Posted on 09/26/2004 8:55:24 PM PDT by Jose Roberto
John Kerry is running the dumbest presidential campaign in modern history. Don't misunderstand. Dumb is not the same as wrong. Kerry may be right on some of the issues. But that's not the point. Elections are about votes, and Kerry's campaign seems calculated to actually repel them. Have a look: Taxes. The first rule of politics is: Low taxes, good; high taxes, bad. President Bush understands this. He is running as a tax cutter, plain and simple. Elect him and you pay less.
Kerry, on the other hand, wants to raise taxes. Just on the rich, he says, but nobody believes that - and why should they? For years he and other Democrats have denounced Bush's cuts as unfair. Middle class voters look at Kerry and see a guy who's going to raise their taxes.
Religion. Another rule of politics is: Carry your own denomination. Bush will - he's the darling of Evangelical Protestants. Evangelical churches across the country are his de facto clubhouses, pastors his precinct captains.
Once upon a time, Catholic Democratic candidates Al Smith and John Kennedy could count on similar sectarian solidarity. But Kerry's stance on abortion has turned the Catholic hierarchy against him. He is so unpopular with the leadership that Edward Cardinal Egan very publicly failed to invite him to attend the annual Al Smith dinner next month. Getting the snub is the political equivalent of excommunication.
Family Values. Bush has made himself the champion of traditional marriage. Kerry is running as a Massachusetts metrosexual. "Ozzie and Harriet" beats "Will and Grace" in every swing state in the country.
National Icons. Sometime in the next two weeks, the Senate will take up a constitutional amendment to outlaw burning the American flag. Bush favors this amendment, Kerry opposes it.
The Democrats also have managed to get themselves on the "no" side of a House bill that seeks to keep the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. These bills are political theater, not legislation, but that isn't the point. Parties surrender control of the nation's patriotic symbols at their peril - especially south of the Mason-Dixon line and west of the Mississippi.
Iraq. Bush says it was right to take down Saddam Hussein. Kerry says it wasn't worth it. Bush says that Iraq is part of the war on terror, Kerry says it isn't. Bush says that America is winning, Kerry says America is losing. Bush says elections will be held in Iraq, Kerry says they won't.
These propositions are all debatable, but it is a debate Kerry can't win - at least not by Election Day. Nobody will know on Nov. 2 if Iraq can stage an election next year. Nobody will be able to say for sure whether America is safer with Saddam out of power. There will be no final answer to the question: Is the U.S. engaged in Vietnam II or World War III?
What voters will know is that President Bush is optimistic on the war, Kerry pessimistic. Pessimism is not considered a winning trait in American politics, certainly not in wartime. By going negative on the war, Kerry's position can be vindicated only if some major disaster occurs.
Five weeks out, Kerry has dealt Bush every trump card - God, family, low taxes, optimism and victory.
It is impossible to imagine Bill Clinton - or any competent politician - doing such a thing. It is only slightly more possible to imagine Kerry winning with the hand he has dealt himself.
This may be the dumbest opening paragraph in modern AND ancient history.
Isn't Bush a Methodist? Methodists are hardly "Evangelical Protestants," if my understanding is correct.
He he. This article is worse than alot of the worst college jounralism out there. Who told this guy he should be a writer?
The only thing this campaign is based on is the "Bush haters." They thought that would be enough. I'm not sure they had a strategy beyond that. I can't even believe this could truly be called a campaign. More like a funeral march if you ask me.
Then again, if Democrats can turn everything around by rounding up countless of busloads of newly registered voters at the last minute, then it may not matter how Kerry campaigns, and we're fighting the wrong war.
"Dumb" and "wrong" may not be EXACTLY the same thing, but they're pretty close cousins.
Add to the list that the democratic party is falling apart at the seams.
Hey, he's a Noo Yawk lib...
All Christian denominations are pretty much the same to them, except (of course) for those trendy Episcopals with their darling gay bishop and a few other "progressive" gatherings...
Methodists can be. The original spirit of Wesley is at least partially maintained in many denominations. Some have become more legalistic. Some are more Pentecostal.
I think of Methodist churches as places where the minister is so broad-minded that anything goes. They have been ahead of other liberal denominations in the worst sense of the word. However, the Southern version of most denominations is often better and more traditional.
this guy just showed up today---we keep getting the 'newbies'---makes me wonder how many are from DU or some other demonrat outfit?
It weeds out and prevents any decent, sane democrat from running from high office. People I might conceivably vote for like Bill Bradley, Zell Miller, or Ed Koch. Such good people are being driven from their party by the wacko, frothing-at-the-mouth neo-Marxist usurpers who have seized dominant power. These represent only 10% of the democrat voters.
Thus we have been treated to an astonishing collection of psychopaths for the last 28 years running for President as rat party candidate. The situation is actually worsening into permanent un-electability as a product of this failed primary system, the latest loser being Ketchup Boy.
To use the term popularized by Ted Turner, Bush is a "Jesus Freak." Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Fascist, whatever, to Democrats they are all the same.
The only group of people Voters like less than politicians is trial lawyers. So who does Kerry pick for a mate?
A millionaire trial lawyer.
The writing may be bad but this is one of the most concise summaries of Kerry's failings that I have read.
The movie 'DUMB & DUMBER' seems to illustrate the Kerry/Edwards campaign. Instead of a hilarious Jim Carey, you get a boring John Kerry.
This is what really bothers me. If Zarqawi pulls off an attack that kills 20 or so US soldiers, Kerry wins. We will have Spain all over again.
By going negative on the war, Kerry has encouraged the terrorists and endangered the lives of US military men. I think he did this on Carville's advice.
Bush has a Harvard MBA, has run two corporations, was governor of Texas and President of the United States. Aside from bossing around five guys on a swift boat for three months 35 years ago, Kerry has never held a decision-making executive position. He's been one of 100 Senators (and an undistinguished one with no major legislative achievements), and he made his money by marrying it. In fact, he's held only one job in his life in which he was completely in charge of the staffing, direction, organization and strategy, and that's his presidential campaign. That campaign has been called by Pat Caddell, a longtime Democrat pollster, the "worst-managed political campaign in modern political history."
So if this guy can't even run his own campaign, why do some poor deluded idiots think he's capable of running the United States government? He's not even qualified to be a contestant on "The Apprentice."
Kerry - you're fired. :)
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