Does Kerry know what he is doing?

I've read a lot of criticism here about the way Kerry is handling the current Vietnam medals flap and other attacks on him recently.

I happen to think that J.K. is an extremely skilled politician who has a master plan for the 2004 race. Although I do personally wish that he would go out and attack, I have a suspicion that he's in control of the situation and "knows what he's doing". Am I being naive? What do you think of Kerry's knowledge of the political process and how to win a race?

He's letting a lot of time go by, and a lot of ads get aired, without mounting the volume of defense/counterattack. I know he's responded, and I know he doesn't have a ton of money yet, but those Smirky commercials cut a lot of weight with the public.

Bake

$70 million in attack ads and Kerry is still tied with an incumbent President during a war.

Kerry is going to let the people grow bored with Chene....err Bush and his lies. Then he will attack.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

Kerry knows what he is doing.

Bush, to my knowledge, has released not one truly positive ad - he has spent $70,000,000 on negativity and fear. Kerry's ads, meanwhile, have been primarily positive, touting his long career of service to the United States.

Let's all assume for a moment, as I do, that Kerry is not naive. He knows the same things about Bush we do; in fact, he probably knows more than we do. His "crooks and liars" comment of about two months ago reveals that knowledge.

We must bear in mind that this campaign season has started rather early. Some here even suspected that we might not have a nominee until the convention. The fact that eight other candidates for the nomination (including the two early frontrunners) dropped out within the course of two months is remarkable. It has plunged us into the general election a good two months in advance.

Bush has essentially backed himself into a corner by going negative early. What is he going to do now? Go positive? He can only keep up the negative attacks for so long. The medals flap shows they're running short on material. Meanwhile, Kerry has a wider range of options. He can remain positive throughout the remainder of the election season (I don't think he will), or he can go negative with the reams of material on Bush.

That, I suspect, is Kerry's plan. He has chosen (wisely, I think) not to exhaust his options this early in the campaign season, as Bush has done. Kerry will go negative, but he is biding his time, choosing instead right now to help Americans get accustomed to the idea of John Kerry as a potential President.

Is it a good plan? We'll know on 2 November. But I, for one, think it is a good plan, and it has tremendous potential to succeed.

I agree that the medal flap is being beaten into the ground because they don't know what else to attack right now.

They want to paint J.K. as a tax and spend liberal...but most middle class and lower class families would have a lower tax rate under Kerry than Bush.

That's what I call "fuzzy" analysis.

Do people understand that 46% approval with 47% DISapproval is bad news for ANY president? Plus, Bush has burned through half his money already attacking Kerry while Kerry has been keeping expenses at a minimum while Bush is shooting airballs.

The chimp makes an incredibly lame appearance on "Meet the Press", holds a pathetic press conference exposing himself as a sputtering dimwit, Iraq makes a precipitous turn for the worse, Clark and Condi's 9/11 testimonies blow a gargantuan hole in his credibility, lies about the cost of the prescription drug bill are exposed, Cheney and Scalia go duck hunting, Halliburton's rip-offs are exposed,....how much more will it take? And STILL Kerry falls further behind in the polls. I'm afraid Kerry is an incurable waffler, and no matter how much thoughtful voters respect his "nuanced" thinking, all Joe SixPack sees is a guy who can't decide which shoe to tie first when he gets dressed each day.

1) The voters who are going to matter most in November (swing voters) haven't begun to pay attention yet.

2) Bush's attacks are NOT working. Kerry is ahead in the polls after a massive onslaught by Bush et al.

2)'s not clear. Look at the "believes what he says" category.

Please show where Kerry "falls further behind" or explain why you are spreading disinformation.

The medals ribbons thing is a perfect example of what is wrong.
It wasnt about medals or vietnam or Bush awol or ABC being part of the RNC. He has 6 months to try something new. Thats a lot of time.
But he may have already screwed the pooch and fell for these "traps"
once too often. I think he fights first and thinks later. Needs to be smarter then that. He is a good fighter, Fighting is valuable and will serve him well but he needs to know WHEN to attack and when to define the battleground. He is letting others define the battleground for him and does not seem to know how to difuse these traps. Every question is an opportunity to do define himself to the swing voters, even aggressive unfriendly questions can be turned around to do this.

He could have stopped this medals/ribbons thing in ONE sentence, and moved on.

http://tinyurl.com/274l3

"Kerry could acknowledge that his various statements on the subject are inconsistent. "When I was young, I did a lot of foolish things." Instead he attacks the president over his National Guard service -- an assault he has now escalated on the campaign trail -- and accuses ABC of "doing the bidding of the Republican National Committee."

They are the ones who put out misinfo for their base and got caught up in the furor. They do not want Kerry's medals discussed honestly because they want Kerry to be INTIMIDATED into DROPPING the Vietnam era stories because the GOP chickenhawks will ALWAYS LOSE in comparison.

"Moved on" my ass. That's Rove's fondest wish. Ain't happenin'!

Kerry should have said that he was young and angry over vietnam, and it was a difficult time then and apologize for any understandable confusion or conflicts over the years. That he had a lot of people depending on him then to do something symbolic and return the medals, but he STILL valued what they represented and that he was proud to have served under the circumstances, so he kept the medals and threw the ribbons. That really speaks from the heart and ANYONE would appreciate that. Done and Done. Big hero.
Pretty simple stuff right? My god that would have put him UP in the polls, but no, we got what we got, Ill leave it at that. Did his advisors talk to him about all this first? It was like he just acted on instinct with no forethought.

Please tell me what is wrong with the above scenario?
Does anyone else think this? or am I completely alone in this?

This isnt about Rove, or Cheney or Bush awol, or who served and did what when decades ago. Im sorry, those things
are simply not going to put him in the white house. America is looking closely at him now, seeing how he responds to these kinds of questions, It wont get any easier for him. Im sorry, hes just not connecting with swing voters because of this kind of thing.
ITS FIXABLE ok? there is time to get on track.

He did not have his medals with him, but, did have his ribbons which he threw.

Since he was speaking for a multitude of vets during that time he always used the collective "we" and used the general medals instead of just the specific ribbons.

All ribbons are medals while all medals are not ribbons. Like all porpoises are dolphins, but not all dolphins are porpoises.

that is WAY to complicated ok, medals and ribbons same thing, didnt have them on me, they were someone elses, I kept them, I didnt. I dont remember the names of the people who gave them to me, People dont WANT this from him. Its a fight for the swing voters, they are listening and he missed a great opportunity.

Ill post again what he should have said.
It is simple, elegant, and turns it around to a character
defining moment and closes any controversy permanatly, all this
without having to go into attack mode.

>>>
Kerry should have said that he was young and angry over vietnam, and it was a difficult time then and apologize for any understandable confusion or conflicts over the years. That he had a lot of people depending on him then to do something symbolic and return the medals, but he STILL valued what they represented and that he was proud to have served under the circumstances, so he kept the medals and threw the ribbons. That really speaks from the heart and ANYONE would appreciate that. Done and Done. Big hero.

of what he said and there is NO inconsistency other than what OTHERS claimed to interpret or concluded to enable their own agendas.

Kerry doesnt have to convince US of anything.
Joe and Jane Sixpack are just starting to pay attention, and
THAT is where this election will be fought and won.
Swing vote is everything.

not catered to.

My solution was NOT catering. It was DEFINING.
Great. Well have four years of Bush's second term to discuss what he should have done.

Whereas most of the people criticizing his campaign skills here on DU are in reality, people who have absolutely no actual experience at running winning political campaigns.

wins the Dookus award of the day for Excellence in Posting.

And hot-damn, your name is hard to type! What the hell does it mean?

Feanor: http://www.tolkienonline.de/etep/Tolkien/F/Feanor.html


Thanks for the award, I've never won anything before *blush*

but what is "Curufinwe"?

and congrats... it's a great honor :)

another name for Feanor.

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Skilled, yes. But, this isn't MA... it's the whole USA this time.

Give him some time... he can work through this. Plenty of time to iron out the wrinkles.

This week Kerry came to Ann Arbor to speak--but the media never said WHERE--turns out the admission was limited to 400. I expect properly handled he could have turned out at least 40,000 and made some news and some points. In addition, the speech was reportedly deadly dull.

This man needs help. He needs somebody with a sharp pencil to edit his material. He needs somebody to teach him how to lose the Senatorial pompousness and grab the attention of his audience.

He's dying here, folks. The only thing keeping him in this race is he is better than Bush, even at speaking. This is not an endorsement!

...it sounds as if he can't string together a coherent sentence.

I'll admit that J.K isn't the greatest speaker, but I was never embarassed or extremetly bored when listening to hims speak.

I don't think he's half bad actually...