HA Ha, this week has been great. His new advisors are doing a great job getting Kerry to do what he needs to do. DealMonkey hit it on the head. Kerry has to sharpen and focus his message. His tendency to deviate has got him into trouble and allowed the Bush flip-flop attacks to stick. Really listening to him shows he's got a strong understanding of the issues and good ideas to fix them, but he has trouble distilling them down to something simple for the layman and soundbites.
Talking about something too much just leaves you open to misleading and out-of-context soundbites to use against you. Bush has used this effectively against Kerry so far. This is why Bush stays the policy of "don't say she-it" and when you have to, speak in vague, oversimplified and etherial terms to create the illusion of substance. Sad commentary on democracy, but its effective politically.
Notice that the "flip flop" charge is one a set of a few attacks Reps recycle against all
Dems. Early in the year we saw them all, and the flip-flop one was the one that stuck, hence is now the braindead everpresent mantra.
The main attacks I see:
1.) Indecision- "flip-flop," "waffles" (<-- Remember this one from Clinton-era?) "goverance by polls" etc
2.) Hates the Military/ &/or crime fighters; aka soft & weak: also against Clinton, Carter, Dukakis (he made that for himself, dumbass,) try to tie to Kerry, but not so effective
3.) Tax and spend: 80's Congress; tried Clinton; tried Kerry but Bush's deficits nuetralize this
4.) Radical ultra-Liberal: Everybody, try Kerry (goddamn NE liberal..,) but never really took off
All are used, but #1 is the only one that ever took hold, so it becomes the word of the day.
Dems have their own mind you. Each party tries to play the under-informed and politically unsophisticated for tools. So anytime I hear someone drooling one of these mantras, I know exactly what catagory to file them under.
Facebook
Twitter