Kerry Has Been Ripping Bush Up For Months

[DrFunkenstein]

This is just the headlines at his website that attack Bush by name. The thinner months are devoted more to proposing an alternative vision of America's future. Not bad for someone who is "pacing" himself. Expect the barrage to begin in earnest this fall.

August 1, 2003 - Kerry Talks with Workers Struggling Under Bush Economy in NH

John Kerry Calls on Bush to Put National Security First, Break Stranglehold of Foreign Oil
July 29, 2003

July 28, 2003 - Kerry Urges Bush to Seek U.N. Support in Iraq
Democratic Candidate Questions if 'False Pride' is Delaying the Move

July 21, 2003 - Kerry rips Bush on national security issues
BY Mike Glover - Associated Press

July 17, 2003 - Kerry says credibility gap has opened between Bush rhetoric, actions
By Will Lester - Associated Press

July 17, 2003 - Kerry heats up attacks: Blasts Bush on homeland security
By Elisabeth J. Beardsley - Boston Herald

July 17 2003 - Kerry Says Bush Lacks Viable Security Plan
By Alan Feuer - New York Times

July 16, 2003 - Kerry: Bush's Failed Economic Policies Lead to Record Deficits;
Administration Needs To Scrap Economic Policy

July 16, 2003 - Kerry Says Bush Has Credibility Gap
By Will Lester - Associated Press Writer

July 13, 2003 - Kerry criticizes Bush record at La Raza
By April Castro - ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 11, 2003 - Kerry Raps Bush Policy on Postwar Iraq
By Dan Balz, Washington Post

July 10, 2003 - POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Kerry says money lacking behind Bush education rhetoric
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press

June 20, 2003 - Kerry says he'll filibuster Supreme Court nominees who do not support abortion rights

May 2, 2003 - Kerry says Bush economic plan ignores the country's needs
Boston Globe

April 15, 2003 - Kerry Faults VA Drug Policy
Washington, D.C.: States News Service

April 4, 2003 - Democratic Candidate Fires Back at DeLay, Republicans for Attacks over 'regime change' Comments
Washington, D.C.: Associated Press

March 18, 2003 - Kerry Proposes Homeland Security Plan to Make America Stronger and Safer
Washington, D.C.: Statement of Senator Kerry

March 17, 2003 - Senator John Kerry Responds to the President's Speech to the Nation
Washington, D.C.: Statement of Senator Kerry

March 14, 2003 - Kerry Blasts Bush on Iraq Effort
San Francisco, CA: Sacramento Bee

March 14, 2003 - Kerry Asks Bush Administration to Investigate Record High Gas Prices
Washington, D.C.: Kerry Campaign Press Release

March 13, 2003 - Bush 'Robbing Peter to Pay Paul,' Kerry Says
San Francisco, CA: The San Francisco Chronicle

March 7, 2003 - Kerry Asks Bush Again to Release Home Heating Oil Reserves
Hampton, NH: Associated Press

March 4, 2003 - Kerry Criticizes U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Deal
Washington, D.C.: Associated Press

February 28, 2003 - Back on Trail, Kerry Assails Bush Team
Anaheim, CA: Los Angeles Times

February 9, 2003 - Kerry Campaign Speech Blasts Bush Environmental Actions
Washington, D.C.: Los Angeles Times

January 28, 2003 - Kerry Responds to President Bush's State of the Union Address
Washington, D.C.: Statement of Senator Kerry

February 23, 2003 - Kerry Proposes 'Progressive Internationalism' As Alternative To 'Blustering' Bush Approach
Washington, D.C.: Cox News Service

January 19, 2003 - Stops in Iowa Focus on Bush's 'Failure'
Marion, IA: Des Moines Register

January 15, 2003 - Kerry Blasts Bush Effort to Undermine Diversity at Univ. of Michigan
Washington, D.C.: Statement of Senator Kerry

January 7, 2003 - Kerry Says Bush Plan Wrong for Our Workers, Wrong for Our Economy
Washington, D.C.: Statement of Senator Kerry

December 16, 2002 - Kerry Calls on Bush to Scrap Economic Proposals that Would Hurt Struggling Workers
Washington, D.C.: Kerry Campaign Press Release

December 11, 2002 - Kerry Says Trent Lott Should Step Aside As Majority Leader
Washington, D.C.: Statement of Senator John Kerry

http://www.johnkerry.com/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6841&security=1&news_iv_ctrl=-1

[ProfessorPlum]

1. "Expect the barrage to begin in earnest this fall"

I can't wait. Bush is going to be cryin' for his mommy when these guys get rolling.

[DrFunkenstein]

3. I Hope Dean and Kerry Try To Out-Hate Bush

Now that would make for quality TV.

I see Kerry as the Powell and Dean as the Rumsfeld. (Don't take that the wrong way!) Together, they could make a magnificent strike on the soon-to-be-ex-President.

Regime change begins at home!

[ProfessorPlum]

7. Dean as Rumsfeld

"Do I think that Bush has lied to us about everything except tax cuts? Heavens to betsy yes!"

"Has Bush proven he is fiscally reckless? I should say so!"

"Did Bush rush us into war with no evidence to back it up? Golly gee, he sure did!"

[DrFunkenstein]

11. LMAO!!!

The Bush administration is going to be running around henny-penny!

[RevolutionStartsNow]

13. HIlarious, Prof! And Kerry as Powell

"Bush is just a piece of trash waiting to be collected"

[RevolutionStartsNow]

14. (oops, posted twice. deleted one.)

[SGrande]

2. Its the same as Democrats thinking the Dems are timid

They've been attacking since the 2002 election, but the media won't cover them!

[ProfessorPlum]

4. that IS part of the problem, though

Democrats are not going to get a fair shake from the media. We need to learn that, accept it, and plan for it. We've got to figure out a way to use the media's bias for us - there are plenty of ways to trick them into giving you coverage, if you know their game. This is an additional hurdle that is built in to running as a Democrat. The hos will just lie down for Bush.

It's not insurmountable, but we can't expect them to be fair in their coverage. I expect Democrats to be both right in their positions, and effective enough to get their message out, even in this hostile media environment.

Edit: grammar

[SGrande]

5. I agree, the yelling and screaming works, but for how long

and how long till it all backfires and the Independents who dont even like to THINK about Politics before labor day, get pissed off?

Not a declaration, an honest question for a conversation...

[ProfessorPlum]

6. It's not all yelling and screaming,

but I appreciate the hyperbole. :) Just creating a scandal - saying the "unthinkable" about Bush can often get headlines and start real dialogues out there. You have to counter the fact that the press is going to be floundering for a script about you, too - they won't bother to learn anything about you themselves, so you have to be able to place information in such a way that they can't lazily pigeonhole you (at least as easily as they did with, for example, the stiff-spoiled rich kid-lying Mr. Gore). It's a tough game.

But really, played the right way, don't you think it would be possible to piss off Independents towards Bush? After all, you could do that and only use the truth!

[SGrande]

17. umm can you please translate that post...

[DrFunkenstein]

8. Dean Will Have To Soften And Play Up His "Pragmatic Centrism"

Kerry will already be assumed to be moderate because of his Iraq vote, and a few votes against the liberal grain. Kerry's "war hero" schtick will also take the edge off his liberalism.

Kerry will start from a position of stability and work off of Bush's incompetence and promise breaking. Dean be seen as unstable because of his fiery anti-war stance, and have to work towards stability.

There is no way that Dean can maintain this level of intensity. It would kinda be like that fascinatingly intense guy at the bar that keeps up at the same level all night until you wish he would go away or at least shut up for a little while.

[ProfessorPlum]

9. "If you aren't angry, you haven't been paying attention"

I think it's just a sign that Dean has really been paying attention. I have enough "fire" to keep me going through the campaign. Yeah, maybe it will wear thin. We'll see.

[DrFunkenstein]

12. The Problem Is Precisely That People Haven't Been Paying Attention

Dean makes perfect sense if you get your news off the web. But for people who watch the networks as their source of information have a very different view of the war. Many, if not most, are very concerned about the whole thing, but know very little details. For alot of them, Dean is coming out of (ahem) left field.

He's going to look like he has a second head to most of America if he keeps up the way he does. Maybe not in an anti-war state like Iowa, but in a great deal of the country, where they have flags flying up the wazoo, it's going to be a much harder sell. Although many had questions about the war, most are glad Saddam is gone (he did fly both planes into the WTC, after all). Dean is going to have to choose his battles more carefully as the anti-Bush.

[w4rma]

15. The war has gone poorly. I disagree that his position against the Iraq war

will be held against him. In fact, it is pretty obvious that his strong (and honest) position against the invasion of Iraq has helped to propel him to the top-tier of the Democratic candidates and quite probably the Democratic nomination. After that, it will be his strong grassroots network and his wiley campaign that wins him the Presidency.

Folks in the middle like Dean because he's a straight talker who tries to explain his position in the simplest terms that he can.

[DrFunkenstein]

16. That's Not My Argument

If people hold it against him, he's screwed. But I don't see that happening, especially given the total (easily predicted) fiasco.

My argument is that eventually Dean is going to have to tone down his schtick or he will come off as abrasive. Kerry, on the other hand, will need to turn the heat up a notch.

[ProfessorPlum]

18. That's right - I forgot about Saddam piloting the 9/11 planes

:) Dean destroyed the Bush position on the war tonight on Larry King. He said Bush said Saddam got uranium from Africa, this wasn't true (all right, so it is a paraphrase which encompases many of Bush's actual lies, while what * said in SOTU was not actually false), he went through a whole list of justifications that were given for the war, and said they all weren't true. Boom boom boom. In about a minute. And those justifications and the fact that they weren't true ARE things that people will remember from their cable news.

When Dean left, and the panel segment came on, Kay Bailey Hutchinson was reduced to claiming that Bush was really scared that Saddam would launch another 9/11 against us, despite all the intelligence to the contrary, and he wasn't going to have that. She was essentially apologizing for Smirk's bad judgement by saying he was scared and didn't rely on facts to make decisions.

THAT is how easily this war can be turned into an albatross around Smirky's neck, and Dean did it in the course of five minutes. It was exhilirating.

[SGrande]

19. Besides which Saadam was a secular leader

and secular do NOT = getting along with religious ones.

But we also found out later that the DIRECTOR of the CIA and the President of the United States lied to the American Public and Congress that the threat of nuclear war was imminent and present...

[DrFunkenstein]

20. The Greater Scandal Is How Bush Shut Out Colin Powell

If Bush had listened to Powell instead of Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, we would not be in Iraq now, and if we were we would have had a legitimate strategy to do what we set out to do.

Sadly, Powell compromised himself over and over to the point where I cannot trust him anymore. But in the beginning, he represented an actual voice of reason.

But I think the State Department shut out is a political goldmine, especially for Kerry.

[XanaDUer]

10. And Repukes for decades!

n/t.

[ryharrin]

21. Its very nice to see this Dean/Kerry lovefest.

I'm serious. Has hell frozen over Dean and Kerry supporters getting along? Sounds good to me. I'm a Dean supporter (I need a better way to say that, it always makes me think "athletic supporter"), but Kerry and Kucinich are right behind him.

[ProfessorPlum]

22. Some of us realize there is life after the primaries

No matter who wins we need each other here, and we know all of the bombs that are dropped by Kerry/Dean nutheads by heart, so there is no new information there.

Working out some of their key positions, discrepancies, inconsistencies, fudges, straddles, poses, etc., is an important part of the process, but in the end I'm just happy that we have such a good field of candidates.