Aren't we still being WAAAAAY too nice???

At the risk of being called an armchair strategist (I do spend twenty hours a week volunteering for Kerry in addition to working full time, volunteering for my union and contributing the max allowed financially to Kerry), I feel the need to ask this question. Sure, there's been an improvement in our rapid response strategy since August, but is it enough? Let's face it, Dems, our new found "cajones" came too late, long after the swiftboat liars had done their damage. Because of that, we should be in super "kick-a**" mode now. Are we?

Why, for instance, isn't anyone mentioning Lynne Cheney's ridiculous and horribly written lesbian novel? It's so funny, and it shows the levels of hypocrisy and sleaze these people will sink to. Isn't there anyone on our side that will talk about it? Hey, it's true, it's documented, it's been PUBLISHED for crying out loud.

Another example: why aren't any Dems "piggy-backing" onto Jon Stewart's emotional and gut wrenching performance on Crossfire on Friday? Why isn't he receiving support from Dems in the media spotlight? Why can't anyone on our side work together to build either of these delicious stories (delicious because they make repukes look like the immoral fools they are) into a media blitz?
Is it because they think we should be above all of that? Or is it because they have their heads in the sand as they did during the swiftboat attacks? Either way, although I don't believe the biased polls, this reluctance to fight back DOES hurt us.

all 3 shows this morning talked about JK's 'error' concerning Mary Chaney. F*CK Chaney has her on the campaign trail, HE WAS THE ONE WHOM brought it up first, He thanks Edwards for his 'kind' words.....now they are crucifying JK for his comment that was made totally in context during a question about homosexuality......"We should not talk about candidates kids"...F*CK....she is not a kid. She is proud of whom she is.....why is this now an issue.....EXCEPT SPIN!

Because if this, the bush* election committee have been able to tie up MONTHS on issues that were never issued to begin with. Kerry's war record, his voting record, now Mary Cheney. Why? Because like in 2000 when Gore decided to do the gentlemanly 'thing' and let bush* commandeer out country, we have let them lie and lie and lie and lie and lie. Months that should have been spent on the issues that are important and will determine the course this country will take have been wasted because we allowed the bush* goon squad to commandeer this election campaign too.

Well, it's too damn late. We have 15 days. And who knows how much of it the media will tie up on Mary Cheney. The endorsements today were nice, wonderful in fact, but getting the media to drop the irrelevant and the smoke they're blowing up our asses and getting down to business ain't gonna happen unless, and this is a big unless, they start to live up to their endorsements and allow Kerry to discuss the real issues facing our country and drop the pretense that anyone really cares or is effected by a remark about a woman who has, herself along with her parents, made an issue out of the fact that she's a lesbian.

That we don't stoop to their level. Take a straw poll of friends and family, who likes dirty politics. One thing I've been hearing over and over is how negative this election is, I think it's to our advantage that we haven't gone that negative.

Obviously, their low level has worked as we can all see who is in office. It's a nice thing to take the high ground, but if in doing so we lose the only chance we will have in the next four years, then what? I don't know what to think any more.

i can not stress enough that being right and true doesnt when elections

you can be very aggressive and not be mean and nasty

americans tuned into the debates because they wanted to see bush creamed

these next 2 weeks have to be a blietzkrieg.

the time for warm fuzzies is well over

and being aggressive. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be strong and aggressive but it can be accomplished in a way that isn't negative. I'd love to go out and spout off about how much of a douche bag this administration is but it doesn't change minds.

The most important thing is motivating those that registered to vote actually go out and do it. If we can gotv, we will win, period.

We don't have to stoop to their level to be tough. Lynne Cheney really did write that embarrassingly bad novel. We don't have to lie about it. In fact, with any imagination we could hit her hard in a humorous way, all the while TELLING THE TRUTH. We are being offered opportunities to hit back, but fear is preventing our side from acting.

worked against Dukkakis, Reagan's "malaise days" worked against Carter, and the Swift Boat Liars kept the Kerry campaign side-tracked and off message for a good month.

"If Bush is elected, he will re-instate the draft." "He will destroy Social Security." "He will invade Iran."

No one can predict that for sure, but it's a good bet, and the high road gave us Gore in Florida.

We tried "nice" already. It's time to go FReeper on them.

There's been a lot of study on the effects of negative campaign advertising. The conclusion: negative ads do not increase support for one's candidate -- they lower voter turnout. Swing voters see the negativity, conclude both candidates aren't worth voting for, and don't show up.

Suppressing voter turnout is just fine by the current Republican crew. That's why they do so much of it. But, for us, it's just shooting ourselves in the foot.

Persuasion is as much a science as it is an art. If you want to understand how to campaign effectively, study advertising. The Republicans have been basing their campaign strategy on cutting edge marketing and advertising research for decades (I know, firsthand -- I'm a Republican in exile from what used to be my party before the fascists stole it). The Dems have been playing catch-up.

Didn't anyone mention Alan Keyes comment(Mary Cheny is a sinner and hedonist.) That would shut this useless discussion up quick!

Thy are back in the "play it safe mode", where they believe "nasty truth = a negative attack". I just don't get it.

I'm gonna e-mail the Kerry campaign. The last time I tried this, it was during the swiftboat non-response mess. They started responding shortly after I did that. I'm sure it was my e-mail that did it. (JOKE!!) But, nothing ventured nothing gained....

People were so pissed they were letting the swiftboaters get away with their attacks.

Anyway, I agree, it's time to start contacting the campaign again.

just like Cheney told everyone it felt good to tell Patrick Leahy "Go Fuck Yourself."

Where do the F*** you, lesbian love novel writing Cheneys come off getting so holier than thou on us? This is ridiculous, and someone needs to call it like it is. Maybe Jon Stewart will attack this next week; it appears that no one else on our side has the guts.

I am doing down and dirty street canvassing in the innercity of SW Ohio. I am glueing using 3M adhesive spray from Staples the flyers below to metal utilty poles in front of bus stops and anyplace people hang on the sidewalk in the innercity. I also give copies of GWB is a PAB to wannabe rappers. I pair the two flyers below for maximum impact. We must disparage * to win.

Go to http://somnamblst.tripod.com to download high resolution TIF or PDF file to print and distribute everywhere. Utility poles, bus stops, phone booths, etc. Guerilla marketers needed to create MAXIMUM BUZZ!

and the media totally acted like nothing happened.

and nothing gets said by our people

"we" need to be attacking in the national media. i dont care who does it but someone needs to.

the media buzz today and tomorrow should be the chimperor is nuts and unfit for command. somebody has to go on tv and deliver that message to america.

newspaper editorials across the country have skewered the chimperor...that needs to be shouted

The Third debate was obvious,

Bush was vicious and Kerry was nice.

Sometime you have to take your glows off and start fighting fire with fire.

again. We have plenty of material. We could write to all the networks asking why they're not reporting on Bush's health problems,as reported in the foreign press today, the Cheneys' hypocrisy, or the fact that Rove just testified before a grand jury. I hate to think that we have lost the will, and I'm not throwing stones here. I admit to being discouraged, and tired of e-mailing. I want the Dem surrogates to do something, and NOW!!!

NOT helping destroy these myths and demand the media be responsible for reporting a few facts. I am so tired of not being able to count on our elected Dems to have some backbone, what is going on? I feel like the activists are the only ones doing any of the work.

I want to clean house - we need progressives in the House and
Senate who truly care about our needs.

other night. The moderator brought up the Sinclair hatchet job and Phillips said, "so why aren't the Democrats crying 'foul'?"

He's right, where is the Democratic leadership and why aren't they screaming about this?

His character is a fraud. Ergo, his character must be attacked.

Bush should never have gotten away with his "I don't think I ever said I wasn't concerned about Osama Bin Laden...that's one of those, uh, exagerrations." Just show this over and over again. Or show his many embarrassing faces at the first and third debates.

Geez, we don't even have to say anything. Bush's unworthiness speaks for itself. Just show the tapes.

aren't they? You're right. Those tapes are explosive and speak for themselves. What's stopping them ?

or at least bisexual? Isn't it reasonable to conclude that an individual who writes a "homoerotic" novel is a , well, homoerotically-inclined individual?

I understand the fuss about Mary...( BTW, no judgements here; we play in the same league, different divisions) but I don't get the taboo status afforded Lynn Cheney and her novel.

Is she or isn't she? She, as you point out, PUBLISHED A BOOK! So is this not a case of " the people have a right to know" or am I missing something here.

Anyone know her email address?

Paul

classlessfuckingbitch @ harridan.com

on edit ... yikes ... don't really try to send anything there ... John Ashcroft will be after us both! And I'm a pollwatcher on Nov. 2 ... I can't be sitting in Gitmo in orange PJs!

we are way too nice. These hoods will stop at nothing to win. We have truth on our side and we don't use it. The truth is:

911 happened on bush and cronies watch. They were warned. They did nothing. It's a fact. If you read the 911 Commission report, they do not let bush off the hook. Now, they (the Commission) didn't go out and broadcast it but they do tell the facts in the report. And we let them (the bushies) get away with saying things like: "we'll be attacked again if Kerry wins". What a bunch of hooey that is! Then, the ever popular, "we haven't been attacked since 911. Clearly, that is because of bush" Oh pleeeezzzzz. Again, hooey, hooey, hooey! We should shout it every chance we get. Use it to our advantage. It's the truth after all. If we're afraid to talk the truth, we have problems.

And then there's the flip-flop jive. There is no greater flip-flopper than bush and company. But we shouldn't steal their little sayings. We need our own. Like "Bait n Switch". Which, IMO, is much WORSE than flip-flopping. Perfect saying for bush. B&S implies wrong doing. While flip-flopping is more of an aspect of one's personality. Not a criminal trait. And what happens? Bush uses it AGAINST Kerry in debate #3! So, we lost that one.

In regards to Mary Cheney. Kerry should have said once and only once, "I was trying to say something nice and positive and the VP and wife have used their own daughter as a wedge issue. They are hypocrites". And that should be the end of it. He should just refuse to talk about it ever again. And neither should anybody else in his camp. Move on.

If only the Dems would just pick ONE of them and attack...

We want to be above it all.

They think we are crazy and they keep on doing whatever they want to do.

We should be all over
Lynn's book. To think that she wrote about lesbians!
For shame on her! A RepubliCON would never even want to mention the "L" word.

The media last week was dominated by the repugs. We can't let that happen again. We need a consistent media blitz. No time to pick and choose - we have to leave everything on the field.

I really see this. I believe the media handicaps both sides to keep it close for A)Money and B)influence to tip it this way or that based on what the "powers" determine to be the choice each quadrennium. that's my cynical voice talking

my idealist says: so what? most of the US population who votes knows what assholes and criminals are in the WH and they will do the right thing to vote him out overwhelmingly.

...e-mail being sent...

to my favorite newscasters and bloggers, in hopes someone will bring it up (again -- this made the rounds in 2000, but it didn't register because Lynne's HYPOCRISY METER hadn't hit the top of the charts like it has this past week).

She's willing to make money on writing lesbian erotica, but let Kerry/Edwards make the point that Bush's policies hurt his own vice president's daughter, and she's shocked, SHOCKED!

If the Rethugs choose to keep this story alive, "Sisters" will see the light of day. I'll be writing LTTE's to both the NYT and my local newspaper, and I advise others to do the same (BUT ONLY IF THE REPUGS WON'T LET THE STORY DIE A QUIET, STUPID DEATH).

We'll have to see this week if any of them pick up on it.

12-page glossy brochure from them in the mail, with lies on top of lies in living color -- a bunch of people who supposedly served with Kerry with "Kerry: Unfit for Command" written above their heads.

These people need to get fucking trashed on national television -- pounded on till there's nothing left of their treasonous, traitorous hides (and that'll take a lot of pounding for John O'Neill's fat ass).

The Vietnamese peasants remember the day their village was burned; and they remember it like Kerry and the incident reports remember it ... no matter how much O'Neill screams and whines about their "closed society."

O'Neill getting his ass whupped on Dick Cavett by John Kerry should be shown around the clock, with Kerry making the point that "this man has been out to smear me since Nixon and Kissinger and Haldeman HIRED HIM TO COME AFTER ME!" The Nixon tapes prove it! They're still doing the dirty work of a thoroughly corrupt, dead president, for Chrissakes.

He should ask military families how they'd like it if lies were told about their sons' and daughters' days in combat.

Arrrrrrrgh! I'm so mad I can't even think!

haven't been covered in the MSM. I kept trying to explain to her that the MSM is owned by the same big corporations (and defense contractors) that own Bush and Cheney's asses.

And that war is great for their business -- both in ratings and defense contracts for their corporate bosses. They're not going to tell the public ANYTHING that's gonna rock that boat.

If we could just get one good PNAC push in before the election ... show up these neocons for the conniving bastards -- who planned the Iraq war back in 1998 -- that they are!

Should Kerry bring it up in a speech? Seems a little bit seedy, especially in light of the crap the media are already spewing.

What's the upside of accusing the wife of the vice president of writing a "lesbian novel" several years ago? I just don't see it. I do see the fallout though, "John Kerry will say or attack anything to get elected." Bush is already saying this, and you want to give him more ammunition?

Bush is a dirty politician -- the dirtiest since Nixon. But he manages to keep his own hands clean by shoving this stuff to shadowy groups. I don't see how a shadowy group could get a smear campaign going over this. Hardly anyone cares who Dick Cheney is, let alone his wife.

WIN first! HEAL,later!