Posted on 09/30/2004 1:13:24 AM PDT by kattracks
MIAMI - Like a good straight man, John Kerry gave Team Bush another opening yesterday when he tried to explain his now-infamous line that he voted for a military spending bill after he voted against it."I had one of those inarticulate moments, late in the evening when I was dead-tired in the primaries, and I didn't say something very clearly," Kerry said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
By the time the next commercial came up, Bush campaign aides determined the comment was made at a noontime rally in West Virginia and were preparing their latest zinger.
"Perhaps his watch was on Paris time," the Republican National Committee mocked.
Kerry spokesman Phil Singer responded dryly, "Better an inarticulate moment than an inarticulate foreign policy."
In what is an growing sign of cockiness, the Bush campaign increasingly has turned to lampooning Kerry.
Aides on the Bush campaign plane handed out a mock John Kerry debate book yesterday poking fun at what they say are his zigzag policies.
Even Vice President Cheney's wife, Lynne, got in an elbow yesterday in a reference to Kerry's sudden tan.
While taking questions at a Minnesota campaign rally, Cheney told the crowd to get microphones from aides walking around in orange shirts.
When Cheney paused as if searching for the words to describe the shade of orange, his wife piped up, "How about John Kerry's suntan?" The remark drew a big laugh from the crowd and the veep.
Most of the Republican punch lines reinforce their charge that Kerry is a flip-flopper.
It was Bush's turn earlier this week - when talking about tonight's debate - by saying Kerry could debate himself for 90 minutes.
And top Bush aide Karen Hughes could not suppress a public smirk last week when asked about their latest attack ad, Kerry windsurfing back and forth to waltz music as the narrator intoned, "Whichever way the wind blows."
Bush spokesman Scott Stanzel said, "Humor is an effective way to be persuasive without being corrosive. Americans appreciate humor and leaders who don't take themselves so seriously."
Kerry's team acknowledges that the derision has had an effect, but they insist voters will want more than sneering jokes - especially when the two men stand together on a Miami stage tonight in their first debate and address deadly serious issues.
"I have still not heard from President Bush or any of those folks any kind of coherent response [to Kerry's war critiques]," said Kerry strategist Mike McCurry. "I think [voters] want more substantive answers about where America is going."
McCurry suggested Kerry may try to turn the flip-flop taunts against Bush.
"If the issue is consistency, it's fair for us to point out that President Bush has consistently been wrong," he said.
The issues at the debate will be foreign policy and will likely be dominated by Iraq, which does not lend itself to flip remarks.
Bush fished, rode his bike and did an interview with TV's Dr. Phil before leaving his Texas ranch and heading to Florida to view the latest hurricane damage. Bush, whose last campaign was rocked by the revelation that he once was busted for drunken driving, dispensed some parental advice on Dr. Phil.
"It's awfully difficult for a parent to tell a child not to drink and drive when the parent drinks and drives," Bush said.
Kerry closed up his debate prep camp in Wisconsin and headed for Miami.
Originally published on September 30, 2004
Zot!!!!!!!!!!!! Troll Bye Bye
Hate missing a good troll-b-que.
He was doing fine until his last line, they just can't help themselves
Who is this troll?
Someone named 'bossbuster' signed up 04-2004,
Posted about Kerry's vote on the 87 billion B.S. bottom line is Kerry voted against our troops in the field.
Last line was Bush's brain was too small Blah Blah
Alas the debates, where John Freakin' Kerry will finally tell the American people who he is and what he wants them to hear. This after campaigning for almost two years (and not fulfilling his responsibilities as a U.S. Senator) while President Bush has been campaigning and meeting his responsibilities as President of the United States, including holding the terrorists and their supporters (including the Domestic Terrorist supporters in the Congress) responsible for their actions.
Happy troling to him! The truth is, he(Kerry)
cannot say anything about it because political opportunism clouded his brain in every turn, then and now, starting 30 years ago.
Free Republic, now protected with Troll B-Gone!
It's funny when Lurch is made fun of 'cause it's true.
""If the issue is consistency, it's fair for us to point out that President Bush has consistently been wrong," he said."
Oh yeah! That's a real winner. The proctologist pointing that finger at well over half of the population and telling them they are dumb for supporting the president.
My impression is that he would like to be president of any America, even a terrorist infested one, and still serve as a puppet of Muslims and terrorists. But even then, he can't decide who and how to be a puppet of whom. His complex mind is nothing short of pure genius!
So now the Democrats are forging times?
GW went fishing, very good. There's nothing like it to relax
a man.
You never hear of JFnK fishing, but I bet if you did, it would be with $2000 fly rods on some beat in Scotland.
He sure knows how to relate to the average american, that
john kerry.
"HI, I'm john kerry, must be difficult working here on the assembly line eh?"
He knows how to relate to Mssrs. Chirac,Schroeder and Zapatero and can be "sensitive" to the needs of the Arabs. It doesn't matter whether he can relate to us. What more can you ask for?
hanoi john LOATHES our Military, it's evident in his 20 year voting history.
Wonder why he joined it in the first place. I also wondered why he didn't just fiht for the Viet Cong. Notice that he absolutely detests the NRA too. Maybe he wants an open society together with the terrorists, e "multiculturalists" and the liberals/socialists/communists.
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