Kerry Has To Convince America That Tough Talk And Swagger Don't Mean Sh*t

[DrFunkenstein]

If there is one job that Kerry has before him, it is making Bush's cowboy rhetoric a liability, not an asset for our national security.

It's the walk, not the talk.

I am thrilled that Kerry picked up on both the "incompetency" and "Tora Bora" themes I've been begging for months to hear. Now there is one last thing:

Kerry needs to say that Bush's love of tough talk made him listen to the chickenhawks at the Pentagon, rather than trusted voices like Colin Powell.

Split the administration right down the middle and let them scramble to convince people that Powell and Cheney really love each other.

Have Kerry say that saying we want Osama "dead or alive," saying we're going to "smoke him out his cave" means less than nothing when you use Afghani warlords instead of Green Berets.

Telling insurgents to "bring it on" from behind a desk is no substitute for taking the bullseye off our soldiers' backs.

Kerry is absolutely on the right track. If Bush made Kerry synonymous with the flip-flop, let Kerry give Bush some rose-colored glasses. The "boy in a bubble" routine is very effective. Slamming Bush for not using the funds is a top-notch way of marking differences in the here and now.

I know alot of people at DU think it is enough to call Bush a phony cowboy, but the truth is that Americans don't give a damn. They like a guy who talks tough and will protect them on a date. What we have to do is convince them that Bush's love of swagger clouds his judgement in very dangerous ways during very dangerous times.