A 12 Hour Truce?!

[jefferson_dem]

Yuval Rubinstein at LeftCoaster weighs in, in a blistering way -

Wanna make lemonade out of lemons? The Kerry campaign's surrogates should be mercilessly flogging Dan Bartlett's ridiculous plea for a "12 hour truce" between the two campaigns. Here's how I would respond:

The scumbag responsible for the deaths of 3000 Americans is on TV mocking our great country, and the Bush campaign's reaction is to declare a 12-hour truce! There's no "truces" in the war against terrorism, Mr. Bartlett. That's the cowardly way out. And you can be damn sure that President Kerry will work every hour of every day to annihilate terrorism wherever it exists, rather than pleading for a "12 hour truce."

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/

[PDittie]

1. Unilateral disarmament

Yeah, right.

That is sooooooooo 2000.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. Maybe W should have stopped campaigning

for 12 hours?

Public enemy #1 shows up all of a sudden alive and well, yet W didn't even skip a beat.

[Misunderestimator]

3. I hadn't heard about Bartlett's comment, but just found it...

Speaking to reporters outside the campaign rally, White House communications director Dan Bartlett said that the tape should not affect the way Bush campaigns but that Kerry should have marked a 12-hour truce.

"You would think that there would be a, maybe, 12 hours to let the American (people) absorb what has just happened today," he said.

Prodded on why, if the tape ought not to affect the campaign, Kerry should have stopped criticising the president, Bartlett revised his statement, saying that the problem was that Kerry's attack had been "discredited".

The only reason they would use this tactic is because they are afraid of the effect the tape might have... they don't WANT to acknowledge it. Very, Very Funny that Bartlett tries to turn it back on the Kerry campaign as if they are doing something wrong simply by reacting to something newsworthy.

And :wtf: is Bartlett talking about with Kerry's attack being discredited? What was discredited?

I can't WAIT to get these horrible, horrible people out of office.

[jefferson_dem]

4. Right! Chimp's henchmen want people to "absorb" the video, in an

emotionally reactive way. Well...fuck him. This is war. Faux machismo and kiddy-calls for truces won't cut it. Fact is, this bastard was the cold blooded killer, the target Chimp let get away.

[stray cat]

5. Why should we let Bin Laden win

by declaring a truce. All he did was release a tape and Bush wants a postponement in the campaign?

[DrBB]

6. I'm having second thoughts about this

I too was po'ed when I read it on TPM this morning. And Josh's point--that demonstrating toughness by taking a tough line with the GOP is an essential subtext of the election--is well taken.

But I'm not so sure at the moment that they aren't playing it exactly right.

Consider: twelve hours over the weekend when people are least news-focused. And it doesn't prevent their surrogates from pointing out the obvious. And ultimately the story plays right into one of Kerry's most consistent themes--that Bush blew it by letting OBL escape. It's not a non-sequitur for him to go back and close on that theme on Monday. Most of all, the Bushies have their own reasons to go easy on this, so it gives the story time to lose its initial edge--there's evidence of that already--and innoculates Kerry against "aiding and abetting" charges if he brings it up carefully on Monday. "We held back, out of respect, but it has to be said: the costly and messy struggle the Bush administration has involved us in in Iraq has done nothing to eliminate the real threat." Or whatever.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this a.m. I'm getting the impression that the OBL story has not made as big a splash as might be feared, and by playing it this way Kerry is giving it space to fade, rather than keeping it in play by feeding GOP faux-outrage at him "politicizing" it.

Damn hard to know what's really going on, but over the last month I've gained a LOT more confidence than some people seem to have that Kerry actually has good instincts and judgment on how to play his hand. He has ALWAYS played a long game, and this may yet be another example.

God I'll be glad after his landslide on Tuesday.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

7. Sure, Kerry keeps quiet for 12 hours whilst media whores spin OBL tape in

Bush's* favor. :puke: