Bush directly attacked Kerry today: called him a waffler

[andym]

WASHINGTON - President Bush took the offensive on his re-election campaign Monday, casting Sen. John Kerry as a waffler and warning that the Democrats would raise taxes, expand the government and fail to lead decisively on national security.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040224/ap_on_el_pr/bush_campaign&cid=694&ncid=716

I believe this signals the beginning of the general election, even though we're still in the primaries.

[unfrigginreal]

1. That's going to be the main attack against Kerry

Expect to hear it over and over as well as flip-flopper and wishy-washy.

[JHBowden]

2. From ex-Deanies? Or Bushit?

:shrug:

[janx]

7. From Bush.

Deaniacs said this because they could see it coming. We could also see Nader coming.

Bush is going to hammer Kerry about these things relentlessly. He has already started to do so. Tonight was not the first time.

[emulatorloo]

32. Sadly, Bush is an idiot and his hammer is made of glass

Who is going to fall for his "they want to raise your taxes" for example as soon as the dems say "Yeah, on the rich!"

Waffler is just dumb - Kerry can and will defend his record.

[unfrigginreal]

12. Which would you prefer?

Since loyalty is not your strong suit I thought I'd ask. :shrug:

[JHBowden]

14. We're all fucked if GW gets another term in office.

If you think the first term was bad, wait until this bozo thinks he has a mandate, and picks up more Senators in the process.

[BL_Zebub]

43. The reason Junior will pick up more Senators

Is because there are two right now who will be replaced by Repuke governors. And those two are your DLC golden boys.

[IndianaGreen]

4. Lieberman was the first to refer to Kerry as a waffler

The difference is that Lieberman had credibility, while Bush has none.

Kerry's record is his own worst enemy!

[emulatorloo]

33. Kerry Can and Will Defend his record

when he talks about his record, he makes sense.

When GWB talks is doesn't make sense.

[Kazak]

26. Hope they have fun with it,

'coz it ain't gonna work. So Kerry is a waffler...Bush* FAILED to protect America.

[flpoljunkie]

38. Bush and his cronies are the most corrupt, inept bunch to ever occupy WH.

They cannot defend their own sorry record, so they seek to attack John Kerry's record. It's not going to work for these corrupt, incompetents.

The Patriot Act has many detractors--many of them conservatives. John Ashcroft has abused his authority under the Patriot Act; we are not surprised.

No Child Left Behind is reviled by those on the left and right--another unfunded mandate from the federal government which dictates education policy to the states-- many who are rebeling, including Republican controlled legislatures.

Rushing to an unnecessary, unilateral war it NOT a sign of strength and decisiveness-it is a sign of recklessness. Our Army is severely overextended, our soldiers are dying every day, while others are maimed for life. Our treasury has been looted-- and for what end? We are virtually alone in bearing the burden in Iraq, which may well be headed toward civil war. Bushco still refuses to share the spoils and internationalize the efforts in Iraq. Remember they were divvying up the Iraqi oil contracts the first few months of this administration, according to Paul O'Neill.

Voting for every weapons system, no matter how unworkable and overpriced, that comes down the pike does not make one patriotic--this is absurd. Rummy cancelled the Commanche helicopter yesterday--has any one impugned his patriotism?

Our treasury has also been looted to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, while Bush lies about how rolling back the tax cuts will hurt small business--only 4% of small business, including farmers, make over $200,000--while Cheney and Bush are actually considered to be "small businessmen". Smell a rat, anyone?

Any more questions?

[Lex]

3. Kerry should have hit back hard

TODAY during the same news cycle and called Bush on that BS. And then lobbed one back into their camp.

Did he?

Because that is what it's going to take. Rapid response and then a lob back about Bush's record.

[andym]

5. Not directly, yet ....

He said this about Bush earlier:

"I don't think losing 3 million jobs, having deficits as far as the eye can go, having 2 million people lose their health insurance, turning your back on kids in schools and not funding No Child Left Behind ... represents a vision."

[janx]

10. That's not good enough.

But we'll leave it to the Kerry campaign to figure this out until he gets the nomination.

[Rowsdower]

22. Kerry can't hit back

because the waffling accusations are true. Kerry is too weak on the issues, and is going to get clobbered for his flip-flops. Why couldn't these people open their eyes and realize Kerry cannot win in November?

[polpilot]

37. Kerry could say he does agree and doesn't agree with Bush's comments.

????????

[King of New Orleans]

6. I demand Kerry respond by

calling Bush a "lollygagger" or a "gadabout"

or Kerry could just say what he said in post #5.

[schultzee]

8. We need to coin a term for Bush. Fascist?

[SerpentX]

13. The Lyin' King

[Forkboy]

21. LMAO

I like that :thumbsup:

[HFishbine]

34. Excellent!

Did you make that up? Very clever! It's my new name for Bush.

[BootinUp]

39. good one n/t

[blondeatlast]

40. HAH! Good one.

[salin]

9. Bush = king waffle cone!

no nation building
will not touch the social security "lock box"
fiscal conservative
... and king wopper : "Bringing honesty and integrity to the White House"....

[andym]

11. True, Bush is the biggest waffler!

I still am annoyed how Gore didn't make him look foolish during the second debate when Bush talked about "no nation building".

And look how Bush has contradicted himself once his friends realized how lucrative nation building could be.


I think "The Daily Show" had a good debate between Gov. Bush and Pres. Bush a while back. It was hilarious.

[HFishbine]

35. I don't think

"I know you are but what am I" is going to work.

[legin]

15. I'm totally guessing here

But it seems to me that you stick something on a candidate not with one single story, but with 3 or 4 over several months. You sort of build a weight of evidence, and these stories can back refer to each other.

And you start modest in your goals and sort of build up the detail.

It is a guess but the recent Drudge 'Kerry Philander' story possibly wasn't the first story in that series. It could have been the postitive story about Kerry having dated film actresses like Morgan Fairchild, but which plants the seed that Kerry has a high sex drive who likes to get around a bit, which then makes the second story more palatable for the general population.

I guess that this is just pure marketing technique.

[andym]

16. Painting is an evil art

Your analysis sounds about right. The first stories should be innocuous but set the stage for the later harmful stories.

IMHO, both Edwards and Kerry have a very narrow window to innoculate themselves against this by appearing regularly on popular network TV shows and establishing a strong postive persona in the popular culture. Without that it will be easy to paint either of them. Ask Dean or Clark how easy it is to get painted as something you are not, when you are not yet well known in America.

[arewethereyet]

18. unfortunately Kerry HAS waffled

'yeah but' is not much of a retort.

Don't have this problem with Edwards.

[Rowsdower]

24. EXACTLY

There is still time for people to wake up and get behind Edwards, but I fear that some are just too blind.

[David Dunham]

27. Bush is the flip flopper in chief

I think that the Kerry campaign's response to Bush's theme that Kerry flip flops on key issues is too defensive. The Kerry campaign should point out that Bush is really the "Flip Flopper in Chief." Bush has flip flopped on important issues numerous times. For example,

1. When he ran for Congress in 1978, Bush said that he "favors leaving up to a woman and her doctor the abortion question." (i.e., he was pro-choice). Now, he is completely anti-choice.

2. In September 2000, Bush promised that if elected he would push for regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. In March 2001, he abandoned that promise, and Cheney claimed it "was a mistake."

3. In the final days before the 2000 election, Cheney flew to Nevada and stated that a Bush administration would take no precipitous action on locating a nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain. In February 2002, Bush announced his support of moving ahead with the storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain (which does in fact present serious safety risks).

4. In March 2001, Bush stated that "we can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits, even if the economy softens." In the spring of 2002, Bush said that deficits would be "small and temporary." In the 2002 campaign season, he said that "for the sake of fiscal sanity, the United States Senate must . . . get us to head toward a balanced budget." Now, of course, Bush has abandoned these ideas, and the US budget deficit is over $500 billion.

5. In 2000, Bush stated that he was against the concept of nation building. In 2004, however, Bush's Iraq quagmire is the largest example of nation building in which a president has engaged for decades.

6. In his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush claimed that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. Now, Bush's administation admits that claim was wrong.

I dug up these Bush flip flops off the internet. I bet that many more could be found off the internet or Lexis/Nexis.

[andym]

28. Good idea

They should just use the debate from the Daily Show in which Governor Bush and President Bush go at it.

[legin]

19. Possibly

There are like 3 or 4 characteristic that define people, their morality, their ability, another, and another.

The philander story could be the morality one, the waffler story could be the ability one, and if you know what the other one or two characteristics are you may be able to guess what the other stories are going to be.

[legin]

20. Maybe the mistake was

with the bush* early business career stuff was failing to grow the story properly. We tried to spring the story fully formed in all it's details, onto a fairly disinterested market.

Perhaps the first stage was a fairly hagiography description of how bush* had built up his fortune, but leaving a few enticing loose ends which you then proceed to elaborate on later.

[andym]

25. The mistake was a very clean campaign from Gore and friends

While Gore was being painted as Pinnochio, Gore's team did not try to paint Bush as anything. That's why Bush is considered "honest" today by many Americans. And once you have a reputation, it's difficult to change it.

[DrFunkenstein]

17. Bush Doesn't Waffle - He's Wrong All of The Time

Unfortunately, most Americans share Kerry's position on Iraq (right thing done very wrong) and Kerry is not going to raise taxes on the middle class (part of why he is electable).

As for expanding the government, actually the government HAS expanded under Bush - he just doesn't bother balancing the budget to pay for it (how 'bout another tax cut, Chief?).

[Capn Sunshine]

23. Even worse

he called him a "Senator from Massachusetts"

Ham sandwich 04. Its important.

[emulatorloo]

41. I think its time for Kerry to break out "Play Texan" then

This is war! LOL

[David Dunham]

29. Dems should call Bush the waffler in chief

I think that the Kerry campaign's response to Bush's theme that Kerry flip flops on key issues is far too defensive. The Kerry campaign should point out that Bush is really the "Flip Flopper in Chief." Bush has flip flopped on important issues numerous times. For example,

1. When he ran for Congress in 1978, Bush said that he "favors leaving up to a woman and her doctor the abortion question." (i.e., he was pro-choice). Now, he is completely anti-choice.

2. In September 2000, Bush promised that if elected he would push for regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. In March 2001, he abandoned that promise, and Cheney claimed it "was a mistake."

3. In the final days before the 2000 election, Cheney flew to Nevada and stated that a Bush administration would take no precipitous action on locating a nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain. In February 2002, Bush announced his support of moving ahead with the storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain (which does in fact present serious safety risks).

4. In March 2001, Bush stated that "we can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits, even if the economy softens." In the spring of 2002, Bush said that deficits would be "small and temporary." In the 2002 campaign season, he said that "for the sake of fiscal sanity, the United States Senate must . . . get us to head toward a balanced budget." Now, of course, Bush has abandoned these ideas, and the US budget deficit is over $500 billion.

5. In 2000, Bush stated that he was against the concept of nation building. In 2004, however, Bush's Iraq quagmire is the largest example of nation building in which a president has engaged for decades.

6. In his 2003 State of the Union address, Bush claimed that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. Now, Bush's administation admits that claim was wrong.

I dug up these Bush flip flops off the internet. I bet that many more could be found off the internet or Lexis/Nexis.

[Scott Lee]

30. Now if Kerry could just stop waffling...

It would go along way to keep Bush-hole in error.

[opihimoimoi]

31. Better a waffler than a ridgid hard head who refuses to change even if

proven wrong.

[SaveElmer]

36. Y'all are gettin too bent out of shape

This is the same tired old predictable drivel Republicans always trot out when they have nothing else. I think people are looking for something new, and certainly Chimpy does not have the imagination to provide that. If this is all they can come up with, people are gonna be inclined to tune out.

I think Kerry is more than ready to respond to this type of stuff...as long as the counterattacks are quick and on point(which is sometimes hard for Kerry to do), Bush's attacks are not going to be effective.

[AngryAmish]

42. Don't you realize

that Bush is Hitler?

[BL_Zebub]

44. As much as I despise Junior, this line is true

"The other party's nomination battle is still playing out. The candidates are an interesting group with diverse opinions," Bush said. "They're for tax cuts and against them. They're for NAFTA and against NAFTA. They're for the Patriot Act and against the Patriot Act. They're in favor of liberating Iraq, and opposed to it. And that's just one senator from Massachusetts."

And this is exactly why John Kerry will fail as the nominee. Junior's already rehearsing his debates against Kerry, and this line is proof.