NationStates Jolt Archive

You know, the more I watch Kerry the more I realize that the Democrats really made their task more difficult than they should have.

He is damn near useless. He still hasn't been able to define himself outside of the smear campaign of the Shrub Attack Machine. As Jon Stewart put it after showing a clip of him defending himself in an interview "He actually looks more guilty telling the truth than Bush does when he's lying".

As it stands, I have come to the depressing realization that if he wins it will be only because people want Bush out no matter what - not because they actually like this guy.

Hell - at this point I'm almost wishing they'd chosen Sharpton. At least the fight would have been entertaining!

But no... it's one more clip after another of Kerry droning on and on in his dispassionate monotone. He has all the natural charisma of tree bark.

And what astounds me the most is that the Dems can't band together to put a more effective strategy in place. The only things to prick the protective veneer of GW have been the shenanigans of his own people, and moveon.org. The fact that the Democrats are not light years ahead of Bush in the polls is a product of their own ineffectiveness in this campaign to date.

If I have one hope, it is a pipe dream that they recognized that GW had the big war chest and this is part of a larger strategy. That they are biding their time waiting for a last minute blitz to take out their big guns rather than give him time to come up with effective counter strategies. And hoping that GW's attack messages are stale by then. A game of prodding him along to expend his energy now rather than as the race comes down to the wire.

But I'm not convinced that Kerry is that smart. I believe that he is decent and sincere. And I'll bet he wishes he could take back some of the more extreme views he held in his youth, but that was a product of the times - and passion is after all primarily the primary purview of youth. But he was in the public eye then and that made it part of his record. The fact that GW feels that his concurrent activities of alcohol drug abuse should be off the table is disingenuous. At least Kerry was working FOR something at the time rather than getting high and making easy money through Dad's connections.

I just wish Kerry would show some of that old fire pointed in a new direction.

And I condemn those whose attack strategies include denigrating him for marrying well. Should that make Laura Bush fair game as a gold digger too? The tactics to date have been more distasteful than I could have imagined. There are no issues - only personal vindictiveness.


In the end - I think this race is going to come down to "do you hate Bush enough to take a chance on the dull, skinny guy with a pole up his keyster."

The fact that I hope the answer is yes strikes even me as rather sad. The electorate deserves better options than both of these guys.


And I thought we had bad choices up here.....

I must say, Zep...that is about as accurate an analysis as I have ever seen from you. I won't necessarily hold my breath waiting for another like this one from you, obviously, but you have hit the nail right on its noggin.

Now you see why I have been sniping at Jean Francois Kerry. Not necessarily because of differences in party affiliations...nope, the dude simply doesn't inspire much beyond boredom. And somehow his math ability leaves a lot to be desired, given how he keeps making proposals that he ought to know can't and won't be funded solely by his proposal to effectively raise taxes on those making over $200k a year...quite simply, the money raised that way still wouldn't be enough to fund all the things he proposes, and that doesn't take into account the noxious effect on the economy such a raise would have. After all, it is those who make over $200k a year that run the businesses that hire those who make under $200k a year.

On the balance, good analysis, Zep.

If I lived in the US I'd probably have voted for Edwards - okay so maybe he was the very personification of cheesiness, but at least he's not so boring that he could get a job presenting "through the keyhole".

If I lived in the US I'd probably have voted for Edwards - okay so maybe he was the very personification of cheesiness, but at least he's not so boring that he could get a job presenting "through the keyhole".

I must say, Zep...that is about as accurate an analysis as I have ever seen from you. I won't necessarily hold my breath waiting for another like this one from you, obviously, but you have hit the nail right on its noggin.

Now you see why I have been sniping at Jean Francois Kerry. Not necessarily because of differences in party affiliations...nope, the dude simply doesn't inspire much beyond boredom. And somehow his math ability leaves a lot to be desired, given how he keeps making proposals that he ought to know can't and won't be funded solely by his proposal to effectively raise taxes on those making over $200k a year...quite simply, the money raised that way still wouldn't be enough to fund all the things he proposes, and that doesn't take into account the noxious effect on the economy such a raise would have. After all, it is those who make over $200k a year that run the businesses that hire those who make under $200k a year.

On the balance, good analysis, Zep.

Well, on balance I'd still vote Kerry over Bush. GW is just too smugly convinced in some divine inspiration, and making too damn many mistakes. He spends like a drunken sailor, and has embarked on a pattern of actions that I think are more threatening to the long-term security of the West than I could have imagined.

Most especially egregious is the systematic pattern of complete disregard for basic rights as are constantly being shown at Gitmo, in the torture of IRaqis, in the application of the Patriot Act, and in the handing off of captives to forign governments for questioning knowing full well what that will entail. All the while inventing special designations to avoid any sort of oversight by such groups as the Red Cross.

All actions that he would consider worth military retailiation should they be done to Americans - and rightly so.

His attack machine going to such low depths as to compromise an active CIA agent to punish her husband is reminiscent of mafia tactics. "You - dead! your family - dead!"

So I'd vote ineffective tree bark over self-righteous, arrogant, loose cannon any day of the week!

Incidentaly, I was discussing his interview with the Arab networks with a muslim person today, and you would think someone might have coached him better. Arabic is a far more direct language without some of the subtleties of English, and some of the translations will have done even more damage.

Case in point, he used the phrase "what Iraqi's must understand is..." in our common meaning which is that he hopes that they will understand. Unfortunately the only adequate translation of "must" comes across as an order. Which is to say that he came across as ramming his viewpoint down their throat by way of ordering them to see things his way.

An honest slip-up, but given the gravity of the situation it sounded like he hadn't bothered getting any coaching on how to convey his message in a culturally sensitive manner.

Not good.

-Z-

Zep does make some good points. But, a lot of teh ideas he implies applies to a lot of western democracies... They use smear campaigns for the most part...

i'm glad i'm not the only one who is holding my nose as i vote for Kerry. he was the worst possible choice for the Dems, with perhaps the exclusion of Hillary Clinton, yet they made yet another huge blunder. i didn't think they'd ever be able to make as big a mess of an election as they did in 2000, but once again they managed to pick a totally bland candidate with no identity other than "i'm not a Republican!"

losing to Bush Jr. the first time was an embarassment. maybe doing it a second time will be humiliating enough for the Democrats to get the freaking message. they're fumbling everything they've got, and people just aren't going to put up with it much longer. the only reason Kerry has a chance is because Dubya the Burning Shrub is such a ludicrous and miserable president...and anybody who owes their political success to Bush, however indirectly, is just a failure waiting to happen.

Zepp--I think you're being unnecessarily pessimistic.

This is May, still six months before the election. Nobody is going to run away with this any time soon. In fact, if you go back to the last time a Democratic candidate was challenging a Republican incumbent, you see the incumbent (Poppy Bush) leading Clinton 50-34. Kerry is neck and neck even after he's been largely off the air for the last 6 weeks and Bush has dropped $60 million into attack ads.

Also, Kerry just announced a $25 million ad buy for the month of May, and these aren't attack ads. You can see them at his website. They're largely biographical, meant to introduce himself to the people who haven't been paying attention--and trust me, they are legion in the US. There's a significant percentage who won't really pay attention until Halloween. And again, let me say that Kerry is still neck and neck.

Lastly, most of you who have been engaged in this conversation (for the last year it seems) know I'm no fan of Kerry either. He wasn't even in my top 4 of the Democratic candidates during the primary, and I'll be right there with you Bottle, holding my nose, voting, then running home to take a long hot shower. But I will vote for him, and then I'll be calling the progressives I've helped elect to Congress and I'll be getting them to hold Kerry's feet to the fire, because that's how you get change to happen.

Sharpton... :lol:

I must say, Zep...that is about as accurate an analysis as I have ever seen from you. I won't necessarily hold my breath waiting for another like this one from you, obviously, but you have hit the nail right on its noggin.

Now you see why I have been sniping at Jean Francois Kerry. Not necessarily because of differences in party affiliations...nope, the dude simply doesn't inspire much beyond boredom. And somehow his math ability leaves a lot to be desired, given how he keeps making proposals that he ought to know can't and won't be funded solely by his proposal to effectively raise taxes on those making over $200k a year...quite simply, the money raised that way still wouldn't be enough to fund all the things he proposes, and that doesn't take into account the noxious effect on the economy such a raise would have. After all, it is those who make over $200k a year that run the businesses that hire those who make under $200k a year.

On the balance, good analysis, Zep.

Don't forget that John Kerry's job only pays $150k a year. :P

Zepp--I think you're being unnecessarily pessimistic.

This is May, still six months before the election. Nobody is going to run away with this any time soon. In fact, if you go back to the last time a Democratic candidate was challenging a Republican incumbent, you see the incumbent (Poppy Bush) leading Clinton 50-34. Kerry is neck and neck even after he's been largely off the air for the last 6 weeks and Bush has dropped $60 million into attack ads.

Also, Kerry just announced a $25 million ad buy for the month of May, and these aren't attack ads. You can see them at his website. They're largely biographical, meant to introduce himself to the people who haven't been paying attention--and trust me, they are legion in the US. There's a significant percentage who won't really pay attention until Halloween. And again, let me say that Kerry is still neck and neck.

Lastly, most of you who have been engaged in this conversation (for the last year it seems) know I'm no fan of Kerry either. He wasn't even in my top 4 of the Democratic candidates during the primary, and I'll be right there with you Bottle, holding my nose, voting, then running home to take a long hot shower. But I will vote for him, and then I'll be calling the progressives I've helped elect to Congress and I'll be getting them to hold Kerry's feet to the fire, because that's how you get change to happen.

Oh, I'm hoping he'll still pull it off. "Damn near anyone except the Shrub in 04" is my motto. I'm just pointing to his incredible lacklustre efforts thus far, and his incredible lack of charm. He just seems to fumble the ball a lot verbally.

But let's face it. There are really only about 10% of the voters out there that matter. Somewhere near 40% will vote republican no matter what, and the same for the dems. Its is that 20% in the middle that tip the balance, so you need over half of them to get off their asses and go out and choose you over the other guy.

There are lots of reasons to vote against the Shrub. Kerry's just doing a piss-poor job of sweetening the pot by providing good reasons to vote for him.

-Z-