Kerry must reframe Bush--and fast!

[tedzbear]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0915-02.htm

* and his media are muddying the waters with confusing propaganda about Kerry. I even got mixed up yesterday thinking Kerry was actually pro life after listening to a radio program.

Also, how come I don't hear a peep out of Edwards? Is that the fault of our media or his campaign?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Kerry is reframing Bush. Keep up with the news.

Reference his speeches today where he correctly calls Bush the "excuse president".

[michigandem2]

2. The media is a big problem..

edwards is out there...Kerry mentioned today on Imus that there wer 8,000-10,000 people at a rally...

they are out there...we have to search to find them though because the media talks over them or shows still shots of them...WE ARE FIGHTING...we are! the media won't show you that though...

[papau]

3. Robert Kuttner of American Prospect has the right advice for Kerry

Kerry must 'reframe' Bush --and fast -By Robert Kuttner-American Prospect


Will Kerry let Bush frame him as an inconstant,effete elitist who lives in a lah-de-dah neighborhood, speaks a foreign language, keeps changing his mind on everything from Vietnam to Iraq, can't be trusted to be resolute on terrorists and has no John Wayne simple thoughts - a policy wonk that only speaks, giving out policy details, in 3 comma sentances?
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped... /

Kerry must 'reframe' Bush -- and fast
By Robert Kuttner September 15, 2004

<snip>... the ordinary citizen is gulled by the stagecraft and numbed by the details. And if Kerry tries to explain the particulars, he plays policy wonk to Bush's John Wayne.

Bush and Cheney keep grabbing headlines with ever more outrageous lies. Just this week, speaking in Michigan, Bush described Kerry's health plan as "a government takeover of health care." In fact, the plan would have government compensate private health plans that faced excessive insurance losses because they had sicker-than-average members. The political press, rather than explaining Bush's lie, played the story as mere attack and counterattack.

In an ideal, civics book democracy, citizens would explore the details and vote based on the merits. But in our frantic, overworked daily lives, where talk show rants pass for public discourse, the truth gets buried by the rhetoric, and the imagery of leadership wins the day.

Successful candidates have seized on a big theme that carried within it both the hopes of ordinary people and the seeds of a program. John Kennedy did it with his "We can do bettah." Bill Clinton succeeded with "putting people first." The idea that people who work hard and play by the rules should earn enough to live decently combined respect for the struggles of ordinary people with the idea that government could help. Ronald Reagan turned the national pessimism of the Carter years into a sunny "Morning in America."

So what on earth is John Kerry to do? He cannot possibly win a hearing to challenge all that is fake about Bush and his policy particulars unless he first changes the frame. First, he needs to reframe Bush by pounding on all the ways that Bush is a fraud, and he needs to do it with grace and wit. Second, he needs a clear, simple vision of a secure, prosperous America more compelling than Bush's vision.

If Kerry doesn't have the nerve to take on Bush, voters will conclude that he lacks the nerve to protect America. Kerry has about two weeks to break the frame before the election freezes into a lock.

[emulatorloo]

5. see my post 4 EOM

[emulatorloo]

4. Reuters/Yahoo: Kerry Slams Bush's 'Excuse Presidency'

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040915/pl_nm/campaign_kerry_dc

Go read it and go rate it up.

Stop relying on commondreams.


<snip>

 

"This president has created more excuses than jobs," Kerry said in a speech to the Detroit Economic Club.


Trailing in national polls seven weeks before the Nov. 2 election and heeding advisers who have urged him to be more forceful, Kerry said he was "taking the gloves off" in his presidential campaign battle with Bush.


He rejected the White House's "perfect storm" explanation that recession, war and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks caused tepid economic performance in the United States.


"The president wants you to believe that this record is the record of the victim of circumstances, the result of bad luck, not bad decisions," Kerry said in his speech. "Well, Mr. President, when it comes to your record, we agree -- you own it."


"His is the excuse presidency -- never wrong, never responsible, never to blame ... no, it's not our fault; no, there's nothing wrong; no, we can't do better; no, we haven't made a single mistake," Kerry said.

<snip>

[JI7]

6. you should just not vote for Kerry

based on your history of anti kerry posts.

[cheezus]

7. Edwards is out doing retail in areas that LOVE him

That boy is one hell of a campaigner. He's just all over the local 6 o'clock news instead of the national media.

[cthrumatrix]

8. sounds good to me