Kerry must act NOW to guard against a Bush terror attack victory

[Merlin]

The political lesson to take from the Spanish bombings is the same one we must take from 9/11. It is that a "terrorist" attack perceived as devastating galvanizes public support instantly for the party seen as toughest on terrorism. It swings a huge percentage of voters literally overnight.

Right now Bush is way, way ahead of Kerry in polls on the questions of which candidate voters prefer for handling the War on Terrorism, Iraq, and National Security. Kerry needs to act immediately to change that.

Churchill, as a rejected former MP, became a voice crying in the wilderness in pre-war England during the Chamberlain government. He was calling for rearmament. But everybody accused him of warmongering. With the Nazi invasion of Poland, it became clear Winston had been right all along, and he was brought out of retirement and made PM by popular demand.

Kerry must become the Churchill of our time, and he must do it now.

I fear--I fear greatly--that we are sure to experience some devastating terrorist attack between now and election day. If al Quaeda doesn't do it, someone in the McVeigh crowd surely will if only to try to get Bush re-elected. (Of course, this time they will be sure to leave a deserted van nearby with some blasting caps and a tape of Koranic verses in it.)

Kerry must now begin a solid campaign against Bush's failures as commander in chief, and as leader in the war on terror. He must attack on the following fronts:

• Bush has seriously hobbled the war on terror by launching an unnecessary war in Iraq which has diverted badly needed resources from the war in Afghanistan against al Quaeda, our real enemy.
  
  
• Bush has failed to take important actions which must be taken domestically to shore up our national security. These include a serious program of cargo container inspections, serious funding for first responders, and foot dragging on investigating intelligence failures from 9/11.
  
  
• Bush has utterly failed as a world leader. He has allowed America to become virtually isolated in the war on terror, and forced us into a situation where--because of lack of world support--our own defense resources are dangerously depleted.
  

These are just a few of many points. In essence, Kerry must get to the right of Bush on the terror issue.

In addition, imo, Kerry should announce now what we all know is inevitable: that his VP choice will be General Wesley Clark. This is a key element of any victory strategy in order to begin to neutralize Bush's advantage on national security issues. Kerry should announce it now, and Clark should begin an intensive campaign against Bush's failed national security policies.

I feel very strongly about this, and will post this up on Kerry's web site. We must act now to guard against a knee-jerk, pro-Bush response from the virtual inevitability of a "terrorist" attack on American shores prior to the election.

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. The Churchill of our time. Now there's a thought

He could pledge to gas the Kurds and Afghans as soon as he takes over the crusade.

[GainesT1958]

2. If Kerry's going to be "Churchill"...

He'll need a great "Montgomery" at his side...or better yet, a great "Ike"!

Hmmm...now what Supreme Allied Commander do we know who'd fill THAT role? :eyes:

B-)

[MarianJack]

6. Or Better than Both...

... a great PATTON!

[montanacowboy]

3. Make sure the Kerry people see this

we have all been worrying about this - the time to strike is now because later will definitely be too late

name Wes Clark as VP and start stumping the country with the failure of security under *'s watch

[Merlin]

9. Just sent off a msg to Kerry via Patrick Kennedy.

I have met Pat Kennedy and donated to him in the past, so I figure he owes me one. I asked him to forward the following to his Dad to forward to a savvy Kerry staffer, if not Kerry himself.

NOTE: OTHER MESSAGES TO THE KERRY PEOPLE VIA HIS FORUM WOULD HELP!
http://forum.johnkerry.com

The main thing I added to my post above in my message to PK for EMK for JFK2 is:

We must not permit this election to be lost as a result of our own political miscalculation. Far too much rides on John Kerry winning the Presidency. Senator Kerry must act now to guard against a knee-jerk, pro-Bush response from the virtual inevitability of a "terrorist" attack on American shores prior to the election. He can do so by launching a campaign against Bush's record as war president, world leader, and anti-terror strategist, by announcing now his select of Clark for VP, and by having Clark join the campaign against Bush's war record now.

[Sparkly]

21. I'm with you on Clark

And I've been ranting about the same thing -- we've got to turn all of Bush's slogans into liabilities, especially the "War President" and "Steady Leadership" ones. The very idea that he can take an unprecedented, tragic *failure* -- 9/11 -- and tout it as if it were some sort of achievement, is outrageous beyond belief!!

Clark has a lot to say about it (one of my favorites: "I'm not attacking George W. Bush for attacking the terrorists, I'm attacking him for NOT attacking the terrorists!") -- and speaks from experience, including direct experience with members of this administration.

Even if he's not the VP pick, I hope he'll be out on the campaign trail getting as much press coverage as possible.

(By the way, I love the "86W" -- gotta make myself a t-shirt with that one!)

[enough]

4. I don't know if he needs to "get to the right of Bush" on the terror issue

But I fully agree that he has to find a way to take over the issue or change the accepted conventional wisdom. AND FAST.

Your bullet points above are right on. He has to keep explaining how Bush*s policies have actually made us LESS safe, squandered resources, squandered lives, squandered time, squandered goodwill, etc. etc.

If not, you are so right that another attack here would probably be all that he would need. There's an article posted on LBN right now saying "Enraged voters set for return of Right" in Spain.

On edit:

I just heard a Greek security official talking about all the problems they have in getting ready for the Olympics. Very matter-of-fact, he said that the Iraq War has been much more destablilizing than 9-11. (NPR just now.)

[July]

5. Add to bullet points:

When we have a disaster here, who's going to be left to answer the call for the National Guard? We're sending them overseas.

[calimary]

7. AND, bush hasn't gone to ANY funerals.

That's part of the job description for a Commander-in-Chief. When I tell people that, those who don't already know are left mouths-agape.

[Eurobabe]

8. 86 Tom Ridge while you're at it!

Do I feel safe with that dope at the helm of the DHS? No.

This guy couldn't even fix the potholes in Pennsylvania.

[Merlin]

10. I'm for that. n/t

.

[BabsSong]

11. Did it occur to you that in perfect timing with the release of

Bush going negative on Kerry and having to raise "terror" as people's #1 concern (not their least concern) that Madrid went "boom"??? And they have been capitalizing on it all day and all over the eventing news. Terror is back. Terror is in. And I've watched "coincidences" by the gross (stupid conspiracy theory, you know) for three goddamn years of this criminal regime. What better than having this happen "over there" to get the juices running and Bush looking like the 'manly man' again. If it happened here, there is too much that could backfire as people accuse him of not protecting us. Ahhhh, and come election time he can proudly point to attacks in Europe but none here because the 'manly man' is protecting us.

[Merlin]

12. People won't have a chance ...

You wrote:
If it happened here, there is too much that could backfire as people accuse him of not protecting us.

The problem is people won't have a chance to accuse him when it happens here unless we do the preliminary groundwork now.

What will happen otherwise is that everyone--including 99% of the media--will close ranks behind "our leader," just like what happened with 9/11, and there will be absolutely no way to break through.

Kerry needs to establish relentlessly, in advance, that Bush has failed in the war on terror so that when the inevitable happens, the media will have no choice but to open the subject up for debate.

[OneTwentyoNine]

15. Your exactly right,I've said this before also....

But have been shot down for it. The claim is that Bush would come out looking weak on defense,weak on terrorism etc..etc if we were attacked before the election.

Well yeah..if all of cable news and all of radio wasn't run by Republicans for Republicans. A new terra attack would be a huge rally cry for our fearless leader to carry us yet one more time through those dark days of an attack on US soil. By the time the smoke cleared,the BS and flag wavers stopped,Bush would be back in the WH for four more years.

David

[Sliverofhope]

13. kick

kick

[King_Crimson]

14. It needs to be pointed out...

that this "administration" has already failed...or 9/11 never would have happened, and unless this is brought to the forefront I fear something worse happening! "Hey George...why was the military told to STAND DOWN on 9/11?" You call THAT being STRONG on defense??

[Guaranteed]

16. I thought we didn't LIKE this aspect of the Bush administration.

I thought we didn't like the fearmongering.

[NNN0LHI]

18. And just ignore the +90% approval ratings Bush had after 9/11? Yea, sure nt

[Mika]

17. Here's a possible Bush/Cheney poster

[nwstrn]

19. TPM agrees with you, Merlin--the time is now

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

"The Kerry campaign went up with an ad today in response to the president's new round of negative ads. The Kerry one took aim at the president's claims about the economy.

But Kerry really needs to hit back on defense too. Now.

. . .

The president cannot win this election on the economy. . . . .

But he can win on national security. And that's the reason Kerry should engage him on this issue now -- at a moment when the White House seems to be having great difficulty reacting to quickly changing events and shaping the direction of the campaign debate. This is the one issue on which Kerry cannot allow himself to be pigeonholed or adversely defined.

Does this take the debate onto more friendly territory for the president? Perhaps. But the shift will come eventually. And it's difficult to imagine a more propitious moment."

Kerry employs *'s former terror chief, so maybe Kerry will be smart enough to act now. It will be difficult, because the media still balks at any criticism of * and 9/11, national security.

[Octafish]

20. Perhaps that's why BFEE struck in Spain.

The Pentagon, FBI, NSA, CIA, who-else-knows-what all are sworn to protect America from enemies foreign and domestic. These organs of the American national security state know who the enemy is. They've been alerted to "Bush Knew and Terrorists Flew" and "I hit the trifecta!" and should have their guard up to what looks more and more like an inside job. After all, if DUers can do it, they should be able to connect the dots. Cheney, the brains of the BFEE, knows it, too.

Kevin Phillips, the GOP's own "intellectual" who spelled out the southern strategy for Super Dick Nixon figured them out:

The Bush Crime Family

Bush-Saudi ties deserve hard look

By: Kevin Phillips

Houston Chronicle, The Date: 01/16/2004

Dynasties in American politics are dangerous. We saw it with the Kennedys, we may well see it with the Clintons and we're certainly seeing it with the Bushes. Between now and the November election, it's crucial that Americans come to understand how four generations of the current president's family have embroiled the United States in the Middle East through CIA connections, arms shipments, rogue banks, inherited war policies and personal financial links.

As early as 1964, George H.W. Bush, running for the U.S. Senate from Texas, was labeled by incumbent Democrat Ralph Yarborough as a hireling of the sheik of Kuwait, for whom Bush's company drilled offshore oil wells. Over the four decades since then, the ever- reaching Bushes have emerged as the first U.S. political clan to thoroughly entangle themselves with Middle Eastern royal families and oil money. The family even has links to the bin Ladens-- although not to family black sheep Osama bin Laden -- going back to the 1970s.

How these unusual relationships helped bring about 9/11 and then distorted the U.S. response to Islamic terrorism requires thinking of the Bush family as a dynasty. The two Bush presidencies are inextricably linked by that dynasty.

The first family member lured by the Middle East's petroleum wealth was George W. Bush's great-grandfather, George H. Walker, a buccaneer who was president of Wall Street-based W.A. Harriman & Co. In the 1920s, Walker and his company participated in rebuilding the Baku oil fields only a few hundred miles north of current-day Iraq. As senior

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http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=5170&fcategory_desc=The%20Bush%20Crime%20Family