Reply #53: The Kerry problem is complex...

[Sir Jeffrey]

He set himself up by emphasizing his efforts in Vietnam at the Convention. Not "putting all his eggs in that basket" would have been preferable...especially since we were (and still are) at war NOW. The decision by Kerry to re-fight Vietnam was awfully dumb.

Any student of political science should know that campaigns 101 teaches you to control the agenda. If you don't get the media covering the campaign from your point of view, you lose. The opposition party historically gets first strike since their convention is held first. Kerry failed miserably at controlling the agenda. If you remember, he told the speakers to pull their punches. He pulled his own punches. They should have blistered the Bush Regime...my god they had enough targets to choose from.

It was obvious to me that they were going to re-run 1988. * worked hard on that campaign. He loved Atwater's evil tactics. They were running against a Mass. liberal. Substitute Willie Horton for Gay Marriage and there you go.

Now, supposing that I were advising Kerry after the Swiftboat smear had started, counteracting their BS would have been easy.

1. Tie them to the Bush campaign directly. Don't rely on the news media to run with certain leaked information...which is what they did with Rather and it bit them in the ass. Also, pushing for a public renunciation of all 527 ads from Bush was stupid. It looks hypocritical when Kerry's campaign relied on them heavily, not to mention that it distracted the public from the rebuttal.

2. Add some zest to a public rally by attacking the scum directly and fiercely. "John O'Neill would be nothing without me. He's made a 30 year career out of smearing me, going back to when he was Nixon's hitman and posterboy for the 'everything is fine in Vietnam' crowd in the early 70's. For Bush to trot this guy out again shows that he has no idea what he is doing and is playing the role of Nixon to a T. Maybe if he played the more diginified role that his father played as president he'd know better than to stoop to that level." You think that wouldn't send Bush into a hissy fit?

3. Paint the other Swifties as serving those who avoided service at all costs (Bush and Cheney especially). His inactivity when the smear started led people to believe it since it went unchallenged.

4. When the idiots started going on the cable news shows, the Kerry camp should have sent on their own people to do rebuttal. Everytime one of the idiots went on TV, Kerry people should have been there. Each TV rep should have the same talking points to ensure that the message resonates in the mind of the viewer.

5. After about two or three weeks of this, and forcing the Bush camp into a tit for tat over the whole mess, this plan would succeed in painting Bush as being the one behind the whole deal. It would put the focus on Bush to rebut playing the role of Nixon. Nobody wants another Vietnam, so he'd be forced to defend his stupid Iraq plan from the starting point "I promise it isn't another Vietnam" and proceed from there (which is a winner for Kerry).

On to the last part: what to do in the future? Easy. Don't nominate someone from the same secret society as the enemy. Nominate an electable fighter. You don't win against bullies by running scared and hiding when they say bad stuff about you. You win by standing up to them and their cronies.