Swift Boat 2. Will Kerry let the GOP define his Senate record for him?

[Armstead]

Here's an example of what is so frustrating aboiut the Kerry campaign.

It's well known that the GOP is going to come out hard against Kerry's Senate record. They already have been, but they are going to really go after it with hammer and tong. They are going to up with "Swift boat" equivalents about his senate performance.

Unfortunately, Kerry has NOT been defining his own Senate record first. His campaign has not even really responded to weeks of the GOP spreading the meme about "avoiding his Senate record of 20 years" in any meaningful way. Everytime it comes up with a Kerry surrogate, they just brush right past it.

Is Kerry going to wait until the begin this frontal assault, perhaps this week? If he does, then instead of portraying himself as an effective senator on HIS terms, he will merely be responding to the GOP's portrayal of him as ineffective and an ultra liberal.

[daa]

1. Probably

Serpent Head says he needs to do more and I agree. And where the hell is John Edwards????????????????????

[mazzarro]

2. That is the most frustrating thing about the Kerry-Edwards campaign

IMO the campaign is being run according to the playbook of the DLC which has arrogated to itself as being the savior of the Democratic party. I do not have much regard for the group no matter how much they make the unsubstantiated claim of electing/re-electing Bill Clinton. These DLC'ers have much at stake in wanting not to rile the moneyed interests that run the reThuglican party and that is going to be the bane of us rank-and-file Democrats.

[markus]

3. The DLC has never won a single election

Clinton did.

And Kerry is not Clinton.

What I'm really afraid of is Kerry being "consulted" to death in the way Mondale, Dukkakis and Gore were.

Clinton one because he listed to the consultants but knew where and why and how he was going to be President.

You can't wake up one morning and decide you should be President, and expect the consultants to do all your thinking for you.

If it comes down to too many bickering consultants, we lose.

In particular, the Clinton approach has been thoroughly co-opted by the GOP. That's why Mr. Bush is a Compassionate Conservative.

What we need to co-opt is the down-and-dirty, no-holds-barred use of surrogates to destroy Bush' reputation.

They don't expect us to go there, because we think we're too pure do do it.

We should be proving them wrong.

[DrFunkenstein]

4. Fighting Hard For Government Accountability For Nearly 20 Years

It really isn't all that hard. Kerry was a tireless fighter, leading several historic - and successful - efforts to keep the federal government accountable to the people.

[Armstead]

6. I know

But you'd never know it from the campaign. Kerry should have made his Senate service as much of a selling point as his Vietnam period.

Foir example, where Kerry really showed guts was investigating BCCI and the web of deceit and corruption and terrorist ties at a time when no one wanted him to "go there."

But unless he uses that on his terms, the GOP will have him spinning like a top to defend himself against spurious charges about his votes.

[DrFunkenstein]

7. Kerry's Investigations Were Crucial In Understanding Terrorist Funding

This should be one of the first things out of Kerry surrogate mouths.

[jmowreader]

5. A Senate record is a malleable thing

It's like "Clinton's tax increases." You remember how Clinton voted to increase taxes three thousand times in his 12 years in office--and then you found out that things like a one-dollar inprocessing fee levied on new state prison inmates were counted as new taxes.

Kerry knows what his best Senate work is, and hopefully he'll run on it.

But more hopefully, our side really needs to start attacking Bush's legislative record. No, not the fact that he didn't write any laws, ever--but the fact that the only good law Bush ever signed was the No-Call Registry.

If we can properly explain what NCLB, the terra laws, Medicare deform and a few other Bush legislative failures actually contain, we stand a damn good chance of catching him with his pants down.

The debate might go something like this:

Bush: "Since 1988, Senator Kerry has voted to cease production of the F/A-18 fighter, the Stealth bomber, the Tomahawk missile...all weapons vital to our prosecution of the war on terrorism."

Kerry: "Mr. President, I voted as I did mainly because your vice-president, while he was serving as your father's secretary of defense, asked me to. Now let's talk about your Medicare prescription benefit. Is there a reason why you asked Mrs. Eileen Jones, who is sitting in the audience tonight (camera focuses on Mrs. Jones), to pay $3600 out of her own pocket every year for the prescriptions she relies on? The bill you signed, and which both Senator Edwards and I voted against because it was wrong for America, pays nothing for the first $250 of your annual prescription cost, has a 25 percent deductible for the next $2000, then pays absolutely nothing on the next $2850. Mrs. Jones receives $12,000 per year in retirement pays, returns on her investments and gifts from her children. You ask her to spend over a quarter of her annual income--not to enjoy her retirement, not to have fun, but merely to stay alive. Mrs. Jones deserves better, and in the Kerry presidency she will receive better."

He can similarly dismantle Bush on No Child Left Behind--which should really be called "The George W. Bush Public School Elimination Act of 2002." In 2014, NCLB requires 100 percent of all students enrolled in a school to pass standardized tests.

But to wait until the debates is not good.

[bossfish]

8. I'd like him to go back to Iran-Contra, BCCI, etc.

Trying to chop down the money tree for the terrorists, etc.

And those two issues have the nice side benefit of Bush stink all over them.

[Armstead]

10. He needs to say why on his own

He can counter most GOP attacks. But it would be a lot more powerful if he started out bringing them up himself as strengths.

[kentuck]

9. Yes, if he responds to this ad, it will be from a defensive position...

I think an ad that showed him as head of the Senate Committee that investigated the BCCI scandal and mention George W Bush in the ad, as connected vicariously, perhaps not so, to the illegal money laundering operation.