Reflecting on 2004

[theboss]

The story about the release of Kerry's naval records woke up the part of my brain that went to sleep on inaguration day and didn't expect to go back into action until 2006. That's the campaign consultant that lives somewhere in my frontal lobe.

And with the distance of history, he's a bit a flabbergasted that Kerry is STILL defending his Vietnam record....and doing it poorly at that.

I wasn't a Kerry supporter in the primaries; I liked Edwards. But Kerry was certainly my choice above Dean, Clark and the rest so I was pleased when he emerged as the winner and was further pleased that he selected Edwards...which may prove that I know nothing about politics after all, but that's too depressing to contemplate.

So, I'm coming from a place of, well, not love but certainly a place of like, with quite a bit of respect thrown in for good measure. In retrospect, Kerry's campaign basically came down to this: I'm smarter than W, people in the world like me more, and I'm a war hero.

I still believe that first part, despite the revelation of his mediocre grades as a student. Though, finding out he was a C-student makes me feel a little silly for constantly focussing on Kerry's brainpower. (Grades are not a measure of intelligence, of course, but they are a piece of overall evidence).

Besides, Americans like non-intellectual presidents. Clinton, JFK, Nixon, and Wilson are probably the only three true intellectuals elected this century. Clinton never got 50 percent of the vote, JFK squeaked by in his election and Nixon and Wilson are largely regarded as disasters. We like Trumans, Eisenhowers, and Reagans.

As for being more popular with the rest of the world, again, this now seems contrary to our overall national attitude. We don't like the rest of the world and never really have. It's the one thing we really have in common with the French. The rest of the world uses the metric system? Fuck you. 12 is a good basic unit. 10 can go to hell. So, I'm not really sure where Kerry was going with that one either.

Of course, I was completely on board with it at the time. Again, this proves little except that I am an idiot.

I was never really on board with the war hero angle. Kerry was a hero; no one doubts that. But he never emphasized it in his political career and, in fact, cultivated the image of a "dove" in the Senate. To suddenly ressurrect the hard-ass he was in 1967 seemed a little odd, especially at a time when the activist he was in 1972 would probably be more helpful. And then the Swift Vote attacks came, and he barely defended himself. He didn't release all his records, which raised somewhat legitimate questions. Now, it turns out that the records may have undercut the entire attacks. All in all, the "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty" thing is going to go down as one of the oddest campaign episodes ever.

I'm still not sure what if any strategies would have worked in 2004. (And before someone says anything, I'm not on board with the "Diebold stole the election" idea). But yesterday was just a remainder of what Kerry did and did not do. It wasn't a bad campaign strategy, I guess. It was just a very very weird one.

[seabeyond]

1. his education program, small business program

health insurance program and redirection of what to do in iraq didnt have anything to do with his campaign?

i guess it is what you focused on. because you focused on kerry being smart a war hero and what else, doesnt mean that is what his campaign was about. every speech i listened to of kerry he was tlaking health care, iraq and education. so i beg to differ

because media created his campaign as that, only means the repugs and media where able to define his campaign

[blm]

2. Media lied. JK DID release all Naval records during the campaign, except

for his medical records.

Legitimate media had access to all those records and SOME reported it while MOST BROADCAST MEDIA chose to run with the rightwing spin in SPITE of the facts in the record. The positive reports from some of the liars, themselves, were under-reported so it might SEEM as if they were never accessed, but the truth is they were.

Kerry only had one off year in college, and that was his freshman year. The media is SPINNING it into an entire record of mediocrity which completely ignores his more determined studiousness in the next 3 years.

Kerry completed Law School which Bush couldn't even get into in Texas. Has the media bothered to highlight ANYTHING that Kerry achieved on his own other than his ONE YEAR of mediocrity?

Not to mention during that year he was distracted by his other goal of learning to fly as a 19 YEAR OLD. Something Bush couldn't accomplish because of his lack of nerve as age 27.

You see what you want in the rightwing media spin. I'll stick with the facts.