Bush, Kerry media advisers speak at UA (Kerry lost election in Aug.)

[kskiska]

Both (Devine & McKinnon) agree GOP won Ohio vote due to Dems' missteps in campaign

Although the votes were counted in November, Sen. John Kerry probably lost the election in August.

``August was a black hole for us,'' said Tad Devine, who served as the Kerry campaign's chief media adviser.

He said for five weeks immediately following the Democratic convention, the Kerry camp made a calculated decision not to air any commercials, in part to conserve money for a major ad push in the last two months leading up to the general election.

``It was a mistake,'' Devine said on Friday.

(snip)

McKinnon said the aim of the Bush campaign strategy was to portray Kerry as a flip-flopper by attacking his 20-year career in the Senate.

``That's why you don't see many senators elected as president because they have long political records,'' McKinnon noted.

more…
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/living/community/10883892.htm?1c

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. thank you Terry McCauliffe

or however you spell his name. Bumping up the primary and convention schedule put us into a black hole.

Nice move dumbass, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

[VegasWolf]

33. Yes, and good riddance! Maybe Dr. Dean will have some balls.n/t

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. First of all, the primaries and convention should have been...

scheduled at a later date. Kerry should have wrapped up the primary season in June, not March. Second, the convention should have been one week later, therefore closing the gap between ours and the Republican's. Third, Kerry should have FOUGHT BACK the "Swiftboatvietnambabyraper/LIARS"! Kerry went "sailing" instead.

I want Wesley Clark in 2008! He's a REAL FIGHTER!!!

[Yupster]

12. The convention date was carefully chosen

The Democratic leadership picked their date first.

They thought it was brilliant because it left the Republicans only one week to have their's before the Olympics, and the expectation was they'd get some of their coverage drowned out by the pre-Olympis coverage.

The Republicans had no choice but to pick that date because if they waited until after the Olympics, they woud miss the deadlines for getting on the ballot in some states.

The Democratic date was no mistake. It was a carefully laid trap.

However, they didn't realize who they were dealing with. Rules and deadlines don't mean as much to Bush as it did to them.

Bush just shrugged and told his people to jump after the Olympics. What about the deadlines. Oh that would be worked out, and it was. Change a law here, a deadline there and all was fine.

The Kerry campaign had to stretch their money over an extra month, and the Bush campaign could use that month bashing away with primary funds.

The Bush people flat out outsmarted the Kerry people (McAuliffe people?) even though it was the Democratic brains who picked that fight.

[KoKo]

15. Don't get sidetracked. It's the MEDIA and our Dems still (except Dean)

refuse to point the finger where the blame lies. When did we see Dems out there on CNN/Faux/MSNBC fighting back about Swift Boat Liars. It wasn't until the last three weeks of the campaign that McAuliff got on and started to hit back. We had Joe Lockhart and McAuliff coming in after the damage was done...but how do we know the Media didn't keep them off.

Why weren't Biden, Lieberman, Dodd and the rest of the Dems out there on the airwaves representing us? The media only asked them to appear when there was a show about Iraq.

Until our Dems start to scream at lack of Democratic representation we are doomed. And Dem representation means not a gang bang of one Dem against two or three RW Conservatives. Which was always the case.

Our Democrats must rise up and speak with one voice to get the "Fairness Doctrine" reinstated. That's our MOST IMPORTANT hurdle, along with the VOTING MACHINES for "2006 MIDTERMS." Without fair and balanced Airwaves Representation and Voting Machines that actually COUNT THE VOTES, no matter WHO WE RUN AS A CANDIDATE...they have slim chances of winning.

But, our Dems (except Dean) still are FEARFUL of ANGERING the Media when aleady they must see that the media doesn't care enough about Democrats to even bother to have them on. We must ATTACK the MEDIA every chance we get.

It's obvious they are the old Soviet "PRAVDA" and getting worse each day, as the Mouthpiece of the Republican Party. The "people" out there still don't know it and it's up to us to tell them. :shrug"

[cadmus]

38. Kerry

But he won the windsurfing-goose-hunter vote!!

[bemildred]

3. It was no mistake. nt

[DELUSIONAL]

4. bush won due to ELECTION FRAUD . . . . .

period -- end of discussion.

[CatWoman]

6. exactomundo!!

and until Democrats face the truth, this party will continue to lose elections to morans who are no more equipped to be president than my cat.

[MissWaverly]

7. don't underestimate your cat

at least your cat keeps himself clean

[VegasWolf]

34. Snort!! Damn you, made me spill my wine! n/t

[Rochambeau]

30. Which one ? On your sig I see at least four of them obviously more

equipped than Emperor BunnyPants...

[maryallen]

8. Agree completely ...

And if you're listening (or reading this), RETIRE Tad Devine!!

[w4rma]

10. Agreed, but this was another tactical error. They took a 5 week vacation.

And during those 5 weeks, Rove redefined Kerry to quite alot of people.

Another related mistake was that the Democratic Party leadership was not drumbeating against the GOP all throught the first 3 years of Bush's term. In general, they spent *alot* more time defending Bush than they did defending Clinton, Dean or Kerry.

[karynnj]

13. Not a vacation

There was a bus/train trip. Note when Clinton/Gore did this they got great lift and publicity. Although Kerry/Edwards got great crowds, the national media barely covered it. (An Arizona sister of mine talked about thousands of people who waited 2 + hrs in 100+ degree weather in Kingman.) The media was stacked against them

[VegasWolf]

35. You are absolutely right, Kerry was redefined skillfully and the dems

either could not or would not fight back. When Kerry
rolled over and exposed his tummy to the Swift Boat Liars it
was pretty much over there. Huge tactical mistake.

[mom cat]

17. Thanks! All of this "How we lost" comments only serve to legitimize

the theft of democracy. We should never lend credence to the coop-meister.

[brentspeak]

18. Not agreed, show me the proof

Do I think Ken Blackwell should be investigated? Heck,yeah. Do I think he lied about the Warren Cty terror "threat". Of course he did.

But was election fraud committed? Until I see hard proof, the only honest answer is 'no'. Speculation and innuendo doesn't cut it in the history books.

[DELUSIONAL]

20. I love the ignore button

[brentspeak]

24. My life won't be any poorer for it, that's for certain. n/t

[roseBudd]

21. That is because...

Computers count the votes so no one can see
They claim Bush won, I say prove it to me

There won't be proof unless someone confesses or rats someone else out.

[VegasWolf]

36. Why is your default answer "NO" not maybe. History is tainted

and the victorious describe their exploits vainly.

[xray s]

5. Devine proves he is useless

There are ways of getting your message out and defending yourself other then feeding the Democratic Party ad machine. That is all guys like Devine focus on. They really are clueless. Myopic.

Kerry laid down in August.

He didn't defend himself against attacks on his honor and the honor of the men who served with him in Vietnam.

He didn't capitalize on 'Fahrenheit 911' and the public's focus on the failure of Bush to defend us.

He didn't get his licks in at the Democratic convention.

He didn't rip Bush's jugular out when given a dozen chances to do so in the first debate.

Opportunities lost.

[politicasista]

11. Sadly, you maybe right.

Kerry would have made a good president despite the boo boos in the campaign. I guess this was his only opportunity and we hate him for it. :cry: :cry:

[Im with Rosey]

9. Wait a second,

Didn't Kerry win? What about election FRAUD. All these USELESS explanations are a waste of time. Until we fix the criminal acts of the repugs, none of this has any value!

[skeeters]

14. I'm On The Fence

Hate to do this but I am on the fence. Oh yeah, I agree the election was stolen and if we don't deal with that. The rest of these stories mean nothing.

But agreed. Kerry did not answer the Swift Scum ads. And the media ran that BS no problem, like they do with all the Bush BS.

So till we get a real media. And the Dems get out and fight. It just doesn't matter.

[Rex]

16. BULLSHIT!!!

Sell out mutherfuckers.

[brentspeak]

19. It wasn't just Kerry that campaigned stupidly

It was the DNC, which failed to get everyone coordinated on message. What good is Kerry *mentioning* Bush's 30-day pre-9/11 vacation briefly during one or two of his campaign stops if the rest of the Democrats in office won't go repeat it en masse?

[lala_rawraw]

22. Wow... and here I thought

Rove's little midnight madness number flipping may have had something to do with it. I even thought it might have something to do with massive civil rights violations and extensive election fraud.

I think Devine and McKinnon need to have a little talk with Conyers. In fact, perhaps we should forward the report over, eh? I would be more than happy, if need be, to take both to any local elementary school for a little math pop quiz: kids vs. pundits.

Blah... what a joke these guys are.

[mod mom]

23. Sorry, my reality of Ohio was Kerry won. nt

[Orangepeel]

25. true or not, that's what you would expect a media advisor to say

"we lost because we didn't run enough expensive TV ads."

[0rganism]

26. with or without election fraud, Silent August was a major setback

By not responding vigorously and persistently, Kerry let the Swift Boat Liars For Bush frame the debate in August. By the time the GOP Convention was underway in NYC, it was deemed acceptible for republican delegates to wear Purple Heart bandaids to mock him.

Sen. Kerry missed a huge opportunity to defend not only his own record, but to defend the honor of every veteran. By letting that shit slide, his blunder made his loss to a draft-dodging deserter fratboy cheerleader believable.

Maybe the vote was stolen in Ohio. Maybe the vote was stolen in Iowa and New Mexico and Florida and Colorado and every other close state on the books, too. If that is the case, John Kerry's campaign had the responsibility to organize his supporters and take to the streets. The Ukrainians could do it in freezing cold weather, and I gauran-fucking-tee you if Sen. Kerry had stood up to the bastards and told 'em straight up that the election was stolen, we would have put a million people on the streets of DC in a heartbeat and ten million in a week. He caved.

In the end, only one senator stood up to the election results, and it wasn't Senator Kerry. There were a lot of things that went wrong in his campaign, but the wrongest of all was his inability to publicly embrace his past: a war hero, and an anti-war leader. He could have had the best of both worlds. Instead, the first was discredited and the second held against him, and it happened in August.

[Catchawave]

27. Conserve money?

Did a good job of that, wasn't there a 15mil surplus after we LOST?

Donor rebates would have been nice :p

[frylock]

28. exactly..

if they had actually spent money countering the shrimp boat vets rather than sitting on their collective nuts, they would have had a few million less in their surplus for Kerry's big run in 2008.

I have no doubt in my mind that their was fraud involved in the election, but that doesn't change the fact that this was the worst run campaign EVER.

[Piperay]

32. A successful campaign

really should have ended up with nothing left. It is disgraceful to have 'lost' by so little and have so much money left over. :mad:

[progressivebydesign]

29. But Kerry said the other day that the OBL tape lost it for him...

.. in the last few days. Which is it?

[karynnj]

31. Everyone is right ...and everyone is wrong

If Kerry would not have lost support in August and early September, he likely would not have gained so many after the first debate.

After the convention, everyone said it was a good positive convention and that was necessary to introduce Kerry as a nice guy. Which the convention did. With a relatively unknown candidate, I'm not sure a Republican like convention would not have done more harm than good. (Although getting out more of Kerry's biography would have helped. This may have been partially because the TV time was sharply cut from past years. The three network televised hours were Clinton's speech, Edward's speech and Kerry's speech - hard to cut there to include biography - in 2000, there were 9 hours.)

Kerry was gaining in virtually every poll in the last week and even the cable people were predicting a Kerry win. The main topic was Al Qucaa (no idea how to spell), the Minnesota local tv footage showing the unprotected explosives weeks after the invasion coupled with Kerry repeating what he had said in the debates about all of this stuff being thrown at "our Kids" was working. Then it was the Bin Laden tape. So it wasn't just the tape it was the change of topic.

When the results are so close, anything could have made the difference. I'm sure the second guessing will continue for months.

[VegasWolf]

37. That is a self-contradiction in terms. n/t

[CindyDale]

39. No one will ever really know the results of the election

It's hard for me to believe anyone could have lost that election against Bush even with all the threats and payola. Now I believe anything is possible.

The only way to fight this I think is economically, not politically. We do need to do boycotts, targeting one or two specific corporations.