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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (35304)	3/18/2004 11:30:09 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793664

THE NOTE - NEWS SUMMARY As John Kerry begins his own (semi-)private Idaho vacation, here are the mistakes his campaign has made of late, allowing an aggressive Bush-Cheney operation to win a series of news cycles, during this (ALL TOGETHER NOW!!!) critical period in defining John Kerry for America: 1. The "Crooks," "'I actually did vote for the $87 billion," and "more leaders" quotes, and the handling of their aftermath. 2. Still failing to present a coherent, unified message. 3. The failure of his campaign to successfully tape the original "leaders" quote and nip the matter in the bud. 4. Believing his own "bring it on" rhetoric and getting drawn into an extended debate on national security, just as he is leaving for vacation. 5. Failing to take a page from the Dean campaign in the fall of 2003 by not staying ahead of the story. 6. Having Dean serve as a surrogate on a media conference call on national security (a bizarro choice even before the Spanish comment). Dean couldn't even stay on his OWN message; what made them think he could stay on Kerry's? 7. Failing to instantly repudiate Dean's remark. 8. Buying a jockstrap in front of the press corps. Just weird. 9. Not more aggressively checking his instinct to equivocate and parse (see mistake 1), even if that equivocation might have some degree of intellectual soundness. 10. Waiting too long to put out Holbrooke, Richardson, and others to push back on the "leaders" quote. 11. Going off on vacation. It's unavoidable, and goodness knows Kerry deserves a break and that some of his verbal errors were probably owing to fatigue, but now might not be the best time, with the Iraq stuff swirling out there … .. 12. Failure to go back in time in a time machine and quit the Senate to run for governor or work in a business in the late '80s - thereby limiting all this votes 'n' quotes exposure. (Granted, this one would have been tougher to pull off than some of the others … .) 13. Not fully affecting the look and feel and stature of an actual, full-fledged general election standard bearer. 14. By making all these mistakes, squandering the Post -nomination window of attention and frittering away the momentum he had built up. Not to mention -- to a large extent overshadowing Spanish deaths, more killed in Iraq, the Medicare controversies, and other Bush problems about which more donkey hay probably could have been made. 14. Not fully realizing that by making all these mistakes, the door was opened for the Bush-Cheney campaign to get some of its mojo back, allowing it to get a much-needed shot of confidence -- for themselves and those skittish Hill allies.

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (35304)	3/18/2004 11:34:03 AM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793664

"After a terrorist attack by al-Qaida that left hundreds of their fellow countrymen dead, Spanish voters immediately voted to give the terrorists what they want – a socialist government that opposes America's war on terrorism. Al-Qaida has changed a government." Thats true but it was not necessarily the intent of the spanish voters. 90% were against iraq war and many spaniards thought they smelled a converup type event by the conservatives re: the blame on ETA. What should have happened is the elections should have been postponed for a week or two. If the election were held today perhaps the outcome would have been different. The Spanish people didnt have time to think consequences. After a couple of weeks of debates they may have. Mike

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (35304)	3/18/2004 1:32:36 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793664

The message came as a total shock to liberals who have been furiously insisting that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with al-Qaida. This is the second time today I read that ghastly logical fallacy and it's already gotten on my nerves. The original question about the connection between AQ and Iraq was whether Iraq had any responsibility for 9/11 in particular and Islamacist terrorism in general. Those who saw a weak or non-existant connection questioned the invasion of Iraq. Fast forward to 3/11. Iraqi responsibility for 9/11 etc. is no greater now than it was originally. If anything, it is less since the alleged WMD have not turned up. But we have a new connection between AQ and Iraq, one we created when we invaded them, "defiling" Arab lands. This new connection is the one that triggered AQ's action in Spain. This piece you posted does not distinguish type of connection. It just lumps the original connection, not of our making, with the connection we, ourselves, created, and then claims the "liberals" were wrong that there was no connection. LOL. Ghastly logic. But great for stirring the true believers.