One important thing missing from Kerry's talking points

[Goldmund]

...is that he should PRAISE the people of Spain for their bravery in voting out the Conservatives in the wake of the bombing, and not cowering by "rallying around the leader" who got them into the Iraq mess. He should commend the Spanish at least as intensely as the Republican attack dogs smear them.

I think one major thing is being missed by most Democrats: the Republicans are calling the Spanish "cowards" not merely because they're dismayed to lose one of the few allies in the Iraq war, but because they're drawing a thinly-veiled analogy with the US elections. It wouldn't fly to say "Voters who don't vote Bush in November are cowards", but the spanish-bashing is a "PC" equivalent of the same sentiment. If the Spaniards voting out the Conservatives is "a victory for the terrorists", then why would voting out Bush not be the same?

This is coordinated with the "Who do you think terrorists would want to win, Bush or Kerry?" and similar lines, as well as the "Kerry says foreign leaders suport him" (read: it would be a victory for the foreigners and a loss for Americans to elect Kerry) story. They're cooking up a propaganda strategy to paint Bush as the Americans' American candidate, and Kerry as a crony of the elitist, appeaser foreigners, whose election is in the interest of terrorists; they're trying to paint Kerry as the "foreign" candidate and his campaign as the arm of foreign pressure on the US, that it would be strong and patriotic of American people to not "bow" to this pressure, to resist it, and thus elect Bush.

I think that's how the "Kerry definition" phase of the campaign is planned out by these bastards. And Kerry needs to confront it head-on, and be consistent. If he thinks that Americans would be brave to elect him, then he must think the equivalent of the Spaniards, and he should say so.

[BurtWorm]

1. Bravo! I agree!

Time to think outside the box and speak outside of coventional "wisdom."

[Cocoa]

2. the most Kerry should do is

pledge cooperation with the new government in Spain.

I don't think any U.S. politician should comment too strongly about what voters in other countries do. It's a bit presumptuous, imo.

[Goldmund]

3. Of course it is.

But:

1) It's much less presumptious if it's in the form of a praise than scolding;
2) The GOP is using it as one of their major weapons against Kerry. THEY apparently don't think it's presumptous (of course not; they've worked for years to paint Europeans as stale old Aristocrats and us Americans are frontier pioneers, dusty, plain spoken and straight-shootin'; it's just an American version of totalitarian anti-intellectualism). Here we go again: while we liberals sit on our high ethical horse, the Republicans are doing a sneak-attack playing the game on their turf. We can't let that happen. And trust me, the Spanish people won't be offended if Kerry praised them for their wisdom and bravery.

[Earth_First]

4. Kudos!

this is exactly what I said earlier, however I was attacked as being a "freeper"

[Earth_First]

6. Although...

I disagree that we should be commenting on the outcome of other countries' democratically appointed elections.

[K-W]

5. Wrong message

Kerry's message should be that the people of Spain exercised thier democratic rights and chose a government to represent them. We should trust the Spanish people to handle thier own affairs and not jump to conclusions or critisize thier choices.

[Goldmund]

7. I agree on principle.

But see my post #3.

[eleny]

8. yeah. the bushies sure know how to win hearts and minds

[corporatewhore]

9. one kerry talking point is he thinks spain should not pull out

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1244282
why am i not suprised