What Is Wrong With Kerry?

[earthside]

:mad: RE: The "medals" controversy.

What is wrong with the Kerry campaign?

On ABC this morning his big defense was 'ribbons, medals, what's the difference?'

He's kidding, right?

Kerry is being pounded on every cable news channel, there is an article in every newspaper, it's a topic on every radio talk show. Bush is running new ads making him look soft on defense, Cheney is going to pound him this afternoon in a speech, and Kerry's sound bite of the day is 'ribbons, medals, what's the difference?"

Kerry, himself, needs to preempt every political lead story TODAY by saying something like, "I earned three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a Silver Star by fighting in combat for my country. George Bush and Dick Cheney never even got a scratch on their rear ends fighting for this country. How dare they or anyone else question the valor and patriotism of anyone who had the guts to serve in Vietnam."

And he needs to say it just that way! No polite, civil political rhetoric. JOHN KERRY needs to put them in their place ... TODAY.
:mad:

[demnan]

1. Yes

n/t

[JI7]

2. sorry, but that wasn't his big defense

he was very good in that interview. you make it sound as if he just blew it off with that line. he gave a really good explanation of how things were . was very strong and forceful also.

and he HAS talked about them NOT serving unlike he did. in that same interview he brought up how bush still hasn't shown what he was doing during that time.

[balanced]

27. But are the talk shows full of the Kerry response as regards

ribbons vs medals vs ... This is a defensive response. We'll see on Letterman, Leno tonight. I think they will go after this response big time. I may be wrong and hope I am.

[JI7]

30. it's not kerry's fault they don't do accurate reporting

you claim kerry isn't doing this or that when he DID. and now you say "but the talk shows" as if kerry has control over that.

[balanced]

39. My point is that Kerry and his people

should make sure there are no more screw ups out there. Obviously, he can't avoid every screw up. But his people should be aware of the things he has said and done in the past.

I think a standard reply for Kerry would be that Bush is afraid of the issues because his policies are wrong for America. Ergo, he tries to dig up dirt.

[JI7]

42. he did say that

he said bush can't run on anything so they attack him. he said this on gma interview.

[formernaderite]

44. I'm as ABB as the next person...truth is Kerry is not a great candidate...

....it does worry me, but at this point nothing can be changed. I'm basically keeping my fingers crossed. Have to say I'm a bit nostalgic for Howard Dean once again....oh well.

[RetroLounge]

3. Don't hold your breath...

EOM...

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Right Wing smear campaign, purely

And he will answer, I hope

Problem is, if and when he answers, will the Right Wing Media carry the response?

[tedzbear]

5. It's OK for him to be humble about being a hero, but...

...he needs to compare his willingness to risk his neck for his nation to what Bush did.
He must constantly point out that he's the hero and Bush was a battle dodger. That's his supreme selling point, and probably the reason most democrats voted for him.
Next to Clark, he was the only candidate who could make Bush's mock patriotism look phony.

[Nashyra]

8. New add by moveon

hits a home run go to their site and then come back and comment

[lindashaw]

6. What we're missing, I think, is that mesmerizing "in your face" retort

of Dean. Man, I really miss him today. Sorry.

[Cocoa]

9. you're missing it because you're not listening

it's pretty easy to determine that Kerry did in fact respond the way you are asking him to.

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) on Monday rejected questions over his claim to have thrown away his Navy medals in protest of the Vietnam War, contending they came from President Bush (news - web sites) and the GOP even though they "can't even answer whether or not he showed up for duty in the National Guard."

[ACK]

10. Thanks.

+

[jobycom]

22. Exactly. Bingo. Ditto, even.

One wonders if there is an attempt from somewhere to drive Democrats to despair with the inaccurate attacks on Kerry's "inadequate responses" around here lately. Because the attacks have been inaccurate in the extreme.

[sandnsea]

25. They just don't want to hear

That's all. They'd rather bash him for their own personal agendas. And then pat themselves on the back for supporting whoever their candidate is. Then cry for 4 more years if Bush gets elected. Or leave the country and let the rest of us live in the disaster that their own bullshit egotism helped create.

[Killarney]

33. exactly

[rangerfan]

7. Looks like we should have went with Dean.

At least the guy is feisty enough to put up a good fight unlike Kerry who has yet to score a point against the Bushies.

[JI7]

11. see post # 9

[movonne]

19. Wrong!!!!

[jobycom]

23. Yeah, Dean. The guy who came in third in Iowa.

And couldn't win a primary after that.

And don't go blaming the media coverage of the Scream, either. Dean finished third BEFORE the scream.

[sandnsea]

See post #25

Get your ego out of the way and maybe you'll be able to hear.

[slystone]

12. Same old same old...

Al Gore invented the Internet...

Kerry speaks out of both sides of his mouth...

Same trap - you spend too much time talking about how you present things instead of what you are presenting...

Will it work again?

[pezcore64]

13. well

i must say i brought this up MONTHS AGO during the primaries and was told to shut the crap up because he didnt throw medals but rather ribbons.

Told you guys it was medals.

Im starting to wonder if Kerry wants to loose. Maybe the whole DLC is coming down on him for Hillary '08. lol.

[Nashyra]

16. Kerry is my candidate

some told you to shut the crap up, why didn't you.

[pezcore64]

43. aw

there was no need to get personal.

i had forgotten we arent allowed to have opinions around here :(

[rangerfan]

18. You may be right.

The Kerry campaign may be sacrificed for the Hillary campaign in '08.

[July]

28. OK, I think the first person who suggested this was joking.

(That poster may want to confirm?)

I hope you don't actually believe this.

[Cocoa]

14. earth to earthside

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/8523344.htm?1c

Kerry told ABC: "The Republicans have spent $60 million in the last few weeks trying to attack me. And this comes from a president and a Republican Party that can't even answer whether or not he showed up for duty in the National Guard. I'm not going to stand for it."

[earthside]

29. "I'm not going to stand for it."

Well, that's nice.

But I'm sorry. If someone were attacking me in a way that involves my honor and honesty, I wouldn't just say I wasn't going to stand for it without using some passionate language.

This is about perception more than just about whether or not Kerry gets the words right. He needs to take the fight to the "enemy" ... that means really saying like it is ... Bush and Cheney were slackers during Vietnam. Rhetorically asking why Bush hasn't answered "whether he showed up for duty" doesn't make the attack ... Kerry needs to just say it --- "Bush behaved cowardly during Vietnam, he's behaving cowardly when he won't go to the 9/11 commission without Cheney, he behaved cowardly flying all around the copuntry on 9/11, etc." Come on, make the charge, go on the offense, make Bush defend himself.

I'm not trying to instill doubts about Kerry. I don't long for Dean. I just finished "Tour of Duty". Kerry has got the fight and spunk for this battle ... if the DLC, Lieberman, Daschle, "don't upset the establishment" crowds, don't turn Kerry into a nervous Nellie.

And that's why everybody needs to e-mail the Kerry campaign and tell them to, as Al Gore said AFTER the 2000 election, "Let it rip!"

[Cocoa]

38. he's doing exactly as you supposedly are demanding

but somehow I suspect that some people take this as bad news, something tells me that complaining is enjoyable to them.

[Snivi Yllom]

15. in the general public's eye, there is no difference , medal or ribbon

discarding either will be viewed badly

[Nashyra]

17. He had the medals and ribbons to throw

because HE WAS THERE!!!! The * was getting his teeth cleaned, the Repukes are going to get skewered eventually on this issue especially if Kerry picks Clark. See the new moveon add

[jobycom]

20. What ARE you talking about? Or listening to?

The top of the hour reports I've heard this morning quote him blasting Bush and Cheney, just as you say he should.

The big problem here is that the media defines Kerry by choosing whatever words they want out of his statements and playing them. It isn't what Kerry is saying, it is-- as we've been saying it would be since last year-- that the media is trying to undermine Kerry, and pimp Bush.

Every member of the Bush family runs dirty campaigns. As they did to Gore, and Ann Richards, and Clinton, and going back a bit, Yarborough (Texas senator), the Bushes have campaigned by lying about their candidate, getting him or her on the defensive, and turning them into a laughing stock. I remember posting a dozen times that the favorite Bush strategy is to take the strength of a candidate and turn it into a weakness, as they did with Gore. Even McCain.

That's what they are doing to Kerry, and the media will play along, just as they did with Gore. Kerry will not win by stomping on every brush fire they start. He will win like Clinton, or Gore, by painting the big picture: These are our ideas, they always work, and Bush's ideas have failed every time. All this parsing of his specific responses, or more accurately, to the media's specific choice soundbites of his answers, is just going to frustrate us.

Kerry is NOT being portrayed fairly by the media. Keep that in mind. What you hear isn't what he's saying, it's what the media has pulled out of his statements to embarrass him. Hang in there, don't let them define Kerry for you. Kerry will get serious after the conventions, when the race starts up.

Don't forget, both Gore and Clinton were way behind at this point in their races. Clinton was in third, behind Perot and Bush. Kerry is sitting pretty damn pretty for a big sweep, being as close as he is in the polls. Watch him work.

[dansolo]

21. Why doesn't Daschle speak out in Kerry's defense?

Daschle briefly awoke out of his stupor back when the debate about the Department of Homeland Security was going on, and passionately attacked the Republicans for suggesting that the Democrats were not interested in defending the U.S. It was a shame that he quickly backed away from his comments, but we need to not only emphasise Kerry's record, but also the record of the Democrats in general compared to the chickenhawk Republicans.

[Democat]

32. Few elected Democrats seem to attack Bush or support Kerry regularly

Contrast that to the fact that just aboout every elected Republican is ready to attack Kerry and defend Bush every day.

[Cocoa]

37. he's campaigning for himself

a very tough campaign to keep his own seat, with Bill Frist joining in against him.

[lovedems]

24. My husband and I have been channel surfing this morning and it really

is one negative story after another when it comes to Kerry and then fluff pieces when it comes to the chimp. On MSGPOP they had a Kerry spokesperson and he was clarifying that Kerry threw HIS RIBBONS and the MEDALS of other protesters who could not be there that day.

My response to all of this bullshit is that those ribbons or medals were Kerry's to do what he wanted with them. If he chose to throw them, big deal. He doesn't need medals to prove he was a hero, his actions prove that all by themselves.

This shouldn't even be a topic of discussion if you ask me.

[ngGale]

41. Surfed today myself and also...

agree with you. Negative media on cable every station. I'm thinking is this ribbon and metal thing all you have to throw? Because it's nothing, they are making a big attack and also making an impact on those who can't think for themselves. It's a smoke screen for Bush and that's all.

[balanced]

26. Hear, hear. Couldn't be more correct.

[mdguss]

31. No one watches Cable News:

Their ratings (when compared to local and broadcast news are pathetic). It's April, and he's just had 50 million of negative ads dumped on him. I'd say, considering, he's doing fine.

[PATRICK]

34. The center of the LAST wall

defending the fake pResident is exactly these news sources that protect such election stunning illusions such as : Saddam Hussein/Al Qaeda connection, the "reality" of WMD justification, Chimp's "valor" especially on 911, assorted lies about Dems. Sure the slant/silence of the major media does not exactly
Only the economy gets through to the huge percentage swelling in major foreign policy and the likable glorious Bush. And that is dangerously undirected.

Most of the world, including those that own the media and lie regularly to their own people, knew actually what the real score was and is with Bush. Our country by and large does not even know THAT simple fact.

The wall of ignorance must fall if we are to get back to reality. Cable news is the Alamo of this blind spot. It is so absolutely stupid to concede the field of propagandized ignorance when truth is so concretely obvious outside Rush Wonderland. Red states through limited newspapers and radio make it so controlled that the majority who tune in to weak tea truth on the "liberal" TV majors can gloss over unspun revelations of old news never reported.

Yet the insane gap between rational self interest, real "patriotism", the truth and the lies of conservative propaganda is growing to simply awesome proportions. In fact it seems quite beyond the point of comical absurdity or obvious insanity or even fanatical faith. You would not be surprised to see millions of them disappear overnight in some cosmic "Rupture", some nightmare dimension where their beliefs really exist.

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

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

[info being]

36. Remember, Kerry is there to allow Bush to win

One Skull & Bonesman lending a hand to another.

[Demoin04]

40. he needs to work on his delivery, the message is there but not clear

His statement should've been "I think the issue was much more than ribbons or medals" Kerry stated the obvious but smear artists love this. More cannon fodder for them.