Dem surrogates failed to get "angry" meme across

[montana500]

Geeze , our dem surrogates on the tv didn't apear very disciplined after the second debate. Why wasnt the angry meme hamemred harder?

Maybe because it was the weekend, I guess. Just a little irked about it. We need to get Howard Dean out there talkin about Bush's anger.

[skooooo]

1. I have to agree.

[Larkspur]

2. Only Left wing Dems and their supporters get angry, didn't you get the

memo from the DLC? Repukes don't get angry because the Amurikan people listen to them and vote them into office.

[deckerd]

3. Unfortunately, a DLC member could have written what you just wrote

With no trace of irony. It is what they (and Shrum, and Cahill, and other crabbed campaign operatives without the courage of their convictions) sincerely believe.

Consider the fact that Manhattan -- whose problems we all know about -- and Boston -- a city of extreme wealth and poverty, stripped of its manufacturing base, stripped of social programs, stripped of money for schools and mass transit spent on a vast hole in the ground, stripped of rent control by Massachusetts voters -- are the strategic home base of the party elite and their highest paid strategists.

[RafterMan]

4. Dem surrogates have soft elbows

They look embarrassed and apologetic when they deliver a hit.

Here's what a TPM reader had to say after the VP debate:

"A note from TPM reader RW ...

If the Republican's were given the gift Dick Cheney gave the Democrats last night, Peggy Noonan would be on TV today wondering aloud why Dick Cheney felt compelled to lie about something so silly, and so easy to refute.

It's very odd, Peggy would muse... Peggy would then sweetly wonder if Dick Cheney wasn't a compulsive liar. She would detect a 'pattern' of lies stretching from his house days, to the Iraq hype, to the recent debate. She would then wonder if it wasn't a pathological problem.

Finally she would shrug and say 'I am not saying the Vice President definitely has a compulsive lying disorder, I'm just saying it's worth expert analysis.'

You can imagine the rest. A two week parade of experts mulling the possibility that Dick Cheney is a compulsive liar. Jokes on the radio and TV. Headlines about Cheney's 'illness'. etc.

Where is the Democratic Peggy Noonan?

Sounds right to me ..."


http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_03.php

[deckerd]

5. The absolute WORST example was when

John McLaughlin was on the verge of declaring the debate a WIN for Kerry,

and ELEANOR CLIFT cut him off to declare that the debate was a DRAW
(in response to Buchanan saying Bush won the debate).

McLaughlin was in the middle of comparing the debate to a bullfight, with Bush
"stomping around the stage angrily like a bull, and the impeccably dressed
bullfighter Kerry dancing around him" when Clift cut him off.

In other words, these cowardly Dems are PROUD of themselves for asserting that the debates were a draw, in counterpoint to Republicans proudly declaring their man to have won.

[RafterMan]

8. I saw that, too

Got to give props to McLaughlin though.

He was *hammering* Bush all morning.

[liberal N proud]

6. Guardian, only outlet talking about it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/markosmoulitsas/story/0,15139,1325454,00.html

The evolution of George Bush's persona over the past few weeks is startling for even the most casual observers. Only a short while ago, Bush was a strong, decisive leader and Kerry was a weak, flip-flopping Massachusetts liberal. The Bush campaign expected those images to carry them through the November election...

...If he cannot convince people to vote for him, he will have to convince people to vote against Kerry, and to do that he has to attack, attack, attack. And since it takes more skill than Bush possesses to attack without appearing angry, well, he's in a real bind.

Bush's political operation has conditioned the electorate to distrust "anger". It has made the charge a cornerstone of its smear effort against Democrats such as Dean and Gore. For a campaign that lives by the smear, it is poetic justice to see the tables turned. Furious George is here to stay.

[deckerd]

9. Furious George -- his super powers flow from his boundless rage!

[Snivi Yllom]

7. Howard Dean is great

all around. I still wish he was the candidate.

[NYCGirl]

10. Man, there was SO MUCH the DNC (and Kerry himself) could have

hammered W with after the last debate. Hope they've gotten over their shyness by tomorrow night!

Edited to add: Not to mention the opportunities Kerry missed during the debate!