(Hilary) Clinton adviser: "Kerry ran inconsistent campaign"

[truthpusher]

http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=73884&format=text

Clinton adviser: Kerry ran inconsistent campaign
-----------------------------
By Associated Press
Thursday, March 17, 2005 - Updated: Mar. 18, 2005 10:41 AM EST
-----------------------------

ALBANY, N.Y. - A top adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton thinks fellow Democrat John Kerry ``ran what was basically an inconsistent campaign'' for president last year, according to a published report Thursday.

(snip)

The Kerry campaign had ``a different message every two or three weeks,'' Ann Lewis, director of communications for Clinton's political action committee, told the Forward, a weekly New York City-based newspaper aimed at a Jewish audience.

Lewis is quoted as saying the Kerry campaign ``kept trying to rationally convince, to put a presidency together, line by line, plan by plan.''

She said people ``don't vote for plans, they vote for presidents.''

complete story: http://news.bostonherald.com/politics/view.bg?articleid=73884&format=text

[montana500]

1. and yet...

Kerry got more votes than any democrat in U.S. history. Amazing.

[Selteri]

4. I have but one thing to say

Anyone but Bush was the real campaign.

[Mass]

27. You can believe it, if you want.

[JNelson6563]

49. Yep and it WAS consistent

Kerry wasn't Bush and that was unchanging. Great motivator too. People poured into our HQ announcing they were Indies who usually voted Rehtug but they hated Bush. Heard lots o' hate for Jr. but never any love for Kerry.

The cultists can't comprehend it though....

Julie

[merwin]

25. You shouldn't say things like that. It's only a half truth and makes you

sound as bad as the repugs. Yes, he got more votes than anyone, but only because the population grew. Percentage wise, he didn't, and that's what counts.

[Mass]

26. Not only

Even if you factor the population increase, he still got more votes and % wise, he got a lot more vote than Clinton in 92.

[merwin]

28. But i'm hard pressed to believe that he got a higher percentage of dem

votes than any other dem candidate.

[Mass]

29. I doubt anybody said that.

[madhat]

2. So what's new?

[The Stranger]

3. It's the media, stupid.

It doesn't matter what the non-neocon candidate says or does, the media will assassinate them with spin.

[Cocoa]

5. a minor blow to Clinton's chances

these comments knock Hillary down a notch in my estimation.

[rayofreason]

44. Why?

Hillary didn't say anything.

[Mass]

6. More of the same article.

`As Senator Clinton said after the election, she thinks John Kerry ran a strong campaign,'' said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines.
Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic operative, said Lewis' comments are ``not helpful to Hillary.''
``What Hillary needs is a smooth playing field,'' said Sheinkopf, who worked on President Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign. ``All this does is create waves.''
``It'll create more internecine warfare among Democrats, and those who want to take shots at Hillary, who are Kerry loyalists, are now going to do that more than they would have before,'' Sheinkopf added.

[Career Prole]

7. quoted as saying the Kerry campaign "kept trying to rationally convince"

God forbid the man should try to rationally convince anyone.
That is a grievous fucking error in this country.
/sarcasm off

[Warren Stupidity]

15. she has a point

although perhaps not the one she intended. Bush and the 'clowns are winning by appealing to emotion and irrationalism. The stupid vote is huge and not to be undermisestimated. The Democrats have a potent emotional issue that they refuse to use, that the Republicans are the Party of Enron, that they are plundering the nation, that they are doing everything they can to sock it working families while rewarding their rich and powerful backers. But the Democratic Party refuses the play the economic populism card. Oh no, can't do that!

[underpants]

8. Yeah yeah yeah how organized were we for the 2002 elections?

Compare that with what the Kerry campaign became.

This is just rear view window assessments. If Kerry had won W (Rove) would have been criticized for being to rigid, overly disciplined.

[madrchsod]

9. nothing most of us didn`t already know

they misjudged and underestimated their enemies.to bad kerry didn`t use the tactics he developed in nam-turn your boats in on the enemy with all guns ablaze.

[bullimiami]

11. misjudged, underestimated and failed to fight when the time came.

in my estimation kerry and co totally blew it by not understanding the devious nature of the enemy.

[okieinpain]

13. yes, the boat fuckers, and not fighting for the votes in ohio, and florida

he had a shot in both states. I bet if you could sit down and count the folks who were ran off, cheated out of, and denied the right to vote, I bet we would not be talking about hill in 08.

[Fleshdancer]

10. what is the point of this?

I'm all for trying to figure out what will help Democrats in the future, but pointing fingers at a campaign that ended 4 months ago isn't very constructive.

Enough with the excuses and the blaming. If this "top adviser" knows what to do, then by all means, TELL US! Spouting out useless rhetoric like "people don't vote for plans, they vote for presidents" is crap.

If she wants to bitch, that's fine, go to a political forum, not a news reporter.

[TankLV]

37. Learning from our mistakes, for one.

Post mortums are ALWAYS valuable - even after winning - which didn't happen.

We can always learn from past MISTAKES.

Kerry's campaign was extremely disjointed and incompetant in my opinion.

From the swift boat liars, to the consistant message, to switching managers mid-stream. We could go on.

It certainly wasn't a successful campaign.

The results speak for themselves.

Many "foot in mouth" moments.

Many priceless opportunities lost that were handed to him on a silver platter, starting with the record of this miserable excuse for a president that we now have for another 4 years.

There were many factors, but I don't know how anyone could argue that there wasn't a single thing that he couldn't have done a lot better.

A LOT BETTER!

[Fleshdancer]

51. why can't we learn our mistakes without a reporter involved?

many people are thinking about the past campaigns and (hopefully) working on fixing the problems. The problem I have with this particular woman is that blabbing about the problems without giving any solutions in front of reporters does no good for anyone. All it does is raise tension at a time when we need to be solution oriented. You want to point fingers? Fine, but throw out a solution or two because bitching doesn't solve anything.

[saltpoint]

12. Kerry's campaign garnered more Democratic votes than --

-- either of Bill Clinton's campaigns.

This comment from a Clinton advisor may be part of her job description for the next Clinton campaign -- Hillary's.

[Eloriel]

14. Normally I like Ann Lewis. A lot.

And I really, really can't stand John Kerry.

But this is fucking ridiculous. Leave it the hell alone. Let it be dead and buried. It's over. Put HALF as much time, energy, analysis and Press releases into election fraud including the damned machines, and you'll be doing something.

Who cares what kind of campaign Kerry ran? He's over. It's over. Please let me just forget about it.

[Tweed]

18. Many people think politics is the President and the President alone

They like to read stories like this. It's their only connection to politics.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

16. It sounds like the "digs" at each other have begun

by the candidates. The campaign for the Presidency 2008 has started early.

[William Bloode]

17. Funny,

I didn't think Kerry was bad on the message part, to me it seemed the message was consistent for those who cared to listen. His failing was not fighting back hard enough. Kerry did well enough he could have weathered the Swift Boat Liars, or the convenient Osama video, but not both. If he had had to face just one or the other he would have won handily.

As far as voter fraud goes, yes i am quite convinced there was some, but it did not cost the election. I feel that the * boys fixed it to pull out what they saw as a squeaker and not enough to be noticed, but i feel he pulled out a squeaker anyway due mostly to the Osama video right before election day.

[KamaAina]

19. Trying to "rationally convince"? What is he, French? (sarcasm)

What kind of country does that wussy little frog think this is, that he can just go around and try to "rationally convince" red-blooded, God-fearing Americans? Doesn't he know the only way to win an election here is to scare the shit out of people??? </sarcasm>

[THUNDER HANDS]

20. so what is Hillary's strategy

Vote for me, Republicans hate me!

???

[dhinojosa]

21. The Bush voters were too stupid to keep up..

Too much information for those numbnuts. I guess us liberals need to dumb it down for them even more!

[TankLV]

38. You might not have meant it that way, but that is in essence what he

should have done!

[Placebo]

22. Hillary '08

:)

[Larkspur]

23. I don't like Hillary or Kerry. Will Kerry's aides run ads morphing

Hillary into Osama?

I can hardly wait for these 2 to slug it out. Maybe the'll sink each others campaigns at the same time.

[Pastiche423]

32. One could only hope

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[makhno]

30. Hillary - a true progressive

http://www.forward.com/articles/2832

Truly anti-war: Sounding like President Bush, < Clinton > also told the assembled Jewish communal leaders that "there is no more important task before the United States than to support the spread of freedom and democracy, and to do so with a unified voice."

Fiercely pro-democracy: The previous week <...> Clinton, a New York Democrat, blasted "the continuing support of terrorism that comes out of Syria and Iran" and insisted that stronger sanctions were needed to deal with the "aggressive posture" in Damascus.

Ann Lewis, why pro-war is the future of the Democratic Party: Such hawkish positions might alienate Clinton's old fans on the anti-war left <...> But Ann Lewis <...> has a different view: This sort of tough foreign-policy talk is the medicine that's going to save the Democratic Party.

Vote (or don't) your conscience, friends. And don't flame the messenger.

[otohara]

31. Wasn't Clinton Talking With Bill Clinton On A Regular Basis

You'd think the man who was the best campaigner in my lifetime was giving Kerry good advice (except on the gay marriage issue)

I hate this BS after the fact - it's So Donna Brazile

[JI7]

33. this is a right wing source

Ann Lewis is more than just an advisor to Hillary.she is active in many other parts of the Democratic party also. she is also Barney Frank's sister who is one of Kerry's biggest supporters.

i think the media is trying to use criticism of the campaign made and trying to turn it into a Hillary vs Kerry thing.

[truthpusher]

34. The article is an AP article....

...arguably not a Right Wing Source. Not a Left Wing Source, but it's definitely not a GOPUSA or Worldnet Daily or UPI for that matter.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

35. AP= CIA-steered mainstream media organ for over 50 years now...

...along with the Washington Post, New York Times, LA Times, UPI, Time, Newsweek, etc. IT'S CALLED OPERATION MOCKINGBIRD AND IT STILL GOES ON.

All DU-ers need to know this history to understand what is going on today and how the mass-murderers are getting away with it.

PLEASE READ THIS:
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-overclass.html
(The Origins of the Overclass by Steve Kangas. Kangas was mysteriously found dead of a gunshot wound in the office building of Richard Mellon Scaife. Add him to the list of expose journalists who live short lives.)

>snip<


Not surprisingly, the CIA began a mission in the late 1940s to recruit American journalists on a wide scale, a mission it dubbed Operation MOCKINGBIRD. The agency wanted these journalists not only to relay any sensitive information they discovered, but also to write anti-communist, pro-capitalist propaganda when needed.

The instigators of MOCKINGBIRD were Frank Wisner, Allan Dulles, Richard Helms and Philip Graham. Graham was the husband of Katherine Graham, today’s publisher of the Washington Post. In fact, it was the Post’s ties to the CIA that allowed it to grow so quickly after the war, both in readership and influence. (8)

MOCKINGBIRD was extraordinarily successful. In no time, the agency had recruited at least 25 media organizations to disseminate CIA propaganda. At least 400 journalists would eventually join the CIA payroll, according to the CIA’s testimony before a stunned Church Committee in 1975. (The committee felt the true number was considerably higher.) The names of those recruited reads like a Who's Who of journalism:

* Philip and Katharine Graham (Publishers, Washington Post)
* William Paley (President, CBS)
* Henry Luce (Publisher, Time and Life magazine)
* Arthur Hays Sulzberger (Publisher, N.Y. Times)
* Jerry O'Leary (Washington Star)
* Hal Hendrix (Pulitzer Prize winner, Miami News)
* Barry Bingham Sr., (Louisville Courier-Journal)
* James Copley (Copley News Services)
* Joseph Harrison (Editor, Christian Science Monitor)
* C.D. Jackson (Fortune)
* Walter Pincus (Reporter, Washington Post)
* ABC
* NBC
* Associated Press
* United Press International
* Reuters
* Hearst Newspapers
* Scripps-Howard
* Newsweek
* magazine Mutual Broadcasting System
* Miami Herald
* Old Saturday Evening Post
* New York Herald-Tribune

Perhaps no newspaper is more important to the CIA than the Washington Post, one of the nation’s most right-wing dailies. Its location in the nation’s capitol enables the paper to maintain valuable personal contacts with leading intelligence, political and business figures. Unlike other newspapers, the Post operates its own bureaus around the world, rather than relying on AP wire services. Owner Philip Graham was a military intelligence officer in World War II, and later became close friends with CIA figures like Frank Wisner, Allen Dulles, Desmond FitzGerald and Richard Helms. He inherited the Post by marrying Katherine Graham, whose father owned it.

After Philip’s suicide in 1963, Katharine Graham took over the Post. Seduced by her husband’s world of government and espionage, she expanded her newspaper’s relationship with the CIA. In a 1988 speech before CIA officials at Langley, Virginia, she stated:

We live in a dirty and dangerous world. There are some things that the general public does not need to know and shouldn’t. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows.

This quote has since become a classic among CIA critics for its belittlement of democracy and its admission that there is a political agenda behind the Post’s headlines.

Ben Bradlee was the Post’s managing editor during most of the Cold War. He worked in the U.S. Paris embassy from 1951 to 1953, where he followed orders by the CIA station chief to place propaganda in the European press. (9) Most Americans incorrectly believe that Bradlee personifies the liberal slant of the Post, given his role in publishing the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate investigations. But neither of these two incidents are what they seem. The Post merely published the Pentagon Papers after The New York Times already had, because it wanted to appear competitive. As for Watergate, we’ll examine the CIA’s reasons for wanting to bring down Nixon in a moment. Someone once asked Bradlee: "Does it irk you when The Washington Post is made out to be a bastion of slanted liberal thinkers instead of champion journalists just because of Watergate?" Bradlee responded: "Damn right it does!" (10)

It would be impossible to elaborate in this short space even the most important examples of the CIA/media alliance. Sig Mickelson was a CIA asset the entire time he was president of CBS News from 1954 to 1961. Later he went on to become president of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, two major outlets of CIA propaganda.

The CIA also secretly bought or created its own media companies. It owned 40 percent of the Rome Daily American at a time when communists were threatening to win the Italian elections. Worse, the CIA has bought many domestic media companies. A prime example is Capital Cities, created in 1954 by CIA businessman William Casey (who would later become Reagan’s CIA director). Another founder was Lowell Thomas, a close friend and business contact with CIA Director Allen Dulles. Another founder was CIA businessman Thomas Dewey. By 1985, Capital Cities had grown so powerful that it was able to buy an entire TV network: ABC.

For those who believe in "separation of press and state," the very idea that the CIA has secret propaganda outlets throughout the media is appalling. The reason why America was so oblivious to CIA crimes in the 40s and 50s was because the media willingly complied with the agency. Even today, when the immorality of the CIA should be an open-and-shut case, "debate" about the issue rages in the media. Here is but one example:

In 1996, The San Jose Mercury News published an investigative report suggesting that the CIA had sold crack in Los Angeles to fund the Contra war in Central America. A month later, three of the CIA’s most important media allies — The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times — immediately leveled their guns at the Mercury report and blasted away in an attempt to discredit it. Who wrote the Post article? Walter Pincus, longtime CIA journalist. The dangers here are obvious.

[rayofreason]

47. "...the Washington Post, one of the nation’s most right-wing dailies."

This one's a keeper. Thanks for the laugh.

[TankLV]

36. I totally agree. Can't argue with logic.

She's dead on.

[KittyWampus]

39. Kerry DID Win, But The Votes Weren't Counted Or Even Allowed To Be

cast. And many disappeared in the ether.

Fuck the Mediawhores.

[BlueIris]

40. Yes, let's not forget that, please. Ever. n/t.

[IndianaGreen]

45. Why did we find credible the exit polls in the Ukraine that showed that

the opposition actually won the election, and then turn around and dismiss our own exit polls that showed that Kerry won the election?

I don't believe that Kerry lost Ohio. I think that a lot of people that pushed a button voting for Kerry, ended up getting their votes being counted on the Bush column.

[fujiyama]

41. She may have a point

but Hillary isn't getting my support for the nomination. In fact I'll do what I can to get someone else nominated. I don't want to lose the election.

Kerry doesn't have my support automatically, but he has the potential depending on the field.

Either way, I'd take Kerry over Hillary any day - for the nomination or president.

[he lied us into war]

42. Kerry should have said one thing over and over

Who votes for a president who lied us into war?

[hollowdweller]

52. Bingo!

I was running commercials in my head the whole time.

Bush saying tax cuts will help the economy. Deficit balloons, weak job growth.

Bush says WMD, none are found.

Bush says he is for working people but his policies favor the rich.

I'm John Kerry and I will never lie to you!

[OzarkDem]

43. Ann Lewis no expert

Her record in running the DNC Women's operations has been, well, craptacular.

We need to replace all these stale, old hacks with newer, better talent.

[Moderate Dem]

46. Kerry didn't help himself

that's for sure. When I heard him use the phrase "global test" when he KNEW that Republicans were smearing him as a UN loving pansy I suspected it was over right then.

That was one of the DUMBEST moves I have ever seen in a campaign.

[leesa]

48. Wrong. The right wing controlled media and corrupt elections stopped

Kerry's win. Why do Dems always play the GOP game plan and blame the candidate for RW sleaze. Kerry was drawing crowds of 30,000-60000 without ANY media coverage. He did just fine.

[Moderate Dem]

50. With careless statements like that

He enabled that smear machine. Sorry, you've got to have a little sense of the other sides's tactics before you say dumb things like that.

I am not trashing Kerry, I voted for him, and thought that he was the better candidate, by far.