Focus on the base.

[Disturbed]

No point in wasting time, energy &/or money on the undecideads, swing voters, freeptards, bushmoonies etc.

In the remaining weeks the campaign should focus on Dems, Greens and anyone that is not Right Wing.

J. Kerry should request a meeting with al Sistani, a leader of the Sunnis and a leader of the Kurds and get the Iraq situation moving toward a solution. The bommbardment of Iraq is not only slaughter it is counter productive. I feel that a meeting with al Sistani would go a long way in solving the debacle of the Neo Fascist Onslaught of Death and Destruction.

[LoZoccolo]

1. The first sentence makes no sense.

Everyone who agrees with me, sign in.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. We must convert some Bush folks and swing the swingers.

The base is already energized & loyal.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and in the light of day these people (Cheney, Rove & their puppet Bush) and their policies (endless wars, destruction of the middle class, insincere pandering to fundamentalist Christians) will look just as repulsive and dangerous as they really are.

[Disturbed]

3. Uh...isn't the base...

anyone that isn't Right Wing?

Aren't there enough votes to assure a Kerry/Edwards victory if at least 85% of Dems and Greens actually vote for Kerry/Edwards?

[BlueEyedSon]

4. No. The country is split.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. Exactly.... The Base Is About Thirty Five To Forty Percent Of The

Electorate...

[DaveinMD]

5. Kerry

should continue to reach out to swing voters and at the same time work to mobilize his base. This is what national campaigns do and its what his campaign is doing.

[ncteechur]

6. we got the base--we need undecideds and nader folks

[WI_DEM]

7. I agree to a certain extent

Polls are tightening but it still appears that Bush's base is more solid than Kerry's. His supporters are voting FOR Bush according to nearly every poll, while Kerry's support is more a vote AGAINST Bush rather than a vote FOR Kerry. Maybe it's always that way when the incumbent is on ballot, but I'd like to see more Dems getting excited about the ticket. I think in this regard Kerry helped himself a great deal last Thursday.

[roseBudd]

8. I agree. I spend all my time canvassing African Americans, low income urba

whites and hip secular (but not rich and spoiled) youth.

I use the TWO-FACED graphic, show it to people and say Bush is a punk ass bitch. I am also flyering innercity utility poles with TWO-FACED. 50 a day.

Go to http://somnamblst.tripod.com to download high resolution TIF or PDF file to print and distribute everywhere. Utility poles, bus stops, bulletin boards, newspaper racks, car windshields, phone booths, etc. Guerilla marketers needed to create MAXIMUM BUZZ!

[secular_warrior]

10. We should always focus on the base and growing the base

The party's long term concern should be to energize and grow the base. Apolitical swing voters (not knowledgable moderates) are too fickle and it is impossible to know how to target them -- Rove is correct about this. The Dems got lulled into thinking it could always run a centrist message and win easily because Clinton did. But Clinton was a special case - people voted for the man and his dynamic personality, not the DLC message.

The Republicans have a larger base than us because Reagan tailored and targeted the conservative message. Their strategy wasn't simply to appeal to "everyone", but to gain a majority. When you have a strong base, you can get many of the moderates and apoliticals to vote for you based on the "peer pressure" effect alone (people want to vote for the party that is more popular). Look at the way Bush isn't even really trying to appeal to moderates and swing voters yet he is getting almost as many of them as Kerry is.