what we did right and what we did wrong?

[pstokely]

?

[wurzel]

1. We did not express our policies in "moral" terms.

[ogsball]

5. Moral is a code word for

Anti Gay and Anti reproductive Choice.

Allowing the Gay marriage admenments on the ballots in so many states made a huge difference.

At the poll I worked there was an old lady, had to have been 80 with a walker, her daughter brought her to the poll. She just came to vote against gay marriage and was quite upset the Missouri didn't have it on the ballot.

[wurzel]

11. "Liberal" is also a "code" word. So is "patriotism".

How many words are we willing to concede to the Repukes?

[one_true_leroy]

2. my $.02

right: won all three debates. had a strong opposition movement. ran tough against war, recession, erosion of civil liberties

wrong: _did_not_repair_election_system_!!!! too nice re: AWOL, Plame.

[L84TEA]

3. I personally think for my area

It was encouraging dems to vote absentee.
I don't think that was a wise decision. I am not sure if the envelopes were even open. Also PESTERING.. and I am a true blue Dem, I would come home for the day and find 4-5 recordings on my answering machine, even weeks after I had already voted. They were targeting me...who has always voted dem. What a waste of time and effort. I know that people were sick of the constant prodding, and I know that is important yet... in our area Moveon would be canvasing and the next day Dems would be out. It was just to much...seems like a better way to lure ppl without being buggy? Anyone else???

sucks.

[NavajoRug]

4. The biggest blunder of this campaign . . .

. . . was that series of "trial balloon" stories that were leaked about Kerry courting McCain to be his running mate.

I sensed at the time that this would send a terrible message to the voting public -- that the Democrats thought they needed a Republican on the ticket to win the White House.

[thinkingwoman]

8. that, and...

letting Bush define Kerry for 6+ months

[Old and In the Way]

12. Do you think 1 Democrat didn't vote because of that?

May have peeled a few sane Republicans who could relate to Kerry considering it, but ultimately it was not a factor, IMHO.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. We did right

by contributing in any way we could. We did right by not retaliating when the Rethugs stole our signs, giving us the moral high ground. We did VERY RIGHT by joining together after the primaries were decided. This is something we need to continue doing, btw.

What we did wrong? We still let the Rethugs define us and our agenda. I think this can be remedied by having Democratic spokespeople (like our Congressional minority leaders, but also high profile folks like Howard Dean)speaking out when the Shrub tries to pull a fast one. If he asks for more money for the troops, for example, our guys should say, "Is this really going for the troops, or is it a contractor's givaway? The Democrats feel that all funding should be used to directly help our troops and not corporations", or something like that. We can get our message across even in the Rethug media if we have discipline. By this I mean EVERY Democratic guest commentator should be on point with the Democratic position when asked about it.

[Hamlette]

9. agree 100% We have let the GOP define who we are.

we need a heritage foundation to help us frame our "values", which are American values, to the world.

Then we need a fu*ker like atwater.

[pk_du]

14. right on with that one

too many wishy-washy and/or (ex)Dem "Strategist" invited to the usual suspects...that wanker Pat Caddell should be called out for the slimeball he is and regularly denounced by DNC as an ex-progressive bush-loving whore....so fuck you "fair and balanced"

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[TomClash]

10. Morality stuff was bull

the economy was not bad enough
the war does not affect enough people
we don't promote our ideas enough

[EarlG]

13. IMO, we didn't pay enough attention to THEIR strategy

Kerry ran a great campaign. Much better than Gore in 2000. We turned out a full 10% more voters this time - 55 million compared to 50 million in 2000. With Bush's approval ratings below 50% and the substantial "wrong direction" numbers, that should have been more than enough to win.

Unfortunately they turned out 20% more voters this time. They got 60 million. Completely under the radar. All of a sudden "moral issues" was the biggest concern for voters, not the economy, not the war, not terrorism. We were completely blindsided by the resurfacing of the "moral majority" - they played to their huge base of fundies, right under our noses, and we didn't even notice.

It wasn't Kerry's tactical campaign that was the problem - that was very good. It was the entire overarching strategy. Everyone was convinced that Iraq and terrorism would be the big issues, but Rove and crew knew something we didn't - and we didn't know about it until the whole thing was over.

[pk_du]

17. Earl - looking back , (and yes hindsight is 20/20)

The alarm bells should have been ringing in my head when I moved house and had to visit 5 churches earlier this year to find one that wasnt openly saying "vote for Bush".

2006/2008 - I dont think they can get the same response with "gay marriage" amendments but dont bet on it.

[Catt03]

15. I don't think the morality stuff was bull

From what I understand in listening to NPR, the Morals organized and focused. It was not only democrats who were voitng early, it was church sponsored and funddamentalists who voted ealy and via absentee.

Churchs played a very big role in this. Remember what Pat Robertson said 'God told him that George Bush was going to be reelected.'

And of course, Karl Rove is an evil genius

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

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[pk_du]

18. Dirt dont vote fuck-head