Campaign comes full circle as challenger changes tack on Iraq

[unfrigginreal]

Simon Tisdall
Wednesday September 22, 2004
The Guardian

Call it Howard Dean's revenge. For when White House hopeful John Kerry finally took the gloves off over Iraq this week, the US presidential campaign came full circle.

A year ago, Mr Dean was emerging as the Democratic frontrunner, tapping into grassroots anger over the war. Yet it was Mr Kerry who eventually won the nomination as primary voters opted for the safer, conventional, less confrontational man.

The picture looks different now. Mr Kerry's furious, all-out assault on the Bush administration's honesty and competence over Iraq on Monday amounts to a belated endorsement of Mr Dean's main line of attack and is reminiscent of Mr Dean himself. It marks a strategic shift by a Kerry campaign that has so far failed to find a "killer" issue and has lost its way - and its poll lead - since the Boston convention in July.

snip

The Kerry speech was a total demolition job. George Bush, he said, had "misled, miscalculated and mismanaged every aspect of this undertaking". The president's lack of candour, arrogance and outright incompetence - Mr Kerry's own words - has "created a crisis of historic proportions and the prospect of war with no end".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1309976,00.html

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Thanks again, Doc. May your early clarity about these crooks in the White House pay off for us in November. And thank you, John Kerry for taking this tack.

[Larkspur]

1. I guess this is Kerry's nuance way of saying ...

[Upfront]

5. Agree

Now we go on to win as Democrats who stand for the truth.

[Paradise]

2. My sentiments precisely, therefore taking the liberty of quoting you!

"Thanks again, Doc. May your early clarity about these crooks in the White House pay off for us in November. And thank you, John Kerry for taking this tack."

Thanks! :)

[JuniorPlankton]

4. Agree

I don't even need to quote you :)

[Xipe Totec]

3. Kerry Is A Closer

Not to take anything away from Dr Dean, I liked him a lot, but if Kerry had stated a clear position on Iraq earlier, it would only have given the Repugs more time to target their message and focus their advertising to counter attack.

All of the teeth gnashing we heard from the Repubs about Kerry "not having a clear position on Iraq" demonstrates how frustrated they were that Kerry wouldn't stand still long enough for them to line up the cross-hairs.

Now that we're on the final stretch of the campaign, Kerry can make a forceful statement on Iraq that will have impact on public opinion but will rob the Repugs of the opportunity to counterattack.

Go Kerry!

[mzmolly]

6. Thanks to Howard Dean ... in advance

:hi:

[FlemingsGhost]

7. The DLC destroys Dean, then co-opts his message.

Ain't politics grand?

:eyes: