(Kerry must learn to keep it simple) NEWSWEEK - Good Kerry, Bad Kerry

[papau]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4846930/

Good Kerry, Bad Kerry

The flap over the medal-throwing Vietnam protest underscores how the candidate’s campaign remains ill-prepared for combat. When will it be ready for prime time?

Newsweek April 27 - This is a tale of two John Kerrys. The good John Kerry who can connect with a crowd as a compelling speaker. And the bad John Kerry who can turn a soundbite into a mouthful of gristle. The good Kerry speaks from his life’s experience without using the words “Senate foreign relations committee”. The bad Kerry speaks from a script like he’s clinging to a lifeboat. At back-to-back events in Washington last week, the two Kerrys were engaged in a Jekyll and Hyde struggle over the soul of the Democratic presidential candidate. It wasn’t clear who would be left standing in November—or whether his audience would forget the bad Kerry and simply remember the good alter ego. <snip>


His next stop was a far tougher audience of newspaper editors at a swanky downtown hotel. Kerry intended to bury the conventional wisdom that he had failed to explain clearly why he was running for president (other than to win the election). After Bush’s strong performance in recent polls, several analysts had suggested that Kerry needed to offer a positive and simple case for his own leadership. “So today, let me tell you why I’m running for president in specific terms,” Kerry replied.

Kerry was reading from a TelePrompTer, but trying to jazz up his delivery with a few improvisations. That’s where Bad Kerry slipped in. Almost every piece of embroidery, every unscripted word, undercut his bumper sticker message. For instance, Kerry’s prepared text carried two simple sentences: “We all know that we live in a dangerous world, with enemies known and unknown plotting and planning to do us harm. Osama bin Laden still has not been captured or killed.” But Bad Kerry couldn’t resist adding a couple of points between those two punchy lines: “I've served 20 years on the Foreign Relations Committee. I've been chairman of the narcotics/terrorism committee and involved in these issues for a lifetime.”

Kerry’s speech was based on the notion that it was 10 years since Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America”. The text suggested a cute follow-up, to repair what he suggested was the damage of the Republican revolution. Kerry was supposed to introduce a “Contract with America’s Middle Class.” By the time Bad Kerry had finished with it, the soundbite was this: “So today I want to lay out to you what I think is a fair contract with America's middle class and those who are seeking to join it, who aspire to be part of it.” You can see where Bad Kerry is coming from. He wants to be inclusive. But he also just blew his slogan and failed in the deceptively difficult task of keeping it simple. <snip>

[Maine-i-acs]

1. I am so glad I canceled that subscription.

Media whores all.

Time also sucked ass and I canceled them when they did a puff piece on John A.

US NWR is close behind after this week's deceptive cover photo.