According to Albert Einstein, the Kerry campaign is insane.

Albert Einstein once defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

By this definition, The Kerry campaign is insane, when it comes to Howard Dean anyway.

In truth, all of the other campaigns are suffering from this at some level. I picked on Kerry simply because his campaign, and his supporters here, are the most egregious examples of it.

For at least 5 months now, we have been hearing one consistent message from the Kerry campaign regarding Howard Dean. He flip-flops. He waffles. He is inconsistent. You get the idea. It gets brought it at every opportunity. In some cases examples are cited in which Dean actually did change his position. yet no matter how much they all say this, it doesn't matter. being labeled a waffler by his peers has not slowed Dean in the slightest. It slides off him. So why do Kerry and all the others keep saying it?

You see a modified version of the phenomenon here on DU. A few strident Dean-haters post the same articles over and over, make the same statements over and over, to absolutely no effect.

Is what they say untrue? Not always. Sometimes they take a quote out of context. Sometimes they are guilty of excessive spin. Sometimes they use questionable sources. But sometimes what they say is true. Sometimes Dean has done exactly the thing they claim is so heinous. yet Dean's support only grows, and his bank balance keeps climbing.

Why do they keep saying? According to Einstein, that's insanity.

I have to say, though, I disagree with Einstein in this case.

I think instead it is at best stubbornness, and at worst ignorance. Ignorance or stubbornness towards what, you ask?

I think it is towards the nature of political campaigns. Now, I am not really surprised that the armchair politicians on DU (a group in which I include myself) are not really up on what makes a successful political campaign. There are only a few true politicians or veteran campaigners among the regular posters here. But it truly frightens me that so many of the men running for President under the Democratic ticket seem to also be ignorant of how to properly run a successful campaign. Why do they keep using a failed stratagem? Why keep hammering Dean on something that he has already proven will not hurt him? If they keep using a failed strategy during the primary, why should I think they will do otherwise in the general? We do not just need men who would be good presidents, we need men who will be good campaigners, because without the good campaign, a good man will never get to be a good President. Stop saying the same things! Stop posting the same articles! Find new ways to attack Dean if that's what you want to do! But adapt! Adaptation may be the most valuable trait a candidate can have in this election.

We need the best campaigner in the general election. Not the man with most consistent record. not the man with the best resume. not the man with the best rating from NOW or ALCU or whatever PAC you hold dear to your heart.

Right now the best campaigner is Dean. His status in the polls and his bankroll prove that. If any of the others want a shot, they better switch gears, because unless they can beat him at what is now his game, they have no chance.

:toast:

Man, it takes skill to see a connection between Kerry, Dean and Al. I just had to read this to see what it was about!

or Dean is a progressive Democrat or Dean is not lying or Dean does not attack the other candidates?

Answer with the truth, the truth doesn't change.

The truth does not always work. In fact, in politics, it almost never does. What you've been doing isn't working. Even you have to be able to see this. You have to try something else, or you're done.

Yours isn't the first post that has slammed me. It won't be the last. You want the truth to be silenced and I'm not going to do that.

DU is not about being a Howard Dean fanclub or meetup. Did you interfere when it was Kerry or Gephardt whose ox was being gored daily? Mostly by Dean and those who parroted him. If you want to make this board a Dean fanclub then talk to the administration.

I tell the truth about Dean and use his own words and actions in the political arena to do so. Sorry if Dean's own words and actions are aggravating to you.

And I am not saying you are worried about your reputation.

I did not "interfere" when Dean was attacking others because I expect attacks during a political campaign. I expect attacks now. I WANT them, from all sides. i am not "interfering" now for the same reasons.

This post is not a slam on Kerry or any other candidate, and most definitely not on any member of this board. It is an observation of how the race has played out.

I am sitting here telling you to bash and attack Dean all you want, but if you want it to be effective, you have to find a different way to do it, and a different aspect of him to focus on!

I don't want you to be silent. I don't want anyone to be silent. I don't want any other candidate out of the race, not until the primaries are over. I am not telling anyone to stop bashing or attacking Dean. I am encouraging it! I just want it to be done well! EFFECTIVELY!

I have said before that I want the Dem presidential candidate to be someone who has had every form of shit and dirty campaigning thrown at him before the general. I want him to have been forced to get tough and work HARD.

Get it?

We're all in this big happy bitchfest together. You can talk all day about who started it, but this started a long time ago, and who can remember who fired the first shot.

I did not say anything about a bitchfest, and I am not blaming anyone for starting anything. It doesn't matter who started it. It never does.

I am saying that the strategy the Kerry campaign, and others, are using to bring down Howard Dean is not working. It is having no effect. If they want to stop him, they better try a new strategy.

I am not angry with them for trying to bring him down. This is a political race, I would question their intelligence if they did not try to stop him running roughshod over them. What irritates me is that they are using a losing strategy. Just like they have in the past election cycles, and if they, meaning all the Dems, don't adapt, the Democratic Party is toast.

Now, the media has given the American people an image of Dean that is just not accurate and they will NOT do their job and scrutinize Dean until he is matched against Bush. THEN expect everything that we have been warning you about all these months WILL be noted and will hurt Dean and hurt the Dem party in the process.

... 'guarding' the party against usurpers. How noble. :eyes:

line or did...the link to someone else calling Dean a "fiesty little bastard"! And it makes me laugh everytime I read it! :D

And don't forget #18 "in understanding the Dean Juggernaut" from "The Note"..

"18. The people who work for DeanforAmerica have FUN, from the interns in Iowa to the senior stuff; the staffs for the other campaigns don't always remember to do that."

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html

What makes you think he cannot survive them in the general?

What you have been "warning" everyone about HAS been noted, at great length! It has not hurt Dean! He has proven already he can survive it. Reality is conflicting seriously with your preconceptions.

and distortions, many of which are ON CAMERA. These so called "consistent" attacks have barely registered with the American public as mostly political junkies are the only ones watching. By the time Rove gets hold of all Dean's faux pas the ads will be shown every hour of every day for months.

This grace period the media has given Dean is OVER as soon as he faces Bush. That means NO MORE TEFLON. In fact, his cockiness about that teflon they have "allowed" him at this point, is what contributes to his shifting positions. He actually thinks he'll keep getting away with it.

You do realize that Bush misspeaks every time he ones his mouth, right? You do realize his lack of skill with the English language has been a constant fodder for the media, right? Hell, I have a Bush "They Misunderestimated me!" desk calendar that gives me a daily dose of Bush malapropism!

Are you under some delusion that misstatements and waffling hurt Bush?

The majority of people in this country do no CARE about flip flopping, or waffling, or misstatements. It is not important to them. It will be zero factor in the Presidential race. How can one claim to understand politics when you so clearly ignore all the lessons of every campaign for the last 30 years!

Who is the one ignoring reality?

And is your selling point really that the American people should vote to replace one shootfromthelip, gaffe prone waffler for another?

How can you even make such a ridiculous claim? If that were the case, NO stories that showed him in a bad light would come out! That interview with PFC Lynch would never have happened. The media not working the way you want, or spinning things the way you want them spun, does not mean they are under the control of Bush

The American people LIKE shoot-from-the-hip types. They like guys who speak their mind. They like guys who "don't take shit." Those traits are practically the American ideal!

Do you even live in the USA? You seem to know nothing whatsoever about it.

Al Franken, Eric Alterman, Greg Palast, FAIR, and a few others are just mistaken and a waste of bandwidth and ink?

I did say MOST of the media and MOST of the media is corporate owned and heavily influenced by the its various associations with BushInc.

I am not sure if you are being obtuse or just cannot understand english...

The corporate media is heavily influenced by ratings, which determine their ad revenue and their profits. In the climate up until now, it was more profitable for them to fawn over Bushco. If something of sufficient weight erupts that changes that, they will turn on Bushco faster than a rabid weasel.

You're bleating about them being "owned" by Bushco is no different and no more valid than the years of right-wing warbling about "liberal media bias."

approaches to getting his message out there! It's so damn refreshing!

I'm not a political person as I have only seen Gore's campaign before our's ..but the distinction in that one and Dean's is making all the Difference in the World! :kick: And glad to see more than a few People learned from the former.

Grreat post, Northwind!

And I do believe Einstein was right! Even mice learn not to keep doing the same thing over and over if it hurts them.

Look at any area of advocacy -- the use the same phrases, words, routines, tropes, memes, locutions, metaphors, etc., over and over, is the rule, not the exception.

Why do you think they're called clichés? The word cliché means "printer's slug" in French, because the cliché was used to print the same thing thousands of times.

The Republicans call them "talking points". Gingrich's famous essay on using language politically was all about the use of clichés. It's an effective technique, but there is a much more effective method to get one's message across -- and that is to present a clear, strong message that actually has meaning. Saying something new, in a new way, and counting on people to comprehend it, is a very powerful message in itself. And I agree, Dean and his crew have been very effective with that.

--bkl

care what Kerry, Gep., Libberman, or Edwards have to say. They have failed to be honest. They are history because of it.

Seriously: For months, no matter what the discussion was about - education, health care, corporate reform - the only talking point the Dean people had was the IWR. Considering the depth of Dean's platform, I'm not surprised.

But it also fits quite neatly into Dr. Einstein's definition of insanity.

When Dean spoke of the IWR, he was expecting only one result, the one he GOT. It worked, so he kept doing it. And rightly so. You use what works, toss out that which doesn't.

You guys are placing irrelevant value judgments on things said by Dean based on your subjective notion of truth. The only thing that matters in politics is what gets results.

Politics is DIRTY. Get ready to jump in the mud, because the only way to get out of it clean is to get out of it entirely.

If you look again, you will notice that the posters reference to Einstein's definition is to failing strategies. Dean captured people's attention and Kerry has been losing support since his partnership in crime has been pointed out repeatedly. Successful strategies demand repetition if their usefulness is to be potentialized. Has Kerry stopped looking or does he think macho photo-ops are going to get him the nomination?

I know you have Kerry's best in mind, but I don't quite follow the logic. If Kerry just started this tactic, don't you think it is a little premature to say it is not working?

Has Kerry stopped looking or does he think macho photo-ops are going to get him the nomination?
I referred back to the thread poster's argument that this stuff is rolling off of Dean's back, yet Kerry continues. The question I asked is has he stopped looking for an actually successful strategy or does he think the photo-ops (that other PAINFULLY transparent strategy) are going to get him nomination?
Apparently it is successful with voters with a soldier\macho worship fetish. I guess he should keep with that one if he thinks it's successful. Trouble is, I don't think there are enough of them to get him the nomination. A bunch of guys talking to each other about how cool he is as they get their motorcycles repaired or prepare to skydive probably isn't going to result in much plurality.

and drop out?

I mean, since Dean's going to win anyway?

Don't you think they maybe should wait until the primaries? When there are some actual votes?

They should change the WAY they are campaigning, since what they are doing now isn't working.

Did a sudden and catastrophic drop in reading comprehension occur in here tonight?

So I don't listen to him anymore ;)

Just a joke!

I was having this EXACT discussion today with my better half, and couldn't remember who's quote that was, but said that Kerry is proving that he's insane. I really don't get why he keeps spinning his wheels with the same losing strategy, not realizing that not only has it not helped his poll numbers, but it has only helped to increase Dean's. It must really burn Kerry's balls that the only way he can get some TV time is to talk about Dean, which only gets more people curious about Dean and increases Dean's support.

Kerry's campaign must be run by the blind. They cannot see the obvious, nor will they try something different (G-d forbid innovative and risky) to improve their campaign. Maybe he should start thinking of himself the way Dean thought of himself 9 months ago--like a candidate who has nowhere to go but up and has nothing to lose. Because at this point, Kerry may as well be an asterick like Dean was so many months ago. He's got nowhere to go but up.

flamebait.

punkingal, DU moderator