Posted on 09/21/2004 5:31:20 PM PDT by NCjim
One speech may not a campaign make, but John Kerry and his top advisers are pumped up and in "a fighting mood" after the Democratic candidate's aggressive attack on President Bush's handling of Iraq.
The Massachusetts senator, lagging in opinion polls six weeks before the Nov. 2 election, seems to have kicked a habit of pulling his punches at the last minute and showed a new willingness to mix it up with his Republican rival.
From a scathing address detailing Bush's "arrogance and outright incompetence" on Iraq, to a Democratic fund-raiser and on to a morning television talk show where he charged that the president was "in denial," Kerry seems to have found a new lease on political life.
"These guys, they've got me in a fighting mood," Kerry said to roars of approval at a reception in New York on Monday night.
Campaigning in Florida on Tuesday, he openly acknowledged his hard-hitting approach.
"I know it sounds sort of tough, I know it does," he told a town hall meeting in Jacksonville. "I wish it didn't, but the fact is ... on Iraq, they haven't leveled with the American people and we deserve a president of the United States who looks Americans in the eye and tells you the truth."
Several Democrats outside the campaign called Kerry's speech in New York a turning point that would force Bush to play defense.
"Many people have said this was a speech you needed to give," said Mike McCurry, a Kerry adviser and former White House spokesman for President Bill Clinton.
But Republican campaign officials dismissed it as "new contradictions and more confusion."
"My opponent has taken so many different positions on Iraq that his statements are hardly credible at all," Bush told reporters in New York where he addressed the United Nations.
Kerry staff members were delighted at the newspaper and television coverage devoted to their boss's stinging critique of the president's "colossal failures of judgment" in the run-up to the war and its aftermath.
"He rocked, didn't he," the candidate's wife Teresa Heinz Kerry declared. "There's a time for everything and it was time for him to take off the gloves."
It was a welcome change for the Democratic faithful who privately feared their candidate lacked fire, and vindication for a cadre of new advisers who urged Kerry to land some punches instead of simply shadow boxing with Bush.
A senior Kerry aide portrayed the Iraq speech as a kind of catharsis for voters as well as the candidate, who has struggled with the issue throughout the spring and summer.
"I think people responded to the fact that someone finally told the hard truths," the aide said. "The White House's weak response was telling. They didn't challenge a single assertion he made about the situation on the ground."
But Kerry has often wrestled with just how hard to hit. His tendency was to retreat altogether from some of the harsher rhetoric that appears in his prepared remarks or to soften it.
Instead of accusing Bush of living "in a fantasy world of spin" on Iraq, he told a National Guard conference the president was dwelling in "a different world of spin."
An advance text of a fiery address full of biblical allusions before a Baptist convention warned blacks to beware of Bush's overtures, comparing the president to a wolf in sheep's clothing. Instead, Kerry described him as a "false prophet."
When the ban on assault weapons expired earlier this month, Kerry rebuked Bush for failing to fight for its renewal, but issued a much sterner written statement saying the president was making the job of terrorists easier.
ROFLOL! Talk about someone who's in denial! Does he think the public doesn't remember his massive flip-flopping, his innumerable falsehoods, and his refusal to release his military records or Teresa's tax info? We deserve a president of the United States who looks Americans in the eye and tells you the truth, huh? Guess that puts YOU out of the running, Johnny Boy.
Kerry reminds me more of PeeWee Herman than any other living human.
Compare Kerry with Herman's portrayal of the obnoxiously agressive desk clerk in "Cheech and Chong's Next Movie" and you'll see exactly what I mean: childish, petulant, disconnected from reality, and unable to interact successfully with others.
And his "four point Iraq plan"? A Joke. Simplistic to the point of absurdity. The Republicans should get Mike Gomez (the cop at the police impound in "The Big Lebowski") to star in an ad where Kerry espouses his plan with Gomez saying, "Oh, that's good! Let me write that down in my notebook here." in his supremely saarcastic way.
"colossal failures of judgment"...but going to Paris was right-on thinking?
He f***ed the American Soldier in Vietnam in 1970, and he's f***ing him again in Iraq in 2004.
Now, let's see some "real" dirty tricks. Why stop at forging documents? Go all the way! Go meet with Zarqawi just like you did with the Cong. Show them your idea of real patriotism. You can always explain that you were for American Victory before you were against it.
Fighting mood to surrender?
Now now, Johnny. Fighting never solved anything.
I'd like to know what Kerry's plans are. His only line so far , is Bush is wrong and I can do better.
"Fighting mood"? LMAO. Heard that one at least twice already, and each time preceded a precipitous Kerry drop in the polls.
"a fighting mood"
Reference the "I'll fight for you" Al Gore. I assume the word "fight" scored high with focus groups at some point during the Gore campaign. Seems like Dem rhetoric turned around this word has surfaced time again ever since.
Kerry camp in "fighting mood"? Bring on those 8mm cameras and watch for more self-inflicted wounds. I wonder what butt injury Kerry will claim this time.
(Doug: Feel up to doing a take-off on 'Still crazy, after all these years?')
Get the base all excited about the horse race and get them to come out and vote "because he might just win it!!!"
The scary part is, it might work.
Nah. As Dick Morris pointed out last week,
is now on board the Kerry campaign. His methods are useful only to keep the base rallied. His techniques alienate moderates. He was not part of Clinton's campaign in 1996 for that very reason. Kerry's inflammatory rhetoric will motivate the base but alienate everyone else.
I think that the actual quote was that they were in a FRIGHTENED mood...
That sounds good, but I have already picked out another one I am about to start. Let me look at it and see if I get inspired. The once I chose is really upbeat, which is usually better for sticking it to him.
Excellent!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.