How can Kerry/Edwards keep from beating Bush/Cheney

[Southern Patriot]

like a red-headed stepchild?

Take Bush's explanation of why Iraq has gone to hell. He says that the "combat phase" went "too well" and the Iraqi troops just ran away.

If I employed someone who tried to give me such a line of crap excuse then it wouldn't be very long before a pink slip.

This explanation reminds me of a joke:
A guy calls his friend after his first parachute jump. Friend asks how the jump went. Guy says, "Well, it was great until I hit the ground. Parachute didn't open."

The Bushies want to say, "Hey, we did GREAT executing the combat operations but afterwards... things got a little sticky." Jeez, the "combat" never ended, ya morons. It just transformed into an insurgency supported by foreign terrorists.

Yeah, our plan was great--- until we "won."

Follow-through, executtion, forward planning and judicious use of power. The Bushies failed at ALL of them. But Kerry/Edwards just don't seem to be willing to beat them up one side and down the other with their incompetence.

I'm mystified.

[JuniorPlankton]

1. It reminds of a real story from my childhood

When I was young and played competitive chess, I used to memorize a lot of opening lines (sometimes without understanding the meaning of what was going on the chess board)
Once, after a loss, my coach asked me what happened. To which replied:
"My opponent made a wrong move. If he had made the right move, I would have won"

My only excuse is that I was 10 and wasn't the President of the US.

[KharmaTrain]

2. Turn Out...Turn Out...Turn Out...Turn Out...

Sorry...my mantra from now through Nov. 2...the party that gets it's people to the polls will win.

This has been an election played to the choirs...Kerry has spent as much time uniting the Democrats as reaching across to "swing voters" and Bunnypants "Fear On Tour 2004" campaign is strictly for his hive. They don't care about issues or having a plan for the future, this is all a big game of who has the most motivated base that will turn out and vote.

My concern is Democrats, especially those who've never been down to crunch time in an election campaign, don't realize how important will be to get our voters to the polls. Don't count on others...or a depressed Repugnican turn out...it's not gonna happen.

It's obvious now how inept this regime is and it's also clear there are at least 40% of those voting who ignore that record and will be there on Nov. 2 with their rose-colored blinders on. We need to match those votes and then some, and it's gonna take a lot of "hard work". If we stay true and work as hard as the GOOP will (and the church busses are warming in the parking lots as we speak) we could make some real noise on Nov. 2.