OK, Duers, you aint gonna like this one, but bitter medicine can be good for you. Let's hope this bitter pill is good for Kerry. This article from The Nation magazine (leading progressive media outlet in America) is just too good to pass up. This long article details what is happening in the Upper Midwest states of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota. From this article, it looks like Bush is starting to do there what Kerry did to Dean in Iowa during the January primary there.
But there is still time....
Some excerpts:
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But Kerry is running into trouble in the Upper Midwest. No one is quite sure where he stands on the war. When he talks about wanting to protect American jobs, he does so with all the enthusiasm of the free trader he has always been. His campaign has failed to make effective use of John Edwards, whose performance in the primaries suggested that he should be popular in areas where Kerry isn't. And there's a sense that the Kerry campaign is playing defense when it needs to be mounting a more aggressive challenge to a powerful and, in many areas, personally popular President.....
To be sure, most of these concerns are echoed far beyond the cafes, union halls and farm cooperatives of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. But there are particular problems in the Upper Midwest that have made this a difficult season for Democrats. Kerry's hunt-club style has been all wrong for a region that likes its Democratic politics served up with a populist edge. And, even where grassroots activists are ready to save Kerry from himself, they complain that they cannot get the support they need from a campaign that still has a hard time understanding the politics of rural America.....
When Bush passed through Lancaster and other communities in southwest Wisconsin in early May, he was greeted by large crowds that had been drawn out by an exceptionally aggressive advance operation that does not hesitate to suggest shuttering local schools so students can meet the President. Bush, who delights in stump campaigning in small towns, gave quick speeches and then waded into the crowds, tossing around nicknames, posing for snapshots and generally enjoying himself. Some of the pictures of the President campaigning in Lancaster were so compelling that they ended up on the front of literature being distributed throughout the state. Kerry's stop in Lancaster a few weeks later, by comparison, was a lifeless affair. He gave no speech. He just walked along a rope line for a few minutes, shook some hands and then hopped back on the bus. Even Kerry's "impromptu stops" are choreographed so precisely that the spontaneity is squeezed out of them. Perhaps worst of all, Kerry seems to be trying too hard. Almost weekly, he is photographed shooting a gun, in an attempt to counter the concerns of rural male voters about past Democratic support for gun control. But images of Kerry shooting skeet in a button-down shirt do about as much for his man-of-the-people image as those pictures of him windsurfing off Nantucket. According to Bush media strategist Mark McKinnon, "People see Kerry as a big-city Northeastern senator who has no clue about rural voters." McKinnon has told reporters that in focus-group sessions the Bush campaign organized, "We asked voters, 'How many of you can imagine George Bush filling up his own car at the gas station?' Half the respondents said they could see that happening. We asked them the same about Kerry. Not a single person thought they could see John Kerry filling up his car.....
So is Kerry finished in the Upper Midwest? Not necessarily. But he doesn't have much time. Democrats across the region have plenty of advice, starting with "Let loose." "He should just get rid of the prepared speeches and the prepared answers and speak from the heart," says Sarah Farkas. "He shouldn't stop and think about how to answer every little question. He should just answer directly, bluntly." Asks Elfi Baltes, "Why is Kerry not listing the terrible things that Bush has done in Iraq, the terrible mistakes this Administration has made?" Her friend Claire Hall, who lives on a farm outside Wabasha, adds, "People are very discouraged about the war. There are a lot of military families out here. There's a lot of National Guard families. People don't know when their husbands and sons and wives and sisters are coming home. They're worried sick. They want to hear Kerry talk about the war a lot more." Organizer Amanda Ballantyne says people need to hear more economic populism in Kerry's speeches. "I feel like people are desperate to hear Kerry talking about taking their side--on farm issues, manufacturing issues, yes, but just in general. People just want to be thrown a bone--so they're confident that their issues will be addressed. I don't think it takes that much, but it's more than they've gotten from Kerry so far."
much more here:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20041011&c=1&s=nicholsI tried to tell everyone that economic populism was on its way back, but no one listened. And the only economic populist candidates we had in the primary were Kucinich (who seemed determined to flaunt his weirdness before the media) and Sharpton (who has basically been proven to be a crook already).
We did have Edwards, who has disappeared so far, but why?
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