I'll bet you a crisp dollar bill

[WilliamPitt]

...that Kerry knew this Chalabi shit was going to hit the fan, thanks to the intelligence contacts he enjoys through Rand Beers and Joe Wilson, among others.

"Why doesn't Kerry FIGHT!!!" has been the refrain, keened up and down this website. Turns out Kerry and the folks who work for him only had to wait patiently and then point. The facts speak for themselves, and are worth more than 10,000 commercials and $100 billion in campaign contributions.

Please make your crisp dollar bills payable to the Kerry for President Campaign.

[lazarus]

1. Interesting article on this subject

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1224063,00.html?=rss

"Whoever said that misfortunes come in threes must have had George Bush in mind these past few days. First the US president falls off his mountain bike and grazes his face. Then Michael Moore's anti-Bush movie gets the top prize at the Cannes film festival. And now, to cap a lousy weekend, it looks as if Bush is going to lose the election in November.

snip

Political professionals - Labour as well as Democrat - still shake their heads. Why has he not exploited Bush's setbacks in Iraq more ruthlessly, they ask? Why has he not focused his message more clearly? Again there are solid answers. Because Kerry is playing a softly-softly long game. Because Bush's record in Iraq is doing Kerry's job for him. Because it isn't smart to attack Bush too strongly now for fear of letting him play the patriotic card.
Much of the more militant anti-Bush opinion is frustrated by Kerry too. They want him to do a Michael Moore, to tear into Bush not just on Iraq but on the Middle East, on civil liberties, on inequality, on the environment and on the spiralling government deficit which the new book Colossus by Niall Ferguson (no Michael Moore he) identifies as the achilles heel of America's global role.
But Kerry is proving smarter than all these people think. Back in September 2001, Kerry was one of the Senate Democrats who supported his majority leader Tom Daschle in the hard but uninspiring decision to keep the party's head down on the war on terror. America's mood was such, they argued, that to attack Bush over Afghanistan, civil liberties or Iraq was to walk into the trap that Karl Rove, the president's strategist, was setting for the 2004 campaign. Rove's strategy was and is to present Bush as a strong and successful wartime leader. Daschle's wily response was to lie low. If the war on terror went brilliantly, Bush would win anyway. If it went badly, Daschle and Kerry were determined not to allow Bush to blame it on the Democrats.
It was a huge gamble. Yet if it looked craven in 2001, it begins to look a lot smarter today. As Bush began his fightback strategy on Iraq last night in Pennsylvania, opening a crucial phase of what the distinguished writer Elizabeth Drew this week rightly called America's "most consequential election in decades", it is Kerry, not Bush, who is now the man to beat."

[ewagner]

2. Maybe

but it is also likely that Kerry is "husbanding" his resources for the final push.

[Richardo]

3. Spot on, Will

"When your opponent is in a train wreck, just stay out of the way."

Or whatever that quote is.

[WilliamPitt]

5. "Never get in the way of a perfectly good train wreck."

So saith old-school Chicago politickers.

[Richardo]

8. Thanks - I knew it was more pithy and succinct than my version...

:D

[Padraig18]

12. Yessir!

Chicago ward yellow-dog Dem checking in! ;)

[No Mandate Here.]

4. I won't take the bet, but my Nascar friends say you get

just as good a view of all of the racers who crash and burn from the cheap seats as from the skyboxes.

I'll bet that same dollar that the people who are making the decisions as to what media and when are stringing their sellers along- just waiting for * to keep hitting the wall. They are looking for skid marks all over the track, and they are getting them. Sheet metal flying high!

[Catholic Sensation]

6. NO IT WAS PURE COINCIDENCE, KERRY DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO CAMPAIGN!

</lunatic fringe of du>

Yeah, it's amazing to me that people on here totally ignore the fact that John Kerry has been kicking ass and taking names during campaign season for 20+ years. I wish some of these people would pull their heads out of their backsides so they'd stop talking out of their asses.

[MikeG]

7. My only complaint was the "I might pick a pro-lifer" shit.

[in_cog_ni_to]

9. If he did know,

he played it perfectly! Just let 'em hang themselves. Perfect.

[DinahMoeHum]

10. If true, this is sweet payback for the so-called "October Surprise"

that certain Republican elements were alleged to have pulled in 1980 re the Iran hostage crisis - burning Jimmy Carter in the process.

I always felt that the reason George HW Bush got cold feet in 1991, (end of Desert Storm) after instigating the Shiites in Iraq to revolt against Saddam was that he didn't want another ayatollah in power there - there was already one in neighboring Iran. Especially not after selling arms to Saddam and propping him up as a buffer against Iran. I still remember the unofficial slogan in the early 1980's: "Buy Iraqi War Bonds".

Well, well. Karma's a bitch, ain't it??


:kick:

BTW, I made a crisp check payable to the Kerry campaign last Saturday at a house party in my neighborhood, called the "Bash Bush Bash".

:kick::kick::kick:

[Beetwasher]

11. Yes, Kerry Knows EXACTLY What He's Doing

He's playing a practically perfect game so far.

What's also unbelievable to me is all these people going NUTS over the mere discussion of McCain as a running mate. This tactic is not just brilliant, it's fucking SUBLIME! Mind you, I'd be pissed if it actually happened (it NEVER will so I'm not worried!), but people just don't get that there is only upside to discussing it. The point is not whether or not he'll actually do it, because there's not a chance in hell he will. The point is that they created this awesome buzz that makes Kerry palatable to the most crucial voters in this election, the swing voters and disaffected moderate Repubs.

[smirkymonkey]

13. I called it months ago, not Chalabi in particular

but I knew he knew something that was keeping him from launching an aggressive campaign.

I still think he has (or knows of) another trick up his sleeve to counter the inevitable October Surprise. He is too savvy not to see that one coming.

I make my crisp dollar bills payable every month to his campaign.

[PurityOfEssence]

14. The fact that he's not fighting now is proof of his statesmanship

The idiot loudmouth on the playground was exciting to watch, and the fights were thrilling, but he eventually got the living snot kicked out of him. Every election cycle brings forth a new "non-politician" who takes no guff and says it like it is; the political highway is littered with their splayed corpses.

Napoleon said you should never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake. (At some point Kerry WILL have to interrupt Junior, since the mistakes are a constant and overlapping thing.)

Kerry has some restraint, poise and sang-froid to carry him through many treacherous situations, and this is why he's well suited to the job. (I must, once again, point out that Edwards is far and away the best of this year's crop as far as these traits go, but that's just 'cuz I'm an annoying kinda guy and I need a place to vent, since I'm avoiding the Clark partisan threads...)

[NewYorkerfromMass]

15. $100 billion in campaign contributions?

If Kerry now enjoys such an advantage, (were it possible), then Bush is officially toast.

[WilliamPitt]

16. No no no

That was a metaphor. Chalabi/Iran = $100 billion.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

19. O.K. I knew it was a joke

I just didn't make the connection to reality. (Your true inspiration)

[AP]

17. I think there's a risk that if Kerry fights too hard now and pounds Bush

down to 15% (which he could) the Republs will drop Bush and put a real candidate up against Kerry.

Kerry doesn't want that.

Better to hover, and wait until it's too late (after the Repubican convention) and then pound Bush.

[WilliamPitt]

20. Never happen

It's Bush.

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

18. Yes Right On Yes So everyone Be Patient

Too much talk about Kerry should do this or that, be patient He's fine