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Edited on Mon Jan-10-05 02:15 AM by ginnyinWI
Many of us think John Kerry did extraordinarily well during his campaign. Whether you believe that he actually lost or was robbed of his win because of fraud, consider this:
1. Kerry and Edwards were two Dems who stayed very positive during the primaries. They were right to do so, because the ones who started bashing each other (Gephardt and Dean) lost support because of it. The Democratic base wanted Bush out, not in-party fighting. So when he won the primary, he was able to gather and unify a solid base of Democrats of all types.
2. Kerry/Edwards were able to use the internet wisely to raise money, run ads, and run a comprehensive website that was a source of information on issues. It had a lively, heavily-used blog that inspired people to join in the campaign. In one year, the K/E campaign raised almost as much money as the B/C campaign did in four years.
3. Before the convention Kerry gave speech after speech outlining his policies and solutions to the war, terrorism, the economy and other domestic issues, although they received little coverage other than on Cspan. They used the media as much as they could.
4. The Democratic National Convention was very unified, and offered the country an alternative to the negativity, fearmongering Republican party. Kerry showed himself to be smart, strong and committed to making America better.
5. Kerry/Edwards team came out fighting hard during the last two months especially. Nobody can say they all didn’t work as hard as they could, and were able to rally huge crowds wherever they went. This didn’t get enough coverage on TV, however.
What they were up against:
Despite being a totally incompetent president, Bush had a huge infrastructure to back him up. They mobilized a huge propaganda machine to try to win another term. As we so often see, it isn’t necessarily the one who is right who wins, but the one who is able to get a message out:
1. Rove had him campaigning since the 1st day he stepped into the WH.
2. The media was behind him and wanted him to stay in office.
a. they ignored Kerry/Edwards, so much so that even posters on this board would ask "where's Edwards" during the campaign.
b. they did not thoroughly discuss/refute allegations made against BushCo., including, but not limited to, lies about why the war in Iraq, Halliburton, AWOL, 9/11 pet goat fear, and especially the SwiftBoatVeterans for Truth smear.
c.BushCo. was able to use a lot of free air time and media coverage because he was president.
d.Three words: Conservative Talk Radio!
3. Dirty Tricks:
a.They blatantly violated federal law by campaigning on military bases (under the guise of pep rallies for the troops).
b.Willingness to lie continuously about how great Bush was—how he was steady and strong, and how Kerry was the opposite. They focused on painting him as the opposite of what they were saying Bush was. Of course this was just a “staw man” which had nothing to do with who Kerry actually was.
c.They used fear—fear of what Kerry would or wouldn’t do as president. Fear of terrorists. Fear of change. Bush said the words “September 11” every time he gave a speech, and repeated it over and over and over. We had anger on our side—anger at Bush and the state of our nation. But fear is a more powerful motivator than anger.
d.Religion: they co-opted Christianity as their own. And since people think in such black-and-white terms, that made Kerry the Un-Christian, despite him being a Roman Catholic! BushCo convinced everyone that the Left was going to ruin the country with liberal social standards—again using fear: fear of gays, fear of the left banning the Bible, etc. It didn’t matter that Kerry and Bush have the same policy toward gay marriage—again the black-and-white thinking. People think if Kerry is for something, then Bush is against it.
4. Most people acknowledge that the Democratic Party as a whole is in disarray, without a strong image in America, and without a clear message. Without a strong party's shoulders to stand on, any candidate has a much harder time letting the people know what he/she stands for. Kerry was always having to define his views, and try to counter negative stereotypes of what Democrats are and what they believe in. He was having to start from scratch, trying to teach people what he believed in because he was a Democrat.
Even with all this against them,look how the election turned out:
1. Kerry got more votes than any Democrat before him and did get the second biggest vote count in American history.
2. The 13 states that constituted the Old Confederacy supplied Bush with a 5 1/2 million vote margin. The other 37 states voted for Kerry by 2 1/2 million votes.
3. Kerry came within one state of taking down an incumbent President during war time after the worst attack on American soil ever. (Pearl Harbor was second in number of people who were wounded and who died.)
4. Kerry came within one state despite the conservative infrastructure that is in place to provide 24 hour a day bashing. The liberal infrastructure is a new work in progress that didn't (yet) approach the cons in size and influence.
5. Even today he still has a huge base of loyal followers. Once people “get” John Kerry, they stick with him, because it isn’t often you come across an honest politician who is also so intelligent, experienced, capable, and committed to America.
No campaign is perfectly run, and no candidates are perfect. But his loyal followers think they did very very well. The other side used the incumbency, the media, their organization, religion, and fear-mongering propaganda to their advantage. Even then, the race was very close. They also suppressed voters from voting and used biased state officials to swing votes their way. Many of us suspect that voting machines were hacked—and if that is so, Kerry was the winner, even with all that was against him. So to attack and bash a winner makes no sense at all. Either they almost pulled off a win despite great odds, or they actually did—and either way deserve a lot of credit. . Kerry did a tremendous job - he's a winner-- and folks need to realize how well he did.
Cheers!
:toast:
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