Innuendo and a wink as a political weapon....

[kentuck]

"Look, he's a Massachusetts liberal." So?? Why is that a political statement? Because it was planted as a seed and grew into a tree. It was never chopped down.

"I say what I mean and mean what I say." Interpretation: My opponent is wishy-washy and you cannot believer him. He is a "flip-flopper". How do you challenge such cloaked language?

"I believe in traditional family values." Meaning, that he is against gay marriage, abortion, and secular humanists in our schools. It is coded language that even the most ignorant and undeducated American understands. It is an all-encompassing message.

How do you counter such a strategy? They are not coming straight out and calling their opponent dirty names, but they may as well. It's there in innuendo and a wink.

[goclark]

1. We counter it by not playing into it

Kerry could have been from Black Bottom Mississippi and they would have still painted him as wishy washy, not Christian etgc.

We are the ones that keep buying into this mess by not being supportive of our candidates right or wrong!

[unblock]

2. not playing into it is surrendering

i agree wholeheartedly with you statement about the sad state of affairs regarding democratic loyalty. democrats need to temporarily downplay the notion that we can and should vote for the best candidate regardless of party. we all can achieve our collective and individual political goals best if we first focus on wresting power from the republicans. then we can start the inevitable bickering....

but in order to win elections, if the other guy is playing juvenile high school games, unfortunately, you MUST address this head on. now, that doesn't always mean you have to roll in the mud with him, sometimes you can simply take him to task for lowering the standard of debate. HOWEVER, democrats CONSISTENTLY misunderestimate the political power of an effective putdown or smear. remember such debate one-liners as "there you go again", "where's the beef" and "you're no jack kennedy"? what the hell do these things have to do with policy? nothing! but we remember them YEARS LATER, because they are genuinely effective, no matter how much we might intellectually wish it were not so.

what we must do is figure out just HOW to fight against these smears. we can have a lively debate on the tactics, but one way or another, we MUST fight back against these attacks.

[goclark]

3. Check my posts, I fight tooth and nail

[JohnnyRingo]

4. George Buxh is a right wing religeous wacko who wants to end the world.

...But when I say that I get only approving nods from the republican side.