Kerry and the gift of impunity

I agree with Naomi Klein. This was one of Kerry's biggest failings in the attmept to be "electable".

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1126-02.htm

In the name of "electability," the Kerry campaign gave Bush five months on the campaign trail without ever facing serious questions about violations of international law. Fearing he would be seen as soft on terror and disloyal to US troops, Kerry stayed scandalously silent about Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. When it became clear that fury would rain down on Falluja as soon as the polls closed, Kerry never spoke out against the plan, or against the illegal bombings of civilian areas that took place throughout the campaign. Even after The Lancet published its landmark study estimating that 100,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the invasion and occupation, Kerry repeated his outrageous (and frankly racist) claim that Americans "have borne 90 percent of the casualties in Iraq." His unmistakable message: Iraqi deaths don't count. By buying the highly questionable logic that Americans are incapable of caring about anyone's lives but their own, the Kerry campaign and its supporters became complicit in the dehumanization of Iraqis, reinforcing the idea that some lives are insufficiently important to risk losing votes over. And it is this morally bankrupt logic, more than the election of any single candidate, that allows these crimes to continue unchecked.

I don't think kerry attacking Bush over the torture scandals would have helped his chances at all. I would have loved for him to do it though.

He obviously believed he could win without further dividing this country. Seems to me that he ran a positive campaign at least in part because he was looking past the election when he'd need a unified public to deal with a Republican Congress.

He miscalculated the collective wisdom of the American people to apply critical thinking skills in deciding their choice for President in 2004 and the level of systematic corruptness in the people running the elections.

I believe that he did win the majority, but not nearly enough to make the election results freep proof.

the mediawhore done god knows what since the '04 election approached....and anything kerry did regards bush had to be channelled through a media that's probably in trouble if kerry gets hands on levers of power....so accusing kerry while bush giggles off to the side and the mediawhore struts its naked monstrosity with its 'sold to vilest bidder' sign hanging from its necks might seem astute but serves no purpose.....anyone attacks kerry while letting the mediawhore assisted bush criminal organization off is wasting time.....kerry would/could have been so marginalized had he tried ms klien's approach there's no way to speculate what might have been, but the character of the bush crims and their mediawhore followers...no one need debate or even talk about that as it's blatant, and klien etc would better serve the cause by shouting it from rooftops: the media is a whore, and has sold the people out!

They thought they could win with old and used strategies. Mostly a rehash of Clinton stuff like "its the economy stupid".

This time, it was mostly about the war. But Kerry's plan was pretty close to what Bush's was, like winning the war in Iraq.

If Kerry wanted to win, he should of took a large risk, like being against the Iraq war saying it was immoral and illegal, talk up about the neocons and their plans, and say no one is getting a tax cut, the country just can't afford it.

Plus Kerry didn't seem to have the passion in him, like Bush had.

that most Democrats do. He was too nice. I don't think we can win until we learn to effectively fight back, hard.

I know Kerry wanted to project a positive image and maybe in another century that might have been the way to go. Things are not normal in this highly-charged political atmosphere and we need another approach. Compliance and bipartisanship don't work anymore.

Dean was the fighter but the powers that be didn't want Dean to win so the scream took him out. If it hadn't been the scream it would have been something else.

The people were ready for Dean but the Democratic party powers that be weren't.

Kerry couldn't connect with ordinary people. They just couldn't picture John Kerry plowing a corn field or pitching hay. Junior used his ranch as a photo-op so people would think he was just a regular guy.

Bush is as much a hayseed as I am the Virgin Mary.

Kerry is a great man and I have a lot of respect for him. I really don't know if anybody else could have run a better campaign.

Maybe that's the problem. It takes more than the candidate himself/herself to win. It takes strong leadership at the top levels of the Democratic party and until we get it, we're going to continue to lose elections.