NYT, Nagourney: Kerry Might Pay Price for Failing to Strike Back Quickly

[DeepModem Mom]

NOTE: See in the last excerpted paragraph the critical part played by "television news shows" in fueling this issue.


NEWS ANALYSIS
Kerry Might Pay Price for Failing to Strike Back Quickly

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: August 21, 2004


WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 - The fierce back and forth over John Kerry's Vietnam War record may seem an odd storm to break out during the summer lull before the Republican convention. But it goes to the heart of his challenge to President Bush, and its resolution may prove pivotal in determining Mr. Kerry's hopes of victory this fall....

***

Mr. Kerry decided to respond this week by blaming Mr. Bush for what he described as a scurrilous attack, and by filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Friday. His actions came after confronting considerable evidence that two weeks of largely unanswered attacks were taking their toll....

***

In fairness to Mr. Kerry, his aides were faced with a strategic dilemma that has become distressingly familiar to campaigns in this era when so much unsubstantiated or even false information can reach the public through so many different forums....The first choice is to discredit the attack before it takes hold. Many Democrats counseled Mr. Kerry's aides to do this the moment the advertisements began.

The other choice is to ignore what appears to be noise from the sideline, in the calculation that attacking serves to elevate the attack to the public's attention. This was the argument that some of Mr. Kerry's advisers had been making over the past two weeks in urging supporters to play down the advertisements....

***

What they apparently failed to calculate was the extent that advertisements featuring other Vietnam veterans, speaking coolly and directly to the camera, would become the subject of TELEVISION NEWS SHOWS. That was all the more so because the advertisements and the book were released in August, a slow month when news outlets are hungry for any kind of news....


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/21/politics/campaign/21assess.html

[leftistagitator]

1. Wow, Nagourney has something negative to say about Kerry.

That's a first. This guy has some kind of axe to grind, and is always trying to say that Kerry's campaign is on the brink of distruction. Blogs picked this up a while ago.

http://www.needlenose.com/pMachineFree2.2.1/more.php?id=1268_0_1_0_M

[hadrons]

7. in all fairness to GOP shill Nagourney ....

a lot of people on this board were saying the same thing, the Kerry campaign should have confronted these bitter not-so-swift guys earlier

[KittyWampus]

28. Kerry Played It Exactly Right. This Article By A Bush Shill Proves It.

Junior needs his mediawhores to try and spin Kerry's strategy as bad BECAUSE KERRY'S STRATEGY IS GOING TO WORK.

[Born Free]

2. Democrats must taunt bush to come out from hiding

All democrats must taunt bush , we must taunt him for hiding behind these lying s-o-b-s we must insist there be a full discussion once and for all, Americans need to know the truth, This has become a character issue, it's time we call bush out, we must force him to come clean! Both Kerry and bush should be forced to the same standards, Kerry has offered full disclosure, yet bush still hides. This is not acceptable, and each and every democrat and independant should start demanding bush come clean. They want to discuss Vietnam, then discuss it, all of it, lets get it out on the table once and for all.

[keopeli]

3. People should chill about this. It's a slow news month. Think future

Does the stunt stunt the swing of poll numbers? Yes.

What next? The Republican Convention.

And the polls? Bush* Bump

And then? The debates.

What will they ask? They'll ask Mr. Bush* if he, as Commander-In-Chief, condones the swift boat veteran's assault on Mr. Kerry's military citations.

Who will win that argument? The person that takes the high road.

Should we worry about it then? Well, counter it, but don't worry about poll numbers.

Why is this article in the NYT? Because they worry about poll numbers...and it's a slow news month.

Keo

[RhodaGrits]

8. interesting. chess. n/t

[bushwakker]

12. Kerry must continue to hit back hard on this attack

it goes to his core integrity and character. He can't just let it go people expect him to hit back and defend himself or else they say "hmmm maybe there is something there." As for the debates - AWOL will get away with some mealy mouthed BS answer and the issue will again be Kerry's service - not Bush's. If the moderator said that groups have raised questions about JK's service Mr Bush - but what about accusations that you did not serve out your entire term in the TANG? I'd say fine bring it up - but we both know that Bush's military service is off the table for the mainstream media - they will not talk about it so it's still a focus on Kerry. It's a lose lose.

[Dogmudgeon]

4. I think it's excellent timing

Team Bush miscalculated in launching the SwiftLiars' scandal; Kerry knows that timing it for the short interregnum between the Olympics and the 'Publican Convention will change it from a Nine-Day-(Press)-Wonder into a substantial issue for the Election. Karl Rove probably thought that if he launched the SwiftLiars right before the Olympics, Kerry would be hamstrung, but us politics junkies don't really give a rat's ass about the Olympics, and we're the ones who can keep these issues alive.

Then, too, right after the Convention, we'll be going into the Fall business/school season and the final run to the Election. Big money is due for school tuition, 3rd quarter tax payments, and most people with kids will start having anxiety attacks over whether they'll be able to provide their children with affordable toys for Christmas.

And Bush has already burned through a ton of money in highly negative advertising. Kerry can point to that to great effect, and I suspect he'll start doing that soon.

The re-mobilization (or whatever Shrub is calling his re-arrangement of the troops) will also begin to make more people cranky and upset. Bush does not enjoy much favor among the military. And we will soon be at the One Kilodeath level for American troops prosecuting his Great War of Vengeance.

In the very near future, it's going to suck to be George. There's really only one thing that can help him, and it's another Terrah Attack. Only since Americans have begun to wise up, this time it will have to be the real thing.

Stealing an election is bad enough, but killing people to do it has always been the stock-in-trade of third-world dictators. George knows that this next threshold will have to be crossed with the spiritual version of nakedness. This time, there will be no one to blame it on except George.

The question remaining is this: Will George W. Bush trade his mortal soul for the Presidency?

--bkl

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

25. I tend to agree...what you had was an ad that ran in a few states

but was then played by the media in ALL STATES ad nauseum...what was Kerry to do? Run ads in ALL states to counter what was done in a few states then played NUMEROUS TIMES over by the media? The time is NOW to respond to FORCE the other stations to report the truth over and over and keepp hitting hard and bringing it up...same with the new commercial...they took random statements MADE TO KERRY by others that he reported and played the statements as though they were Kerry's...it is dirty...it will work..but it would have been financially disastrous to FORCE Kerry to spend the kind of money it takes to overcome the media.

[ixion]

5. isn't it interesting how BushCo is never asked to defend themselves on

anything, but when it's a Dem, they are sharks in the water on something that has already been proven to be a falsehood.

:crazy:

[DeepModem Mom]

6. You're right -- not even Republican campaign strategy is questioned...

is it?

[bushwakker]

14. Exactly the focus is always on Kerry

Bush is never asked to defend his preferential treatment and missing year in the guard. It's astounding.

[bushwakker]

9. Many of us were saying JK should have hit back sooner

but we hooted down here on DU as "amateur political stategists". In fact I said last weekend that this thing has gotten so bad and been so ineptly handled by the Kerry camp that now only the candidate can respond to it.

[demokatgurrl]

10. Yes, JK should have hit back

Now he finally is but he shouldn't let them distract him entirely from his message. We need surrogages- where the hell are all those Democrats who spoke at the Convention? Only Tom Harkin has spoken out and called the Dick the coward he is. We need all those guys. And JK's SwiftBoat comrades.... why are they so quiet?

[DeepModem Mom]

26. Good points, demokatgurrl -- welcome to DU!

[newyawker99]

27. Hi demokatgurrl!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

21. "He should hit back!!!"

So he does.

"But he hit back too late!!!" "It isn't enough!!!"

<yawn><scratch><fart>

[KayLaw]

11. Many will pay a price

Any person who bears false witness against another, or who encourages such a thing, or delights in it, will one day pay a very big price.

[bushwakker]

13. When?

On the Day of Reckoning? The GOP media dominanace allows people to lie without consequence, indeed to their own financial benefit. I don't see any of these liars paying any kind of a price. At least not in this world.

[KayLaw]

16. I don't know when

But I believe unless one is a true sociopath, it will happen. Sure a person can profit by evil - one reason it's at all attractive, but this terrible sort of lie must leave an idelible mark on the soul. I'll bet some are already feeling the guilt and will suffer one way or another. Look at Rush Limbaugh. All that money, all those adoring fans, he should be on top of the world. Do you think he's happy? I don't. I think he needs that pain medication to make it through the day because he's in intractable pain brought on by lies. Now his latest wife has left him and he's all alone with all that pain. To me, that would be hell on Earth. He traded his soul for fame and money and he's already paying the price.

[sendero]

18. These people....

.... have no souls. They are convinced they are right, god is on their side and anything they have to do it ok. You see the same thing in their business dealings, to them, god owes them a profit regardless of the merit of their efforts. If lying, cheating and/or stealing is required to make money, they have no problem with that.

They whole country is paying the price for the excesses of the right wing. All the while they are busy pointing out how devasting gay marriage will be to the country. They are truly a sight to behold.

[Stuckinthebush]

15. I can't wait for the debates

I hope Kerry calls out the slimy cockroach Bush and demands an apology on National TV.

[robcon]

19. I think you miss Bush/Rove's stratergery.

Bush will DEFINITELY take the high road in the debates, and continue to say that he doesn't question Kerry's patriotism or valor.

Rove will continue to let his surrogates do the smearing for him.

[Stuckinthebush]

22. That is fine...

But then Kerry can easily come back and say, "Then why, Mr. President, have you refused to publically denounce these slimy men and their organization? Why do you refuse to call them directly and tell them to cease these baseless, cowardly attacks? Why, Mr. President, do you continue to let organizations with stong affiliations to your administration launch the dirtiest campaign in the history of these United States?"

[2Design]

17. actually this whole thing makes me hate Bush even more and

know how evil he and his followers are. They are not christians. They are liars

[Cocoa]

20. this is NOT KERRY'S FAULT

Bush did this.

Same goes for when they tell us that Kerry brought this on himself by making Vietnam an issue. Bullshit! Bush doesn't need an excuse to throw his shit all over the place, he just does it.

[DeepModem Mom]

24. Bush/Rove and our compliant media -- may their karma some day come. nt

[leesa]

23. BS. This is yet another non-issue manufactured by the GOP

People are really getting tired of their lies.