LAT: Kerry Firing Away at Bush's Reputation as Straight Shooter

[DeepModem Mom]

Kerry Firing Away at Bush's Reputation as Straight Shooter
Analysts say that all but calling the president a liar risks scrutiny of his reputation for wavering.

By Mark Z. Barabak, Times Staff Writer


After months of attacking President Bush's policies, Sen. John F. Kerry is stepping up an assault on his rival's character, challenging Bush's credibility on everything from job creation to the war in Iraq....

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His strategy is risky. By challenging Bush's truthfulness, the presumptive Democratic nominee invites scrutiny of his reputation for vacillation and seemingly contradictory stands, such as backing the president's decision on whether to go to war with Iraq but against continued funding for military operations and the country's reconstruction....

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But the reward for Kerry also is potentially significant, as the Massachusetts senator aims at one of Bush's biggest political strengths: his image as a leader who talks straight and is resolute in his positions....

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Recent opinion polls showed not just a decline in Bush's job approval and performance ratings, but also growing doubts about his veracity and character. A Los Angeles Times survey conducted in late March, found that 47% of the 1,616 people interviewed believed Bush had the honesty and integrity to be president, down from 56% who described Bush as honest and trustworthy in a survey in November.

(The article adds that "among independents...the percentage of respondents who described Bush as honest fell from 54% in November to 43% in the most recent Times Poll.")


http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-credibility15apr15,1,2933328.story?coll=la-home-politics

[JaySherman]

1. *POW!* *POW!* *POW!*

Get 'em, John!

:yourock:

[Birthmark]

2. THAT is the winning issue.

Bush's credibility is zero among those who follow his statements closely. Kerry can only gain by attacking the lack of credibility in this Administration. Kerry "invites scrutiny of his reputation for vacillation and seemingly contradictory stands?" So what? If no one believes Bush on other issues, why would they trust him on Kerry's record?

[Catfight]

9. Excellent point...so Kerry needs to shoot back regarding the lies

about his raising taxes...more and more....and he needs to keep shooting away that Bush didn't make one bit of sense answering questions, and he avoided the Cheney/Bush holding hands question altogether. Straight talk? Kerry should ask anyone who understood Bush's straight talk to please explain what Bush meant with that answer? Hell, I'll vote for Bush if someone can answer why he and Cheney need to talk to the 9/11 commission together when they specifically asked to talk to them apart?

[ClintonTyree]

3. This..............

is going to be one VERY ugly race for the Presidency. I don't think we've ever seen anything like what's going to tanspire in the coming months. Hold on to your hats and fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be an e-ticket ride.

[Veggie Meathead]

4. Who among the mediawhores manufactured this socalled

reputation for Bush as a straightshooter?You would think that his endless lying about everything from WMD's, to Saddam's AlQaeda connections to statements on the economy would all but guarantee that he is anything but a straightshooter. But who am I to say when the
millionaire pundit knowitalls have pronounced the guy is a straightshooter?

[Bozvotros]

7. Give that man a cee-gar

You are exactly right. Bush has been nothing if not a lying, dissembling, babbling SOS who has never had the slightest interest in shooting straight or even who dies because of his errant shots. His reputation of a just-plain-folk-Texas-cowboy-Christian-comfortable-in-his-own-skin, terrorist-slaying-warrior is pure manufactured hokum.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. He's a man of Jesus- knows in his heart he's right...

blah blah blah... it works after a while. Incompetence is excused for honesty.
BTW welcome to DU. Love your ironic handle.

[paulk]

15. I think the "born again" thing is a big part of it

I've lived next door to a Fundamentalist Church for many years now - and the one thing I've come to understand about the mind set is that many of them use their religion as an excuse for their personal failings. Like, "I may be a complete asshole, but since I'm born again, that's OK".

When they look at Bush, they're looking in a mirror. It's very hard for them to admit that he's not what he says he is because then they would have to realize the same is true about themselves.

[Maeve]

10. A lot of people don't recognize a con job when they see it

A good con man LOOKS honest, seems to talk straight, like he really believes the hokum he's selling. And mixes enough truth to allow the marks to swallow the lie.

Incurious George comes across as meaning what he says--never mind that it's not really what he said last time; he's convinced that it is and that's what suckers the marks.

[rocktivity]

11. DING DING DING! Veggie and Bozvotros, your're our grand prize winners!

The mainstream media manufactured Bush's "honesty" just as surely as they manufacutered Kerry's "vacillation." They would do far better to worried about their OWN credibility!

:headbang:
rocknation

[dusty64]

5. I like it, but it

also needs to be coupled with a contrast. Kerry has to present a positive agenda while at the same time defining himself and telling the truth about his opponents. The rightwing has attempted to define him and unfortunately that vast amount of $$$ they've spent on their smear campaign has had an effect. I really wish he would pick a VP candidate quickly to help him counter the rethug slander machine.

[Flubadubya]

6. What good does any of this do?

More power to Kerry for speaking truth to power. However, I hardly EVER see the media covering John Kerry or mentioning anything he has to say. I swear, I watch CNN and the network news channels fairly regularly, but I hardly EVER see John Kerry or his message being discussed. I'd say maybe once or twice a day at the most, sometimes less.

John Kerry is being kaboshed by the media big time! :grr: :mad:

[rocktivity]

12. PUFF PIECE ALERT!!!

A cleverly crafted puff piece, but a puff piece just the same, pretending concern for Kerry's "reputation" while painting him as the evil-doing villian about to pounce on poor innocent Georgie.

Risky? It would be risky of Kerry NOT to use this approach. But if he wants to hit his own trifecta, he has to challenge Bush's credibility, character, AND competence. He has to show that the three are intertwined.

:puffpiece:
rocknation

[snippy]

13. Bush needs to be ridiculed for his compulsive and incessant lying.

Bush is the most compulsive and incessant liar in the history of American politics.


Bush claims that John McCain has an illegitimate Negro daughter and the yawning boy was not there and was not yawning and besides he was standing some place else and Richard Clarke had complete access to Bush and Rice which proves that Clarke was out of the loop which is Clinton's fault which means that unnamed White House sources may be identified whenever Bush wishes even though everyone except Bush himself knows where he was during his Alabama National Guard service which was after he volunteered to go to Viet Nam but before he was no longer required to take a flight physical and about the same time that God ordered Bush to smite Saddam which is Clinton's fault because the 60 lines of embryonic stem cells amd more arsenic in the water and more mercury in the air prove that republican science is better than sound science but the Bush administration did not illegally conspire to illegally reveal the identity of a covert CIA operative which resulted in 2,000,000 new jobs being created because democrats support terrorism and are not good Americans just as the Jews were not good Germans and the White House is cooperating with the 9/11 commission which is why the White House withheld documents and called the republicans on the commission before Clarke testified since the dental xrays prove that Bush spoke with the CIA director everyday and did not ignore either the repeated warnings of the dangers of al Qaeda and Osama or the August 2001 intelligence briefing specifically warning of the upcoming 9/11 attacks because the United States is a nation with a mission and that mission is to bring freedom to every single person in the world which will cut the deficit in half if you do not count those parts of the deficit which will increase under Bush which is Clinton's fault but the boxes from China were labeled "Made in USA" which resulted in 2,600,000 new jobs being created even though the $400 billion decorative medicare turkey was not labeled $550 billion and was passed without bribery or criminal deception which proves that government spending under Bush has gone down if you do not count the increased government spending under Bush which is Clinton's fault and Bush's plane to Baghdad was spotted because before Saddam bought the uranium and became an urgent but not an imminent threat which is Clinton's fault Bush had no plans on his desk to invade Iraq since the invasion was not planned before Bush took office even though it was the subject of Bush's first national security council meeting and the aircraft carrier was too far offshore for the Navy to make a large enough "Mission Accomplished" banner to describe the WMD we have found in Iraq some of which Saddam was giving to Osama for following Saddam's plans and using Iraqi hijackers on 9/11 which is Clinton's fault but everyone who pays income taxes got a tax cut which created 3,000,000 new jobs and allowed Iraqi oil revenue to pay for the cost of the reconstruction of Iraq after the invasion by a small number of troops who would be greeted with floral program related activities except for the dead and wounded troops who are being brought home secretly which is Clinton's fault since Bush is the one who hugs the mothers and the widows and the wives and the kids and that is why Bush who will use the jawbone of an ass to force OPEC to open the spigots and who is responsible for good economic numbers but not bad economic numbers which is Clinton's fault wrote the poem that he did not write blaming Laura for dropping the dog.

There is no subject so somber, serious, or shallow that Bush will not lie about it. The only other option is not to lie. And that apparently is something Bush can not do.

FIRE THE LIAR

[Design8edGrouch]

14. Bush with a Pinocchio nose. Just a thought

LBJ's administration was brought down with a chant:
"Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today"

People should start to chant:
"Bush! Bush! Hey, hey, how many LIES did you tell today."

Could it possibly work twice?