Kerry appeals to Bush for end to election ad war

SPRING GREEN, United States (AFP) - Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry (news - web sites) appealed for an end to the TV advertising war that has marked his election battle against President George W. Bush (news - web sites).
Kerry said the avalanche of negative television spots and attacks being shown on US screens was scaring off voters.

"What they don't need is all these trumped up advertisements, they just make people curl up and walk away," added the Massachusetts senator.

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Well, the ad war has been heating up. But, I worry this will be seen as more of an "You are winning at this so I want us to both give up" then "Lets have some civility and no more trumped up ads". But, we will have to wait and see what the media makes of it. It also might have been a mistake to say the ads are trumped up, because Bush can come back and say, your ads are trumped up, but mine are telling the truth.

no way can anyone appeal to their sense of propriety--they have none. They are out to win at all costs, no matter what they have to say, no matter how many lies they have to tell and no matter what behind the scenes dirty tricks they have to impliment. They will view appeals to their "better side"(as if they had one), as an opportunity to drive the screw in deeper.

That is how they operate.

He made a plea at the end of his convention - impressive and classy. Unfortunately, when you are dealing with these animals, it's not going to happen. It's time for Kerry to go for the jugular.

Kerry had better get some nice new nasty anti-chimp ads ready to go. This is war. There's no playing nice in this election. Fight fire with fire and get some REALLY nasty anti-chimp ads on the air!

And for precisely that reason: It will be seen as Kerry crying "uncle." The media will spend several days speculating the worst: Kerry's running out of money; Kerry's a wimp; Kerry can take the heat; and on and on.

The only possibly good thing will be if Kerry uses this as a feint, and when the Bush campaign inevitably refuses to let up, Kerry will have the opening to really unload with every nasty ad and dirty trick. When the Bushistas holler (and they will), Kerry can then say, "Hey, I'm just playing the way they said they wanted to play. I asked them to play nice, but they wouldn't have any of it."

I hope that's the strategy, because otherwise, this is not a good tactic at all.

If the people (ie media) are complaining of the negativity then why would anyone be upset when the Democratic nominee says enough?

At some point you have to declare an end to the fighting and talk about the issues.

Or haven't you noticed? They LIKE the mudslinging, and the infantile horse race analogies. They endorse and encourage pointless speculation about irrelevant minutiae. People who focus on the issues, and won't be swayed from talking about them, soon find their air time cut back to zero. And for every disingenuous talking head who claims he or she is turned off by the negativity, there are five more slavering for a chance to amplify whatever the latest nastiness is that spilled out of Bush, or Cheney, or Rumsfeld, or Powell, or Rice, or Racicot, or Reed, or . . . Well, you see my point.

I hope Jackpine Radical is right, and this is just the prelude to Kerry letting it rip throughout October.

have bush laugh at him and say, wimp........i am beating you

and then come out with one hard ass lay it out on the table ad

and say, are you sure you want to keep playing. cause truly, this isnt my way...........we should be thinking about the voters

I think this amounts to Kerry laying the groundwork for one helluva no-holds-barred last month. "I asked and asked for them to play nice, but they wouldn't, so now I'm out of patience, and HERE IT COMES!

Whatever faults you may find in Kerry, stupidity and timidity are not among them.

Because there is precious little truth in ANY Bush ad.

Screw begging Bush to be nice, it's time to kick his ass.

This looks weak at this point in the race.

is a plan that goes several steps beyond what he said. Dem Strategist told us that he was playing chess not checkers. So far, I have not seen much evidence of this. This is quite frustrating. Hopefully soon it will become clear that Kerry was several steps ahead of everyone else all along.