Issues-only fetishists need to back off and let Kerry be Kerry

Bush has slapped Kerry personally many times, from the initial flip-flopping attack to the series of Kerry misquotes and ridicule in Bush's acceptance speech. Kerry has now accepted the challenge to fight Bush character-to-character. That is what this "W is for wrong" stuff and these attacks on Bush's pathetic National Guard performance are all about. Kerry knows what he is doing. Stop carping about the issues. Kerry is dealing with those too.

You can't fight for the issues by running away from a fight on character. Everyone, including the Quayle/Potter campaign, knows that Bush is a sure loser on the issues. But Bush is a sure loser on character too. The only way Bush can win the fight over character is if Kerry doesn't fight. That is just what the "issues fetishists" are advising. It's simplistic and wrong.

The Bushies know that there will be a tendency on the part of the Democrats to avoid fisticuffs. They saw us in 2002. They know us better than we know ourselves. We Dems "reasoned" in 2002. We chided the GOP on "ignoring the issues." We called for positive campaigning, and we tried to be bipartisan in our country's time of need. And what did it get us? We lost for ourselves, and we lost for the country. We lost for the world.

Swing voters want to be on the side of the winner. They don't trust their own judgment on the issues. The issues are too complicated, and the Bush team deliberately muddies the water with lies and half-truths. Before you can fight on the issues, you have to sell your salesman to these folks. That's what Kerry is doing. Let Kerry be Kerry.

Do I wish this could all be about the issues? Of course. But we are dealing with a particularly venomous species of snake in these Cheney/Bush folks. Many Republicans have sold their soul to the devil because they want to win so badly. They don't have any issues on their side. Bush isn't even upholding conservative values. Their lifelong fool of a president let their cracked vice president opt America into an unnecessary, backfiring war.

Issues are strongly against Bush, so his marketers are practicing a scorched earth policy on issues. They simply lie, smear, ridicule, promise, and say anything to win. Their lack of honor is what drags this contest into the mud. We have to win in the mud too. That's football.

on edit: changed "man-to-man" to character-to-character

I'm not happy with dems in high places wanting to lay down on certain very big issues. Kerry is actually doing some fighting back, its just nobody including the pundits are paying attention. Like it or not, this election HAS to be a group effort. That includes many elected dems out there that are presently cowards.

These other Dems need to get up off of their keisters and back him up.

personable, and articulate, he will make a wonderful President his frist term, on his second, he will make history as a great one.