Is this DNConvention a mistake?

Bush's approval ratings have gone up during this convention. Was bringing national defense to the forefront of it a mistake? What about being so nice to Bush- usually attacking him brings his poll #s down.

And there aren't that many swing voters.

I think the way that this convention has been run may have been a DLC-style mistake.

On edit: But we'll still win anyway.

Since The Convention Began?


Where's the p-r-o-o-f?

I'm glad you raised the question. I appreciate that openess. I'm anxious to read what my fellow DU'ers think. I tend to worry. It seems to me that the proverbial bounce won't be what anyone expected.

Republicans are saying Kerry won't get more than a 12-point bounce, according to CBS. Sooooo sneaky. WHY? Because there are so few undecided voters left, he'll be fortunate to get a 5-point bounce. See? It makes Kerry immediately look like a failure.

Four more years of lying, thieving, killing asshats? Or Kerry?

Without documentation his whole argument is built on a false premise...



A bounce????

Do you remember a challenger who went into his convention with a lead or tied in most polls.....


I'm tired of these "nattering nabobs of negativism"...

what polls?

His whole argument is built on a false premise... I give the seminal poster a big F in Logic.....

just not what it used to be. both conventions have become week long commercials for the party instead of the place where the platform and issues were debated/discussed/coalesced. i think that has become very obvious to the american people and only those who are rabidly interested in politics care to watch anymore. and even then, for the most part, it's preaching to the choir because the ones most closely watching each convention are members of that party.

it's the superbowl for speech writers and i think that's the perspective through which it should be viewed.

Had some Dem strategist (I missed the name but I've seem him before) saying we needed to take Bush down (they implied "like Sharpton")

NT

the Repukes keep going on and on about it-its about time that the Dems show that they can be firm on defense. What you're hearing about Bush being ahead is in the public's perception that he is protecting this country....this taken from polls done before the convention. No polls as far as I know that say Bush has pulled ahead.

I think the best strategy is for Kerry to take the high road, talking about his credentials, and letting the supporting groups tell the truth on Bush-how he's NOT made this country safer, how his policies are rash, etc, etc.

I hope that Kerry's people have some information that we don't.

Anyone who thinks being nice to a right winger is a good idea must have been born yesterday.

and therein lied the problem...


Poor Al... He is a fundamentally decent man....

He received the most votes than any other Democratic presidential candidate. He deserved to be president.

I hope JFK gives a knockout speech....

There were very pointed criticisms of Policies, Ideology, Obstinance, etc etc etc

...Maybe not Kerry, himself, but our speakers should have been hammering Bush for the corrupt, spoiled little, lying frat boy that he is... Over and over...

wait til the election really gets rolling.

that we STOP being so nice and gave these Totalitarian Scum just 1/10th of what they've been giving us.

Instead, the DLC and the DNC seems intent on repeating 1980, 1988 and 2000.

I hope it works out better this time.

:silly:

and ripped Bush a new one in 88...


Who knows what will happen this time......

Willy Horton? Dukakis in a Tank? Early test runs for Totalitarian Media.

"There you go again" Will stealing Carter's debate papers and getting away with it? God knows what OTHER Dirty "Ratfucking" we don't know about.

I strongly disagree with your assessment.

(see below), but I think I'm in your camp on this one.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x589127

so we focused more on the flaws of those leaders than the failure of their policies. We can and should be aggresive about the issues this year, and it isn't enough to just say we are the good guys.

or the shenanigans the Republicans used in their campaigns...


Here's Ted Kennedy's 1980 convention speeech... It's a seering indictment of Ronald Reagan:

http://www.education-india.net/inspirationals/ekennedy1980.php


Here's Ann Richards's 1988 convention speech.... It drips with contempt for Papa Bush:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/annrichards1988dnc.htm

No one is saying to sink as low as they do, but hell, F911 shows that the media has now degraded so badly that all people have to do is see the Real Bunnypants*, whichthey are denied by Pravda.

A little hitting back please, and, no, I am not speaking of convention speeches, which are always somewhat hard-hitting.

should hit first.

almost an hour later, and you haven't checked back to answer any of the questions put to you, most importantly:

WHAT POLLS ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!

I hate these hit and run posters.

Who knows what the future will reveal?


I am blown away by the support the seminal poster's argument received when the whole argument was built on a false premise....


It reminds me of the support Bush received on thr IWR when he said Saddam had WMDS and ties to Al Qaeda....


Some folks will never let the facts get in the way of a good argument....

with a virtually pre-determined outcome, little prime time TV coverage, and almost no reason to watch (unless you just can't get enough of canned, pre-censored political speeches), there was little reason to actually have a physical convention this year.

The party could have saved the dough, done a virtual vote for the nominee, and used the extra cash toward electing Democrats in November.

It doesn't surprise me one bit that this convention is helping George Bush. So many speeches have an undercurrent message of "it's cool to be a Republican Rambo and gun down people in the third world, but pretend to be a Democrat and you won't seem like quite such an idiot."

This is not the Convention we needed to lay out a really NEW approach to the world and energize the party base.

Well, go protest like crazy against the Republican Convention and hope Kerry gets a clue one of these days! :headbang:
http://www.counterconvention.org/

http://www.pollingreport.com/wh04gen.htm

it was put out right BEFORE the convention. Clearly this was a rigged attempt to make * look good and downplay all the other RECENT polls showing Kerry AHEAD.

I meant the style of the convention could have been better, not that the convention was a mistake. And I believe the polls came from electoral-vote.com

I think it's too soon to judge the effectiveness of the convention. Number one, the major networks only covered Edwards's speech and Kerry's speech live, so that really contrasts with previous conventions. Plus, the awesome speech Kerry delivered last night is going to stir minds and hearts for a while. I think polls next week will begin to demonstrate the convention "bump".

I also believe that the Dems don't need to really get negative. Bush is his own 24 hour negative ad. We should keep pushing the vision John Kerry laid out in his speech, stay on point, and only occassionally hit them with professional, non-personal attacks.

I hope Bush keeps making ads like the one in which he says, "I'm an optimist..." and then the ad ends with a negative attack on Kerry. They can't even make a positive ad without it turning negative. It's almost a reflex with them. That ad made me wonder if Bush really knows what the word "optimist" means...I saw right through that ad and I know that more people will as well.

What the fuck are you talking about? You are looking at one goddamned poll, the least accurate one, taken before the convention. I wish people like you would read and become informed before spouting pessimistic drivel.

not. I think it's always a good thing to put what you stand for out there, and to try to make a case for yourself. Then if others go the other way, well, that tells us something.

I think the conventions are lots of fun, present the party leaders more cohesively and as a group, rally the base, and help the party members come together physically and in spirit. I think they serve a useful purpose. They kick off the election season.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x590006

*'s disapproval went up several points.

Pessimsm is disgusting and I will have none of it particularly when it is ill-informed alarmist bunk.

"I think the way that this convention has been run may have been a DLC-style mistake."

It was; he should be talking about peace like he did when he came back from 'Nam; I'm one of those protestors, who like Kerry were against the war. Now all of a sudden because chimpy has a weak "military" record this is what Kerry is running on? He should run on his stellar voting record in the Senate, a record to be proud of. Who cares how many innocent people he killed in Viet Nam?