I just don't think that Kerry will go for the jugular

[PlanetBev]

Contrary to popular belief, I think that Bush will bury him in the debates. Bush will come out with these folksy one-liners, Kerry will sit there like a yutz, and the press will fall over themselves to declare Bush's brilliant performance.

Please convince me otherwise, especially Massachusetts DU'ers.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

1. I think he will bury Bush

Bush can't deliver a line from a teleprompter-how is he going to beat a guy that is good on his feet?

[Ironpost]

5. and who is not afraid to fight for what he believes in.

John will crush him, I say

[unblock]

8. same way he "beat" gore

gore proved himself competent, likeable, coherent, lucid, charming, capable, sensible, full of good ideas, and good for america.

bush proved himself to be an embarassment who was lucky to string together vapid half-sentences.

and the press crowned bush the victor.


they'll do the same thing with kerry. kerry will unambiguously win, but the media will get their talking points from the rnc as usual, and once again, kerry will have "failed to accomplish what he needed to show" and bush will have "reassured america by his steady hand" or some such tripe.

[Strelnikov_]

46. And The Same Way Reagan Beat Carter

I remember back in '80' watching a debate between Carter and Reagan. I thought that Carter had decimated Reagan, providing clear, concise answers as compared to Reagan's platitudes and one liners.

I was shocked when after the debate, the 'liberal' media declared Reagan the overwhelming winner.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[olddem43]

10. I agree, Bush cannot talk without a script. He will just stutter

and stammer and look like a fool. He has such a shallow mind and that will become clear to anyone watching.

[Ironpost]

13. Thats only if there are debates.

[eaprez]

38. We already know his answer to every question...

...its the only line he can say...
"America is safer"

[lancdem]

2. I'm not from Mass.

but I have no doubt Kerry will perform well in the debates.

[mdmc]

3. caution

Kerry will act with caution.

[emulatorloo]

18. yes, the caution of a TOUGH PROSECUTOR

see my posts in this thread re Kerry's campaigning and debates.

[emulatorloo]

4. PLS READ THIS THEN : re Kerry - Weld Race, Debates

New York Times -Facing '96 Loss, Brawling Kerry Fought to Win
By KATE ZERNIKE

Published: February 7, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/07/politics/campaign/07KERR.html?ex=1090209600&en=a8b6ea73519a8a88&ei=5070&hp

<snip>
Others say that such arguments underestimate Mr. Kerry — again.

"Everyone smells blood in the water or a weakness when they go up against John Kerry," said Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr., son of the former House speaker, like Mr. Kerry a former lieutenant governor and now a public relations strategist here. "What people do not get is that nobody answers the later rounds better than John Kerry. All of a sudden he sees that people are underestimating and taking him for granted and he will spring on you. He's going to be so unrelenting that you're not going to know what hit you."

Mr. Weld agreed, in somewhat less effusive terms.

"When John was flat on his back and reporters were calling me from Iowa and New Hampshire to throw the last handful of dust on his grave, I said, `Wait a minute, I was five points up in September and I ended up losing by eight points,' " the former governor recalled in an interview. "This is a guy who can take a punch and who can overcome being behind, and those are important qualities."

<snip>

[Kahuna]

6. Yeah right. Thanks for the positive vibes, Miss Bevey.....

NOT!!!!! :eyes:

[PlanetBev]

17. Kahuna, maybe I'm just trying to steel myself for disappointment

I'm scared to death about November. I want to see Kerry slash, eviscerate, destroy and incinerate Bush. I want to see him come after Bush with a radial arm saw. I'd like to see Kerry hammer away at Bush with, "Bush is so divisive, he is tearing this country to pieces". I haven't quite seen that yet. I want to see some of that Howard Dean heart.

It think Kevin Phillips said it best, Republicans go for the jugular, Democrats go for the capilaries.

[emulatorloo]

22. People are giving you citations, and Kerry Savages Bush everyday

People are giving you citations that counter your opinion with history and fact.

Kerry is criticising Bush hard in speeches and interviews every day. He talked about Bush's divisiveness re FMA this week. He savaged him for his misuse of intelligence in run-up to Iraq war, and on and on and on. Visit Yahoonews some time.

[CEDEVLvg]

39. This Is One...

...of the primary problems with the liberal mentality - they don't know how to fight. That's why business is filled with Republicans, because they have that killer instinct. Education and the public sector are filled with Democrats.

[rock]

7. Gal, are you ever wrong

Convinced?

[greenbriar]

9. he better because they will

they will stop at nothing NOTHING to keep their oil control interest groups and payoffs

[emulatorloo]

11. Esquire Magazine - the Misunderestimation of John Kerry

The Misunderestimation of John Kerry
Beware of this man. He's won every race that he was supposed to lose.

by Charles P. Pierce | Jun 01 '04

full article reprinted at http://www.democrats.us/beta/forum/view_topic.php?id=1462&forum_id=12

snip

The pol's moment came in October. The two men had debated eight times—intense exercises in high politics as far removed from Jim Curley as Cicero is from the works of George M. Cohan. At the exhausted end of things, though, when the two men looked inside, it was Kerry who found his inner Skeffington. He spent with both hands. He pilloried Weld on kitchen-table issues like health care, and he hared across the state in a campaign frenzy while Weld stayed in the statehouse, trading bon mots with the press and looking more and more like a man who thought the job was just too damned much trouble. Kerry won going away and stayed in the Senate. For his part, Weld changed jobs, wives, and cities, wrote a couple of mystery novels, and disappeared from national politics as thoroughly as did the Whigs.

This is something else people should know about John Kerry: When you lose to him, he finishes you. Which is why it should have been a caution to the president when an anonymous Kerry advisor replied that if the White House were to go after Kerry on his divorce, or his wife's money, or some other area that Kerry deemed out of bounds, then "everything is on the table."

snip

[Cats Against Frist]

42. That was a really brilliant article -- thanks n/t

[Sporadicus]

12. I Get Impatient Too

but I hear reassuring statements that John Kerry knows the proper time to pounce on his opponents. I have to trust his political instincts in this matter.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

16. Attacking the messenger AGAIN, sunny5555?

:eyes:

[PlanetBev]

20. Thanks, Rose

I really like the Kerry/Edwards team. But I know what these cyborgs in the Republican party and the press are capable of. They are inhuman and would destroy this country before they'll reliquish power.

[greenbriar]

21. like you have been here long enough to know everyone

If I were you, I would watch how I address people

[gulliver]

15. I'm cautiously optimistic.

I think Kerry knows how to go for the jugular. For example, at the height of the 9/11 paranoia, when Tom DeLay was trashing other people's patriotism, Kerry had this to say:

"Let me be clear tonight to Senator Lott and to Tom DeLay: One of the lessons that I learned in Vietnam-a war they did not have to endure-and one of the basic vows of commitment that I made to myself, was that if I ever reached a position of responsibility, I would never stop asking questions that make a democracy strong," he told the audience of New Hampshire Democrats, whose startled murmurs quickly erupted into a standing ovation.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_01/03.11A.Kerry.Fires.p.htm

It was Kerry's finest hour, I think (at least in terms of speeches). Those were dark times, and there he was, standing up for free speech and smacking down the orcs.

Kerry will definitely be looking for a "There you go again" or "You're no Jack Kennedy" moment. So will Bush. It should be interesting. Kerry is probably waiting to see the whites of Bush's eyes.

[calico1]

23. This is what I think too.

I really think Kerry has gone over and studied the mistakes of the Gore campaign and knows what not to do. I do not think he is like Gore. Gore wanted to continue many of Clintons policies but without identifying himself with the "scandals" of the Clinton era. It was a constant tightrope act. Kerry does not have that problem. On the contrary, it is Bush who has to justify his policies and the decisions he has made. Kerry is also known for performing best when under the greatest pressure--which is a good thing. Bush was the challenger last time. This time he is an incumbent who has to defend and justify his 4 years in office. A lot of people didn't know him last time. We know him now. I think Kerry has everything planned out. Don't underestimate him. He is no weenie.

[readmylips]

19. First thing I want Kerry to do is....

to question his earpiece. Where is that connected to and to who.

I do believe, Kerry needs to practice his one liners of attack right to the soundbite and use common words. That is exactly what bush does.

[PlanetBev]

25. That's exactly what I think, Lips

Find a one-liner, and use it as a spike to hammer into Bush's skull. Something that will cause Bush to melt-down. He cannot take critcism and has a glass jaw, as we saw in his NAACP response.

[Hoping4Change]

32. readmylips, the Dems have to get in front of this earpiece

issue you mention. The have do what they just did with Bush plotting to use Cheney's drug addicted doctor as an excuse to drop the bastard. This earpiece issue has to be made more prominent.

They have to get everyone and their mother talking about this earpiece so the mediawhores have to comment on it.

[IronLionZion]

24. Prosecuting attorneys know a thing or two about debates

and it doesn't take much to make shrub look like an ass. Folksy one-liners don't work when you mispronounce words and stumble all over them like a drunken fool. Remember the "Fool me once"?

[calico1]

26. Yeah, might have been cute and endearing

to some people last time (not me!) but don't think he will get away with it this time.

[AP]

27. He went for the jugular in the primaries.

In fact it was the thing that he did better than anyone else, and at first I didn't like it, but then I realized that he was going to be able to do that to Bush.

[PlanetBev]

28. I really do hope all of you are right about Kerry

I read once that when Bush was a kid playing baseball, if he thought he was going to lose, he would try to make up new rules. If that didn't work, he would pick up his ball and bat and go home.

I'm not going to be content with Kerry just doing well during the debate. I want Bush humiliated, to slink home in absolute defeat.

[PlanetBev]

30. Hey, I'll take it one step further

On the morning of November 3rd, I want to hear screams of agony emanating from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[AP]

34. Is there a precedent for winning elections motivated mostly by revenge?

[AP]

33. Nastiness doesn't work against Bush. It makes Republicans like him more

and people in the middle feel defensive about him.

Remember 2000 when Gore crowded him on stage at that one debate? Remember how attacking his syntax and vocabulary worked in his favor?

There's a way to be beat him with an iron fist in a velvet glove, and I think that Kerry has the skills to do that.

[IronLionZion]

29. I hated him in the primaries

but now he can use those skills when it counts. I think its a brilliant strategy. Show very positive ads throughout the campaign while Bush shows negative ones. Then slaughter him in the debates.

Bush has nothing.

[drscm]

31. Kerry will only win if he, unlike Gore, immediately, decisively , and

unashamedly calls Bush on all his lies and is not the "nice guy" who understands poor Bush.

Bush's lies in the last debate were ignored by Gore AND the press.

Bush's lies will continue to be ignored by the press.

Therefore the only person left to call him on them is Kerry.

Bush is a megalomaniac who needs to be told the truth.

[Davis_X_Machina]

35. Kerry debated in prep school...

and at Yale, so there's no doubt he has the chops.

The question is, what will the press say.

Someone -- I think it was the Pew Center for the People and the Press -- did a follow-up on the 2000 Presidential debates.

People who watched the debates scored them a win for Gore by 60%-40%.

People who did not watch the debate, but watched the coverage of the debates, scored them a win for Bush, 60%-40%.

[eaprez]

36. Remember this bumper sticker....

....John Kerry
Bringing Complete Sentences Back to the White House

[merh]

37. Abbo gaar . . . Abu abu Garreffffffffff ....

I think * will crumble,

Aba daba daba daba daba Aba daba daba daba said the monkey to the press

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

40. As long as Kerry doesn't make the mistake of

rolling his eyes and engaging in big blustery sighs, Kerry will bury bush.

I don't see how anything else is possible. Seen bush speak lately? Seen Kerry speak?

[bossfish]

41. Exactly...

Don't sigh as if you feel sorry for Shrub or appear condescending.

Get pissed at the crap W spews and let those teeth show a little bit.

[JHBowden]

43. Kerry took down my man Howard Dean.

I wouldn't underestimate Kerry's ability to close out a campaign.

[MoonRiver]

44. Bush "bury" Kerry? LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!

Only in Rove's wet dreams!

[BarbaRosa]

45. My fear is

that if bush* manages to get four or five words, or even a coherent sentence out, the press will declare him victorious and go home.