Posted on 11/30/2004 11:38:53 AM PST by dukeman
George W. Bush ran the most negative presidential campaign in history, and the media never covered the story, an aide to Sen. John Kerry's campaign said last Monday at the journalism department.
Marco Trbovich, a United Steelworkers of America employee who advised Kerry on labor policy, told the 20 students gathered at Carter Hall that about 80 percent of Bush's campaign money was spent on negative advertising.
"If you can think of a few positive commercials that you saw, you saw all of them that were there," he said.
Bush's campaign played upon fear, using patriotic and religious fervor to make voters fear Kerry and the changes he might bring, Trbovich said.
"The Bush strategy worked, creating a big question mark over John Kerry's ability to lead," he said.
Trbovich, who spoke as part of the journalism department's "brown bag" lecture series, singled out two campaign phenomena that he said the media covered particularly poorly: a Bush ad about Kerry's health care plan that Trbovich called completely false, and the months-long smear campaign by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which claimed, among other things, that Kerry faked injuries in Vietnam.
"The Kerry campaign didn't act fast enough because it wasn't cynical enough about the media [to think] that controversy was more important than context," said Trbovich, who has reported for United Press International, the Detroit Free Press and The Boston Phoenix, among other news organizations.
"I think [Bush strategist Karl] Rove is appropriately cynical about the quality -- or lack of it -- in the American media these days," he said.
Trbovich also credited Rove for successfully enlarging the base of the Republican Party, something he said his own party failed to do. He was particularly disappointed in the Democrats' failure to reach blue-collar workers.
"We had a very yuppified campaign," he said, citing as an example Kerry's five speechwriters, all of whom were Harvard University graduates and were under 30. "I could never convince those people that the privatization of Social Security was a big issue."
He also said labor had been marginalized, adding, "There's a kind of elitism to the Democratic Party."
Trbovich has known Kerry for more than 30 years, he said, and even worked as communications director of Kerry's failed 1972 congressional campaign. He said the Massachusetts senator has more integrity and intelligence than almost anyone else he knows. He added, however, that unlike Bill Clinton, Kerry's intellect is at stronger than his political ear.
"Excuse my language, but you've literally got to beat the shit out of John Kerry sometimes to get him where you want him to go," he said. •
Don't forget MTV's phoney draft scare to encourage young voters to "Vote (Kerry) or Die!"
I sure hope the democrats keep thinking and talking like Trbovich is, pushing the party further and further into delusional, far-left territory.
It's time to cry victim.
"He also said labor had been marginalized"
The same labor that built the nice tunnel in boston that is flooding?
Only cost $14.6 Billion!
What really irks me is the connection between Bush and the SBVs .. there is no connection. Of course, because the liberals had a documented connection between the Kerry campaign, the DNC and ALL THE LIBERAL 527's .. the liberals wrongly believe Bush did it too.
It's just the usual "projection technique". You blame others for what you are doing.
No I don't think so...just one of his goons.
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/11/1661487.php
Marco evidently knows very few people. If he can equate indecisiveness with intelligence and integrity with being a turncoat gigolo, he really needs a new dictionary.
More info at:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/11/1661487.php
He said the Massachusetts senator has more integrity and intelligence than almost anyone else he knows
Thats strange, I didn't detect much integrity or intelligence
The connection between the unions and Che Guevera is Socialism.
20 people? I had more than that at dinner the other night
We had 24 at Thanksgiving ... nary a dim in the bunch ... so much for cultural diversity in eggman's family. My parents did a hell of a job raising 5 sons to use their brains.
Yeah...No kidding.
The man on the shirt and the poster is Che...the guy wearing him and holding him is a unionist goon Che wannabe.
I have more integrity in my smallest fart than JF'nK has displayed in his entire life
Don't forget Kerry himself saying that if Bush is reelected there "is the threat of a draft".
told the 20 students gathered at Carter Hall
this is the best part. 20 students? WOW thats worth writing an article about.
As my Daddy always said, "Excuses are like assholes. Everybody's got one and they all stink."
All depends on the definition of intelligence and integrity......wouldn't you say!!!!!!!!
That speaks volumes about the people he has spent his life with.
And he was disappointed that the blue collar vote didn't turn up for the K-man? This guy probably doesn't have one friend who is a blue collar worker.
Kerry lost because of Teresa. She was worth at least 300,000 Bush votes in Ohio, easy.
I miss Teresa already!
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