Posted on 09/28/2004 9:13:15 AM PDT by kattracks
President Bush has set a debate trap for John Kerry that will force him to take positions opposed by a large percentage of his backers, former top Clinton strategist Dick Morris said Monday."What's happened is that Bush has set up a trap for Kerry," Morris told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes." "He has so emphasized Kerry's flip-flopping, so-called weakness, vacillation, all that stuff, that Kerry has to take strong positions in the debate."
That will force Kerry to make his position clear once and for all on Iraq, the top strategist said - which will inevitably cost him votes.
Morris explained:
"A third of his voters are certified hawks, who say that we're winning the war on terror. . . . [But] half of his voters are doves. When he starts adopting an anti-Iraq line, anti-war line, he's going to alienate a third of his own voters."
If Kerry comes out strong for the war, however, he can say goodbye to the anti-war types who think he'll cut and run.
"Kerry has a strategic problem," said Morris. "And it doesn't matter how good a debater you are and how attractive you are. Every time he opens his mouth on a foreign policy debate, he's got to take a position that alienates a portion of his voters."
If he keeps this up, Kerry may well end up coming in Third Place.
And then, after all of his lies/screeds/nuanced positions are revealed, the viewership for the final two debates will be halved - the two debates where Kerry could have made up some ground.
"And it doesn't matter how good a debater you are and how attractive you are."
ORANGE IS ATTRACTIVE?????
Right. Third behind the second place Kerry.
Dick Morris raises good points. HOwever, in "debates 2000", Al Gore kept going over the time limit, over and over again. No doubts Kerry will too, in order to allow himself an opportunity to explain his current vacillation, and then the next one.
Good!
I've been saying since the Spring that Kerry will finish behind Bush and Nader in at least two states. Don't know which two.
Trying to satisfy the various Democrat constituenices this year is nigh impossible, especially for someone with Kerry's political skill.
Not only will he alienate a large portion of his voters no matter what he says, but also whatever he says in the debate will be contradictory to previous statements. And likely, debate 2 will contradict debate 1.
C'mon folks! We all know that Kerry simply won't answer any such questions. He'll answer the questions that he wants to answer regardless of what he is asked. Does anyone here thing this guy has a shread of moral integrity? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Heck, that's straight out of Bill Clinton's playbook.
How often are Morris' speculations correct? I am not overly comforted by his analysis.
The person running the sound board can take care of that. Simply turn off his microphone!
Morris has been beating people over the head with this point for weeks now. I'm not saying there isn't some truth to what he's saying, but I will say that a good portion of Democrat voters don't care one iota what John Kerry says or does. They're going to vote for him regardless. If the peaceniks weren't turned off by the story of Kerry running down a wounded VC teenager and finishing him off as he crouched behind a tree, they're not going to be turned off by anything he says.
Don't we wish that would happen... It didn't happen when Al Gore kept going on and on and on....
The Bush Team negotiated colored lights to show when a persons time has expired so the audience could see Kerry rambling well beyond his aloted time.
Hopefully Thursday evening the pundits and viewers will be in full agreement...The orange candidate lost.
I remember very clearly Dick Morris saying (only a couple months ago... maybe more) that if Bush is going to [stick with this Iraq issue] he won't be able to win.
Now he's saying that he OWNS the Iraq issue.
I agree with the latter... and I get the feeling that Dick Morris windsurfs too.
...now tell me what Pat Cadell is saying... I'll listen to him.
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