GAFFE! BC04 accidentally emails their talking points to the press corps!

[oldhat]

What a gaffe!

http://www.tnr.com/blog/campaignjournal?pid=2155

BC'04 TALKING POINTS: Oops. Looks like an overeager Bush-Cheney campaign staffer sent the following out to the campaign's press list:


TO: BC'04 Surrogates
FROM: BC'04 Communication
RE: Talking Points



We will be sending more talking points later this evening, but the decisive line by Vice President Cheney during the debate was the following:

"So they, in effect, decided they would cast an anti-war vote, and they voted against the troops. Now, if they couldn't stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented, how can we expect them to standup to Al Qaeda?"

Supporting Materials:

Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) Said Kerry's Decision To Vote Against The Iraq Supplemental Was An Attempt "To Prove To Dean's Guys" That He Was "Not A Warmonger." "But Biden's bill had no chance of passing in a Republican-dominated Senate, and Kerry's absurdly abbreviated account of the matter--'I did vote for the eighty-seven billion before I voted against it'--has left him open to relentless Republican ridicule. Biden himself ultimately voted for the money, and he confirmed that Kerry's decision not to was 'tactical,' an attempt 'to prove to Dean's guys I'm not a warmonger.'" (Philip Gourevitch, "Damage Control," The New Yorker, 7/26/04)

**Please forward to all surrogate lists



It will be fun to watch which Bush surrogates obey these orders and repeat this line and which don't.

UPDATE: Bill Kristol just told his Fox News audience that Cheney's line about Dean was the best line of the night. A minute later on the same program Rich Lowry said, "And Bill is absolutely right about that Howard Dean line, which I thought was devastating." Talk about message discipline.

[oldhat]

1. Kick

[Democat]

2. If that's their "decisive" talking point, they are in deep trouble

Especially with Cheney getting nailed for so many lies told in the debate.

Kerry and the Democrats need to come out hard and talk about Cheney being a "liar" - that way, even the points he did score will seem to be false to the public.

[Mountainman]

3. Rommel, you magnificent bastard I read your book!

That line just entered my mind when reading your post

[oldhat]

4. Kick, this is hilarious! Watch the talkingpoints pecolate!

[AP]

5. Cutting out the middleman. Press was going to transcribe them anyway.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

6. ROFL!

A line about Howard Dean??? ROFL!

Hey guess what BC04? The friends I had over watching the debate didn't even UNDERSTAND all that. They were too busy getting blinded by Edwards' smile and warmth.

[gardenista]

7. This is EXACTLY what the B/C campaign manager said on CSPAN2

over and over and over and over. It was scary!

Interesting that they're bringing up Dean again!

[bloom]

8. hmmmm

:bounce:

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. One of the talking heads on MSNBC also chimed in

with the "best line of the night" mantra but I can't remember which one it was (I have been jumping around tonight).

[The_Casual_Observer]

10. This is the most confusing talking point I have ever seen

they need to bend over backward to make sense out of it.

[Lex]

11. I agree. Why are BC04 talking about Howard Dean? Confusing.

They are coming unglued over there at BC04 HQ.

[high density]

17. No kidding

Do any "undecided voters" even know who Howard Dean is or what he stands for? If they're this detached from the political process at this point, jeeze...

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. Confusing is OK for them. As long as you are not focusing on what a troll

Cheney is.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

13. I thought they emailed and faxed this stuff all the time. Yet somehow

this is the first time I've heard of the actual contents being disclosed.

[CityHall]

14. It was a good line

It was a good line, and probably prepared. It offsets the "outsourced" line from Kerry perhaps, but the media doesn't seem to like repeating their prepared lines, they try to dwell on the unscripted stuff. I wish Edwards had responded, maybe saying that B/C threatened to veto the bill if it was funded by rolling back the tax cut.

[Virginian]

15. Are they self destructing?

Cheney gets caught in lies in Debate,
Cheney sends people to Soros site for truth,
Talking points get sent to press.

This is just too good.

[Spiffarino]

16. Out-fricking standing

What is so revealing is how the RNC so shamelessly labels their surrogates in the media as...surrogates!

This settles once and for all the notion of a VRWC. It is alive and thriving. Now what I want to know is who is on the "surrogate" list.

This should be made extremely public and right now.

[txindy]

18. kick

[Kipepeo]

19. kick

:kick:

[Roland99]

20. The campaign is right in step with it this morning:

Email from Campaign Manager Ken Mehlman <[e-mail]>:

Quote:
"So they, in effect, decided they would cast an anti-war vote, and they voted against the troops. Now, if they couldn't stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented, how can we expect them to stand up to Al Qaeda?"

"I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session. The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight."


As for that 2nd quote, we now know Cheney was lying and the Bush campaign is still spreading that lie.

Edwards and Cheney met before at a National Prayer Breakfast and they were also both on Meet The Press back in April.