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Posted on 09/06/2004 2:59:40 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
RACINE, W.Va. - (KRT) - Seizing on a common campaign sign that features President Bush's middle initial, Sen. John Kerry on Monday declared that "W stands for wrong," shifting his focus from the rhetorical quagmires of Iraq and Vietnam to pocketbook issues.
Kerry spent Labor Day in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina blaming Bush for economic problems that he said were the worst since the Great Depression. He also retooled his campaign team on the fly.
"As the president likes to say, there's nothing complicated about it," Kerry said, speaking to a crowd of about 2,000 at a United Mine Workers Labor Day picnic. "It all comes down to one letter: W. W stands for wrong. Wrong choices, wrong judgment, wrong priorities for our country."
Aides said that Kerry is jettisoning the talk about his own Vietnam war record that dominated his message throughout the summer and will hit the economy hard, believing that job losses, falling wages and rising health care costs will convince millions of voters that they are worse off than they were four years ago.
"We're going to close the tax loopholes that reward companies for shipping jobs overseas, and we're going to reward companies that believe that American workers do the best job in the world," Kerry said. He also promised to get health care costs under control.
Bush also went through the traditional Labor Day campaign kickoff ritual, but limited his campaigning to a single evening rally in Missouri.
Kerry's day began with a front-porch question and answer session with supporters at the home of Dale and Jody Rhome on West College Street, a tree-lined block in Canonsburg, Pa.
Citing falling wages and rising health care costs, as well as Bush administration rules restricting overtime pay, Kerry said the president had "dishonored" workers and that "the average American worker was moving backwards."
Boisterous pro-Bush protesters at the end of the block screamed "flip flop" and "four more years," drowning out speakers at the event. As Kerry blasted Bush for deficit spending driven by tax cuts and a $200 billion war in Iraq, the catcalls grew louder.
"They don't like to hear the truth - it's kind of funny," Kerry said. "Every one of those people screaming over there, they all have a bigger debt to pay."
Even as he focused on the economy, questions from the audience brought Kerry back to Iraq. "It's the wrong war, in the wrong place and the wrong time," he said. Kerry said he believes he could have U.S. troops home by the end of a first term, which would be 2009.
Bush, in prepared remarks, responded: "After voting for the war, but against funding it, after saying he would have voted for the war even knowing everything we know today, my opponent woke up this morning with new campaign advisers and yet another new position.
"Suddenly he's against it again. No matter how many times Senator Kerry changes his mind, it was right for America and it's right for America now that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power."
Kerry on Sunday brought veteran operative John Sasso in to travel with him and help make strategic decisions faster.
"He wanted a peer, someone his own age," a senior adviser said. "John Sasso is smart and tested."
The two men have been friends for years, and Sasso has enough history with Kerry to be able to reel him in when necessary.
Mary Beth Cahill, a former aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., will continue as campaign manager, running things from headquarters, advisers said. In recent weeks, Clinton veterans have joined the campaign, including Joe Lockhart, the former White House press secretary, and Joel Johnson, a communications adviser to Clinton. Some Democrats are also urging other former Clinton advisers to take active roles.
Upheaval is common in presidential campaigns - Kerry, for example, fired his first campaign manager just three months before the Iowa caucuses - but it is rare to do it this close to Election Day. The moves follow weeks of mounting concerns among Democrats as Kerry has foundered and lost ground to harsh attacks on his character and fitness for office.
President Clinton told Kerry in a 90-minute phone conversation Saturday that the endless back-and-forth on the Vietnam war - and Kerry's role as a veteran and a protester - was starving the campaign of oxygen.
Aides say they had long planned to buttress the campaign staff and the moves were not a sign of panic, downplaying suggestions that the Clintonistas and existing Kerry staff in headquarters would clash. "It's all hands on deck," said spokesman David Wade. "There is one team."
Kerry is so lame. He is really losing it.
Kerry stands for nothing. Which is why he blows in the wind.
WINNER!
Of course!!
This simplistic 'W' baloney is pure Clintonese and right from Jesse Jackson's playbook.
F stands for Failure
F stands for F*ckup
F stands for F*ckoff
F stands for Faulty
F stands for FlipFlop
F stands for Forgery
F stands for Fraud
F stands for French
F stands for Feminine as in Girlyman
F stands for Foul
F stands for Fairy
W also stand for Wallop—which is what Bush is going to do to Kerry on election day.
W also stands for Win. Another election day activity for the Bush camp.
:o)
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Hey F*in....W stands for WINNER!!
Good message Kerry. Stay on target. I am sure that with such a proctive agenda for America you will get elected.
I am beginning to think he is dumber than Al Gore.
You see, these are a lot more original than anything Kerry's handlers could have come up with. (What else is new?)
Kerry is becoming a cliché of himself right before our eyes and ears. Way too funny!
"K stands for Kambodia."
Make that Kampuchea. Kampuchea Kerry worked very hard to bring that Communist paradise into existence. Those Killing Fields were Kerry Fields.
Beautiful Photo:
It looks like W is saying...........
man, I thought it was going to be easy, but I just slid right in there!
Contrast how Bush and Kerry are handling their campaigns. When Bush was accused of being AWOL, he released his DD-214 and his entire service record for inspection. When Kerry takes a hit on the Vietnam subject that he won't let die, he self-righteously says, "How dare those Bush people question my service..." (And I'm using quotes because he really did say exactly that.)
Who do you want as president, a guy who answers the question and lets his service record show or somebody who lies, dodges, and accuses the other guy of using his skiffy tactics?
I thought this guy was supposed to come out swinging this week, backed by the best political minds in the country.
This is it?????
W stands for Wrong?????
This is the best the Clinton guys could come up with???
wow
And in a related statement, Senator Kerry then said:
Yeah, and he's a weener too!!!!
He running a more sensitive attack campaign. :)
W is also for "Whooping your a$$, johnny".
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