What has hurt John Kerry the most?

[Dawgs]

What has hurt John Kerry the most?

- The Bush lies about John Kerry's record.
- The Swift Boat Liars.
- The talking point attacks(flip-flopper, raising taxes, etc..)
- John Kerry's likability.
- The fact that he is a Senator.

I would pick all of the above, but especially the Swift Boat Liars. Like it or not, most of America does not pay attention to politics. They only pick up on sound-bites and short media clips. For some reason the SBVT stuff has stuck with many people. Hopefully these people see the light soon.

I ask because I don't think many understand that it is about John Kerry at this point. I personally love the man. He was my pick well before the primaries.

Everyone knows about George Bush and his record. I just don't think any new ads about seven minutes and "The Pet Goat" will change anyones minds about Shrub. Most undecideds want to vote against him. They just want a good reason to vote for Kerry.

I do think John Kerry will win though. I just hope that we try to get "Going Upriver" on television after he does. I think it will energize America to get behind our newest President.

[against all enemies]

1. Stupid people

[NicRic]

18. Kick

Exactly, the mindless easily tricked into believing bush has a special connection with a "higher authority" ! A man of God who has no problem blanket bombing a country ,knowing inocent Iraqies would die by the hundreds. He talks to talk on religon ,however when it comes to acting like a true man of God ,he fails every test. Besides the fact that we should not elect our leaders based on religon ,since this country is made up of many differant religons .Our President is suppose to represent all of the people ,not just the ones that have the same religous beliefs he or she has ! Bush is nothing more then a corperate puppet ,that is raping our counry into a financial,and politicial nightmare. He and his corperate allies are laughing all the way to the bank,while makimg fools out of his supporters,someday all the facts will be out on just how corrupt this White House is and then perhaps the fools being fooled will realize just what happens when you pick your leader on religon instead of their record while in office !

[lefthandedskyhook]

23. Ignorance

Message to voters:

"Bush is banking on your Ignorance -- WISE UP"

[Bush was AWOL]

2. Tie-The Swifties and the fact that you can twist any Senators

votes into how you want them to appear.

[demokatgurrl]

3. Swift Boat Liars and media for letting them get away with it. n/t

[KittyWampus]

26. The Complicit, Unethical & Biased Media. Swift Smear Wasn't A Minus

IMO, the Swift Smear was seen as a smear and little more.

Heretical opinion here on DU granted, but I think that thw Swiftobat crap was highly over-rated considering overall damage it did to Kerry.

The only reason it had a SLIGHT negative effect was Kerry's ad blackout.

It was debunked and stupid enough at its core not to appeal to moderates.

People KNOW Viet Nam was fucked up, soldiers did crazy stuff and that Kerry was a whistleblower speaking out for his fellow soldiers.

They know Kerrry served honorably with distinction.

Only Wingnuts believe otherwise. And they'd believe anything negative about Kerry or any Democrat.

Swiftboat Vets did end up with backlash against GOP, IMO.

[noamnety]

4. Irresponsible media

If they'd been doing their job, reporting the truth and not allowing distortions by pundits to go unchallenged, Bush would be polling at 10%.

[sugus]

8. I think so

I agree with you.

[DenverDem]

16. The Media is not irresponsible, they are incredibly good at what they do.

The problem is, what their jobs are, as excellent corporate globalist media professionals, is to SPIN LIKE THE SOULESS MOFOS THEY ARE.

The media knows exactly what it is doing and is cynically doing it with a vengance. There is no media whore without sin in this treasonous intellectuall counter revolution and the most important cultural issue today is the consolidation of media mind control in the hands of corporate globalists.

Busting the media trusts is JOB ONE for the Kerry administration, and we who are giving him A MANDATE must hold him to this primary responsibility.

[teach1st]

5. I think Swift Boat has...

..hurt Kerry the worse, judging by the polls and my encounters with Bush supporters. The Swift Boat lies are easy to counter, but many Bush supporters don't hear the logic and truth.

[Harlan James]

6. Nothing

He is about to dump a sitting president, one that many consider to be a wartime CIC. John Kerry is right on schedule.

Attack advertising has about the lasting nutritional content of Wonder Bread. $200 million in Bush campaign generated slime and they're about to lose the presidency.

My faith in Democracy is undergoing a renewal today. We're going to win.

[Lilli]

7. Yup.

[libbygurl]

17. Amen! The Kerry Train is unstoppable at this point!

[madrchsod]

9. the whores in the news media.

they never told the truth untill the democratic sites and the overseas web newspapers told the truth. our media got their stories straight from karls mouth...

[Lefta Dissenter]

10. Lazy media

and lazy voters.

If anyone bothers to learn ANYTHING about Kerry, they can't help but support him.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. swift liars

they are despicable.

If this was a third world country, they would have murdered Kerry by now. Or one of his supporters would have murdered O'Neill.

[dolstein]

12. I think John Kerry has hurt himself the most

Let's look at the self-inflicted wounds:

1. He voted against $87 billion, and then gave Bush a huge gift in the form of a soundbyte ("I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it")

2. He used the phrase "sensitive war on terror". STUPID, STUPID, STUPID.

3. He used the phrase "Global Test." Doh!

4. He went against his own instincts and listened to the advisers who told him not to make a big deal out of the Swift Boat Veteran attacks.

The sad fact is that the most effective attacks by the Bush campaign are those that have used Kerry's words against him. And even after Kerry was on notice that the Bush campaign would not hestitate to take Kerry's words out of context, he continued to choose his words carelessly.

[Dawgs]

15. Wrong, wrong, wrong...

By your logic, Kerry shouldn't have said or done anything that could have been used against him. Maybe he should have voted like a Republican over the past twenty years. Then Bush couldn't have used it against him.

The media has taken Rove's spin on Kerry's words and used it, not Kerry.

I'm sorry, but that's just plain stupid to say it's Kerry's fault.

[dolstein]

24. You just can't handle the truth

My logic is that Kerry, either through carelessness or stupidity, has handed the Bush campaign several cringe worthy soundbytes on a silver platter, and the Bush campaign has run with them. You can't blame Republicans for taking advantage of Kerry's mistakes.

Of course I haven't said Kerry should have voted like a Republican. I just pointed out some major strategic blunders Kerry has made. Voting against the $87 billion was a good primary vote, but a lousy general election vote. And saying he would have voted for the authorization even if he knew there were no weapons up mass destruction simply defies reason. That vote and that remark have done more to blunt Kerry's attacks on the Bush Iraq policy than anything the Bush people could have thought up.

[Dawgs]

13. I didn't put media, cause..

I think the media has ran with all of these lies and non-stories. They are obviously the biggest problem. That fucking O'neil prick is on some talk show every damn day. He better never show his face in my town. This man attacks the vets and soldiers and he is paraded around like a hero.

[The Zanti Regent]

no, BRAINWASHED people

like my niece. She has a child, hubby left her, and she works at Wal, er WHORE MART. Bush's overtime termination hit her, but she says she's willing to sacrifice ANYTHING in the name of Jesus and she is voting straight Republican...

Everytime I try and talk about Kerry, she retorts he is the DEVIL. All she watches is Jesus TV. And every Sunday, she's in her ASSemblies of GAWD church getting more brainwashing of the Gawd helps those who help themselves variety

She barely makes ends meet now and has to beg for help from churches since under Welfare Reform, her 5 year lifetime limit has run out. Her daughter has been sick several times and Whore Mart gives her no health insurance, her co workers tell her to pray to Jesus and he will make her daughter well when she's sick.

If this isn't child abuse, I don't know what is.

Every day, the hatred I have for this stupid shit called Xtianity grows...

[Dawgs]

20. I agree with you about your niece, but Kerry is lost with those

people. I was mainly talking about the 10-15% of people that are looking for a reason to vote for Kerry and not Bush.

[AmerDem]

14. Media pushing the Swift Boat Liar's shit piece

far and away the biggest hurdle to Kerry this election. There was an upside in my opinion. I think many more now see the media as the corrupt corporate mouth piece they are. This along with people like Jon Stewart hitting them over and over will turn most people away from these whores in a hurry!

[RetroLounge]

19. WTF???

:wtf:

RL

[Paradise]

21. i have an opinion but the freepers won't get it out of me. sorry. :) n/t

[terrya]

22. I'm not sure how speculating on this is positive.

Sorry.

[Dawgs]

25. Why would you think I was a freeper?

Sorry, I guess I don't fit your high and mighty agenda of being positive all of the time. Get real people, it's just a fucking question.

[Pig_Latin_Lover]

27. The "flip-flopper" thing

Once Kerry is framed as a "flip-flopper", anything he says is suspect to scrutiny. Luckily for him and us, his performance in the debates made Bush look like the "flip-flopper" and Kerry as the guy who really has his head straight.

[Cocoa]

28. his money

fortunately, this is offset by a comparison to Bush.

Kerry has money but volunteered for Vietnam, and also he votes against his narrow class interests, both unlike Bush/Cheney.

[jefferson_dem]

29. The Shrimp Boat Liars / RW hate media cabal combo.

Sad to say. Those fucks will anguish in hell for that one.

[TheDonkey]

30. "It's the media, stupid!" Smearboats

#1 is the Media and their bush whoring, Kerry bashing.
#2 is the Smearboat campaign which of course without the media's help would have been ignored.

[GoSolar]

31. The media.

For not covering the real issues, and focusing on the WH-generated spin on meaningless issues.

[endnote]

32. Freepers.

[suegeo]

33. The conservatie media

The whore media kow-tows to the republicans and the corporations.

We need to burn our worse-than-useless news organizations down to the waterline and drive the bastards into the sea.

[snippy]

34. It might be the next Bush smear campaign of lies.

Bush will have at least one more smear campaign up his sleeve.

[napi21]

35. SVFT'S because it revived the 30 year old anger in some.

That anger will never go away. The entire country was angry and divided back then, and that anger didn't go away, it just lay dormant for 30 years. I don't think many younger people were affected one way or another, but the SVFT ads woke up the feelings of those who lived through it.

[THUNDER HANDS]

36. I'd say the shrapnel in his leg

but that's just me

[JCMach1]

37. what we knew all along-- Kerry's position on Iraq

IF he loses, that will be the reason.

[Weembo]

38. Trolls

'Nuf said