Posted on 09/22/2004 8:18:27 AM PDT by Kenny Bunk
So how can you tell when he's closing, people keep asking me.
And when is he going to start?
He is John Kerry, who I've watched in every election he's ever won. As best as I can tell, he started yesterday;
For John Kerry, closing means discipline. It means defining the message, and sticking with it, hammering everything through it, until the end.
"As I said in my speech yesterday," John Kerry kept saying in answer to questions today, and then indeed, repeated what he said the day before, which was about the present and the future of Iraq, not the past. Sticking to message.
A message is not a synonym for a slogan, which campaigns that are behind tend to have many of, often a different one every day. It is an idea that captures the case for or against a candidacy, through which all issues and all questions can be seen. "It's the economy, stupid" meant take every question, every opportunity, and turn it back to the economy and how they botched it and we'll fix it. "Lower taxes, smaller government" requires no explanation. Neither does: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" The more complicated it is, the worse. Often campaigns have difficulty articulating a winning message for the very simple reason that they don't have one, or because the winning message that year simply doesn't match the candidate the party has nominated.
At the Democratic Convention, John Kerry did not make the case against Bush or his presidency - it was against the rules even to mention his name. It seemed, then, that people did not need to hear it, that they would react negatively to a negative convention. Hindsight is 20-20, and a total waste of time with six weeks to go. Victory will have a thousand fathers (and mothers) - defeat is always an orphan.
John Kerry has to make the case against Bush and for himself. It has to be based in what is happening to real people now and in the future. You could find it with a highlighter pen in yesterday's speech.
President Bush took the country in the wrong direction. He mislead the country based on bad/tainted facts to gain our support. He stubbornly refuses to face reality and admit his mistakes. Real people suffer the consequences of these mistakes. Kerry has a plan to make things better - to succeed, where he has failed.
George Bush's tough has to become stubborn and wrongheaded, the way it was earlier this summer. That won't happen when the debate is about what happened in votes two years ago, or 10 years ago, much less in the Guard 30 years ago. The debate has to be about where we are, and where we're headed - about the present and the future, about the country, not John Kerry.
This is, I should add, precisely the message that Bob Shrum was selling the night of the president's acceptance speech in New York. Which is more evidence, if more were needed, of the other truth, which is that it's always "the candidate, stupid" - particularly when you're talking about John Kerry. So put away the obituaries.
The conventional wisdom consensus of the latest inconsistent polls, including the internal campaign polls, puts the race at about 5 points in Bush's favor. That's still striking distance at six weeks and three debates. John Kerry has finally stripped away the bark on the Iraq issue. And maybe off himself.
The close has begun.
Kerry is going back to his roots, the only thing he truly trusts and knows, and what he made his career on --- the anti-war movement. MSM will play along with all Iraq, all the time news coverage until the election. When the message is pro-America, such as the Olympics, Bush wins, when it is all Iraq, all the time, Bush slips -- maybe not enough to lose, but banking on a Spain/Zapatero is the only hope that Kerry has.
The first debate is about national security. This is President Bush strongest turf. Kerry will be crushed in this debate.
Sounds as if Miss PMStrich is hormone deprived and needs that new patch, for women who don't get enough, which I read about on another thread this morning. God love us and save us from this ostrich.
Susan, you need to smoke another Camel or is that an unfiltered Marlboro?
They don't even define what "it" and "better" are.
If "it" is "removing Saddam Hussein from power", Kerry would not have done "it" AT ALL (according to his policy statement on Letterman).
"Better" seems to be defined as "with input from the French", which would make sense if the most important question facing America today was "which wine would go best with snails?"
What she's been smoking involves a Coke can and a straw.
Congratulations Susan. Your candidate finally managed not to flip flop for a whole 48 hrs (I guess, the speech was a flip flop itself).
Kerry/Edwards: A Vote for Stability!
Yea, right.
EXACTLY.
"the truth is, he really started today, taking questions and saying the same thing he did yesterday".
Thanks to Susan for catching us up on the truth. Too bad none of us could hear what those questions were. That was probably planned in advance because they knew there would only be one question. "Senator Kerry, is this yet another flip flop"?
"UHHEMMM: As I said in my speech yesterday..."
Mind you, even the most liberal people I know are not voting with enthusiasm, it's just "He's all I've got." I hope they have sense and stay home.
Check out the John F. Kerry Timeline. Email it to your friends.Post it on your blogs.
.
"As I said in my speech yesterday,"
This is her evidence that Kerry has "Begun to Close!!"
Pretty slender reed to be hanging on to. The fact he apparently said the same thing two days in a row is a gleam of hope? Sheesh.
"In ONE SENTENCE, please explain John Kerry's position on Iraq."
Cut and run, then blame Bush when the country inevitably becomes a terrorist state because we cut and ran.
Oh no! Two days in a row with the same "message"!! What she conveniently forgets is that Kerry cannot get away from all his previous statements that contradict his message over the last two days. There are so many holes in his boat he will be scooping from now until November 2 just to keep his head above water.
His message is: I will throw in the towel and get out of Iraq, A.S.A.P.
The problem for him is, while many of the undecideds have questions and concerns about Iraq, the do not want us to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by cutting and running.
If you change your position often enough, statistics tells us that you've gotta end up back at the original flip sooner or later. Spin the wheel long enough and you'll hit the same number twice. What goes around, comes around (and with Kerry it just starts goin' around again). Boy spins worse than a Kansas twister. He'll never fall down - he's like a top whirling on a table.
Susan says he's closing the deal. On what his vote to go to Iraq and remove saddam? Does she think we won't notice how he voted?
Does Susan know Kerry was in Nam and when he got out he did the same thing to the troops that he did on Monday?
BTW Susan that was no press conference Kerry did'nt answer any questions,all he did was flick his tongue and ramble.
It's like they're trying to coax him into moving forward, providing cover for his "new beginning". I've never seen such a tired-looking, LAZY campaigner. He seems to need to stop and rest every four days.
I expect to see him windsurfing like the metrosexual man-boy he is.
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