right target.
The DUI revelation just before the 2000 election nearly beat GWB. It was the right mud - it reinforced the fear voters had that GWB might not be up to the job. Even I was disturbed that he would be so foolish not to have mentioned the DUI before then...an old DUI doesn't hurt a born-again teetotaler, but a concealed one in a Presidential campaign indicates someone isn't ready for prime time.
And it was the right target - voters hadn't made up their minds about GWB. He was still largely unknown.
Now that has all changed. Voters have had 4 years watching GWB - love him or hate him, they KNOW him. They don't CARE what he did in the Guard or how he got there.
So when Kerry attacks Bush on these issues, he's not just wasting his breath - he's sliming someone that 60-65% of Americans like. And they don't like that.
In this campaign, Kerry is the unknown. The Swiftboat Vet's ads work because they are fact based and play on something that nags at most people, namely, why does Kerry keep bringing up Vietnam? In the back of their minds, voters realize the emphasis on Vietnam indicates Kerry hasn't done much since. With every repetition, they wonder why he isn't talking about the issues...and wonder if that means Kerry doesn't know what to do about the issues.
So bring it on! Let Kerry lash out with ever increasing anger!
With every attack on GWB and Cheney, voters realize A) Kerry is a jerk, and B) Kerry doesn't have a plan for the future.
When Kerry throws mud, it only sticks to himself.
Yielding a fine broth of malaise.
Actually Dems and liberals are the biggest pessimists around despite the fact that most of them live very good lives. Beats me why they complain. I guess they expect perfection which is quite unobtainable. Hey Dems, change the doom and gloom message and (1) admit that you live in a great country and (2) start observing that we are at war with a foe that is determined to exterminate us. That just might be a message that "resonates" with Americans.
They want perfection they way THEY define it. They want their own way.
They will lie, stamp their feet, and hold their breath till they turn blue.
My town is filled with them. We had an influx of them, and in fifteen years taxes have doubled, trying to accommodate all their fantasies and tantrums. It's all about "control". They are so certain of getting their way, they feel that even candidates as absurd as Gore and Kerry can be foisted off on the People by their Media.
They suck.
I too was baffled by that--so you can imagine how independents/soft repubs must have felt about it, enough to change their vote to Gore. I still would like to know exactly why their didn't disclose it right away and get it over with--did they think it would dominate the conversation until election day? Or did they think it wouldn't get discovered?, a concept I find ludicrous.
More like lit a fire under Kerry to finally play all the dirty cards he can now. Too bad Al Gore and his pals already did that. Maybe Te-RAY-za can buy him a Bush scandal somehow.
Didn't see the msm say that hanoi john and the dnc attacked GW. There's no bias in the press..that's just a myth.
And Kitty Kelly is fixing to throw the wrong kind of mud..and it's not going to help kerry, but make the dims look even smaller.
And more desperate.
LOL that's good.
Actually, it's a yes, no, maybe bowl o' mush!
The liberals just do not get it. The "attacks" on John Kerry were legitimate and focused solely on his Senate voting record--there were no personal attacks regarding his wife nor VietNam.
Liberals cannot tolerate opposition.
just sitting here at the computer thinking how John Kerry is in a bad position that he has absolutely no control over, and it's humorous as all get out. The last impression left on the public was the Pub convention and Bush's speech. Now as Kerry attempts to respond, he's totally drowned out (pardon the pun) by Hurricane Frances, and now Ivan is on the way. Throw in the Russian school disaster, and for the next few weeks, no one is going to be listening to a word either candidate says, but the lasting image remains the hugely successful Pub convention. These other events will kill off most of the month of September, which really leaves Kerry with only the month of October to recover any momentum. And who knows what else will happen in October. Maybe another hurricane or two. So, the weather is doing its part for the Pubs by poor Florida being bombarded by hurricanes, disastrous as they may be.
Of course we have Kitty Kelly's book smear of the entire Bush family coming out on Sept. 15th, which will cause a little blip, but hopefully the SwiftBoat Vets will come out with something about the same time as the trash book of lies hits, and neutralize any adverse effects caused by it. Even Larry King, who always has Kitty Kelly on his TV program when one of her books comes out, doesn't want her on about this book, as it is so awful and a pack full of lies. Of course, the great unknown is if there is an October surprise by either side right before the elections, and of course the debates will play into the scenario. Will be an interesting 2 months coming up indeed.
just sitting here at the computer thinking how John Kerry is in a bad position that he has absolutely no control over, and it's humorous as all get out. The last impression left on the public was the Pub convention and Bush's speech. Now as Kerry attempts to respond, he's totally drowned out (pardon the pun) by Hurricane Frances, and now Ivan is on the way. Throw in the Russian school disaster, and for the next few weeks, no one is going to be listening to a word either candidate says, but the lasting image remains the hugely successful Pub convention. These other events will kill off most of the month of September, which really leaves Kerry with only the month of October to recover any momentum. And who knows what else will happen in October. Maybe another hurricane or two. So, the weather is doing its part for the Pubs by poor Florida being bombarded by hurricanes, disastrous as they may be.
Of course we have Kitty Kelly's book smear of the entire Bush family coming out on Sept. 15th, which will cause a little blip, but hopefully the SwiftBoat Vets will come out with something about the same time as the trash book of lies hits, and neutralize any adverse effects caused by it. Even Larry King, who always has Kitty Kelly on his TV program when one of her books comes out, doesn't want her on about this book, as it is so awful and a pack full of lies. Of course, the great unknown is if there is an October surprise by either side right before the elections, and of course the debates will play into the scenario. Will be an interesting 2 months coming up indeed.
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