Reply #77: IMO, this wasn't enough

[Hippo_Tron]

The Kerry camp should've had the Rassmann ad in the drawer and ready to air within 24 hours of the Swift Boat Ads airing. Cahill and Shrum sat on it for two weeks in hopes that the public was smart enough to recognize that the ads were false and that they wouldn't have to spend any money on ads to deal with them. This is also partly the fault of the DNC for being stupid enough to have the convention over a month before the Republicans instead of a week or two before so that the GOP would have longer to raise unlimited money than the Democrats. Also, when Bush refused to denounce the swift boat liars specifically, the DNC (or at least a 527 group in their place) should've started running ads about his cocaine usage and his lack of military service.

I admit that the Wes Clark and Rasmann press conference as well as the Cleland delivering the letter to Bush was extremely underplayed in the media, but the Kerry camp still made a crucial error in judgement.