Posted on 11/12/2004 10:06:13 AM PST by Carl/NewsMax
Top strategists with John Kerry's presidential campaign are blaming his crushing defeat last week on bad advice from Clinton operatives who took over the campaign after Labor Day.
"When [James] Carville and [Stan] Greenberg tell reporters that the campaign was missing a defining narrative, they forget that they were the ones insisting we had to keep beating the domestic-issues drum," complained David Thorne on Thursday.
Thorne - a brother-in-law from Kerry's first marriage to Julia Thorne - was one of Kerry's closest advisors throughout the campaign.
Thorne told political gadfly Arianna Huffington that because of the misguided Carville-Greenberg strategy, "We never defended John's character and focused on his leadership with the same singularity of purpose that the Republicans put on George Bush's leadership."
Kerry's brother Cameron agreed, telling Huffington, "There is a very strong John Kerry narrative that is about leadership, character and trust. But it was never made central to the campaign."
Tom Vallely, the Vietnam War veteran whom Kerry tapped to lead the response to the Swift boat attacks, told the columnist: "The Clinton team, though technically skillful, could not see reality they could only see their version of reality. And that was always about pivoting to domestic issues."
Reports Huffington:
"In conversations with Kerry insiders over the last nine months, Ive heard a recurring theme: that it was [Bob] Shrum and the Clintonistas [including Greenberg, Carville and senior advisor Joe Lockhart] who dominated the campaign in the last two months and who were convinced that this election was going to be won on domestic issues, like jobs and healthcare, and not on national security."
The failed strategy apparently originated with ex-President Clinton himself, who trumpeted the domestic issues mantra in repeated calls to Kerry.
Writes Huffington:
"Behind the scenes, former President Clinton also kept up the drumbeat, telling Kerry in private conversations right to the end that he should focus on the economy rather than Iraq or the war on terror, and that he should come out in favor of all 11 state constitutional amendments banning gay marriage a move that would have been a political disaster for a candidate who had already been painted as an unprincipled flip-flopper."
Uh, no there's isn't.
Clinton campaign staff were never really "successful" to begin with; their only noteworthy success was to take a Democratic challenger in 1992 and get 43% of the popular vote. Were it not for Ross Perot, Clinton would have been consigned to the dustbin of history in November of 1992 . . . and nobody would have heard another peep from folks like Mike McCurry, George Stephenopolous, James Carville, Howard Ickes, etc.
It should come as no surprise, therefore, that very few of the Clinton cronies have ever had much success in politics since then. This -- more than any kind of nefarious intent on their part (on behalf of Hillary) -- is the REAL story behind their poor performance in recent years.
Get over it, losing strategists. Your candidate was flawed from the get-go, unappealing, unattractive, incoherent, untrustworthy. Clinton had nothing to do with that.
Exactly. Thune is whining because the Clintonistas showed us what an inept campaign he was running. It was Bill hisself that told Querry to come out against gay marriage--a piece of advice he probably should have taken.
Not Thune. Kerry?
I agree, I think that they did help kerry in the final days. This is a blame anyone but kerry game.
I don't think the Clintonista's were trying to sabotage Kerry's campaign. They were just replaying Clinton's first campaign. Then "It's the economy, stupid" worked. This focus on the economy deflected focus on Clinton's character (eg.,Jenifer Flowers).
But that was then and this is now. After 8 years of Clinton, people did focus on character and values and liked what they saw in George W. How could the Kerry campaign counter this? How could they highlight Kerry's character? Especially after the SwiftVets called into question Kerry's valor and honor.
Frankly, I'm surprised Kerry did as well as he did. It shows you the level of the ABB people. Sad.
My mistake--'Thune' should be 'Thorne', Kerry's whining ex-bro-in-law.
Poor Babies. 'We should have wonnnnn.'
It's simple. No matter how you dress up a pig, it's still a pig. What's so hard about understanding that?
It's simple. No matter how you dress up a pig, it's still a pig. What's so hard about understanding that?
whatever the reason, the result is good
"There is a very strong John Kerry narrative that is about leadership, character and trust."
Oh, you mean the part about becoming a member of a Secret Society at Yale where all members were trained in the art of deception...
Or the part about coming back from Vietnam and accusing himself and his fellow Vets of War Crimes...
Or the part about being an active participant and beneficiary of a totally corrupt Massachusetts Democratic Party political machine...
Or the part about letting his billionaire wife refer to the late Senator Heinz as "her husband" while she wore the pants in the family...
Or the part about selling his house in France because he was concerned it would be a campaign liability....
Or the part about figuring out he was against the War In Iraq after Howard Dean made it an issue...
Or the part about being an arrogant a..hole with everyone he met who could not advance his political career....
The only ways the campaign could have pushed "character, leadership, and trust" as issues would be with Spin Doctors working long hours making up lie after lie after lie after lie.
Is that the crack you're talking about?
It was Bush's fault!
Twelve days before the election, James Carville stood in a Beverly Hills living room surrounded by two generations of Hollywood stars. After being introduced by Sen. John Kerrys daughter, Alexandra, he told the room confidently, almost cockily that the election was in the bag.
If we cant win this damn election, the advisor to the Kerry campaign said, with a Democratic Party more unified than ever before, with us having raised as much money as the Republicans, with 55% of the country believing were heading in the wrong direction, with our candidate having won all three debates, and with our side being more passionate about the outcome than theirs if we cant win this one, then we cant win shit!ROFLMAO!Here's a link to the rest of the article.
Ping.
I love it when they eat their own.
Top strategists with John Kerry's presidential campaign are blaming his crushing defeat last week on... blah, blah, blah....Yeah, blame everyone except the ijit candidate. These simpletons ignore the elephant in the room which IS; of all the people who voted 'for' sKerry, 70% who did REALLY voted against Bush. That's a fact jack, deal with it. 'Your' candidate SUCKED.
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