WP: Kerry as a Rich Target

[kskiska]

Republicans Portray Challenger As Out of Touch With Most Voters

Saturday, April 24, 2004; Page A01

When Democrat John F. Kerry talks about gun control, he reminds his audiences that he is "a lifelong hunter and gun owner," just like millions of other Americans.

The other day, when Teresa Heinz Kerry she sat down with a gossip columnist for the New York Post, she fretted about the way her hair frizzes in the humidity and noted ruefully how she has gained 10 pounds on the campaign trail from the temptations of "quick snacks and junk food." Surely people everywhere could relate to the struggle.

The Kerrys recently have been reminding people that they have hobbies and foibles that would be familiar in any American household. It is an apparent response to a sustained effort by Republicans to tell people that, in many other ways, the presumptive Democratic nominee and his wealthy, foreign-born wife have lives far removed from the experience, or even the imagination, of most voters.

This battle over cultural identities has become an important second front in the presidential race. President Bush's campaign scores Kerry daily on conventional issues: national security, taxes and a liberal voting record. Meanwhile, a variety of surrogates and outside groups are amplifying and broadening this attack by using humor, insult and innuendo to portray the Kerrys as exotic figures whose rich lifestyle and cosmopolitan values leave them unable to understand ordinary Americans.

(snip)

"It's a core part of their strategy; They're trying to pry him from the mainstream of the country," Democratic consultant Mandy Grunwald, who is not affiliated with the Kerry campaign, said of the Republican strategy. Cumulatively, she said, the wisecracks and insults are an effort to say "they want him to be snooty and aloof and effete: 'George Bush is a real guy and John Kerry isn't. John Kerry is a fop.' "

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37920-2004Apr23.html

[kskiska]

1. Kick!

:kick:

[pocoloco]

2. what's a "fop"?

[kskiska]

3. A fool – a vain, affected man

who pays too much attention to his appearance, according to the dictionary.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

4. It didn't work when JFK ran, either.

[Robbien]

5. This is moonie times campaign propaganda

Maybe you can get a discussion started in the GD2004 folder. This isn't interesting late breaking news IMO.

[SEpatriot]

6. Bush is a real guy....and I'm the King of Denmark

Bush is another lazy frat boy who couldn't make the grade at anything w/o Daddy and Karl the wonder jerk. Problem is, those are his redeeming qualities.

[saracat]

7. This makes me

want to foam at the mouth. It really gives me fits that these people can dare to paint Bush ,as opposed to Kerry as everyman. Bush is just as wealthy and never having really served, doesn't even "know" anyone that isn't rich. Talk about being able to relate to mainstream! Why is it the Dems don't go after the effete Bush background? The family is from Greenwich Conn, for God's sake!