Closing Strategy: Advisers say Kerry to focus on trust--Boston Globe

[Gloria]

(Don't know if this was already posted...)

Read the whole article...comments by McCurry


http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/10/10/advisers_say_kerry_to_focus_on_trust/


CLOSING STRATEGY
Advisers say Kerry to focus on trust

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff | October 10, 2004

TIPTON, Iowa -- John F. Kerry walked up to a lectern set before an Iowa farm scene and, in a style reminiscent of his days as a prosecutor, read quotations from President Bush and top administration officials that Kerry said proved they had exaggerated the threat Iraq posed to the United States and then mismanaged the war.

One month before Americans headed to the polls, and back in the state where his political prospects were rejuvenated by a win in the Iowa caucuses, the Democratic nominee was offering a glimpse of the closing argument he hopes will sway voters to his side in the final days of his neck-and-neck race against Bush.

''Wrong judgment after wrong judgment after wrong judgment," Kerry said last Tuesday. ''Ladies and gentlemen, we need a president of the United States who's ready to level with the American people and up to the task of making America safer, and that's what I'm going to do."

SNIP

Advisers to Kerry say the main theme he intends to use to close his campaign until Nov. 2 is that he is a leader who will level with the American people and again make America respected and trusted in the world. In making that argument in speeches and television ads, Kerry will paint his opponent as a president with no plan for Iraq except ''more of the same." Kerry will also say that a second term would allow Bush to shift the balance of the Supreme Court in a more conservative direction, and expand upon the partisan legislation passed by the Republican-controlled Congress.

MORE