The most important thing our candidate can bring to the table in 2008

[jmowreader]

is Swiftboat-proofing.

We as Democrats have a serious problem: we're too nice.

President Clinton gets attacked for everything in the world? President Clinton seemed more interested in making people happy than in defending himself.

Senator Clinton gets attacked? She tries to defend herself, gets called a domineering bitch by the people she's trying to defend herself against, and pulls back into her shell.

Senator Kerry gets called a fake war hero? He goes on vacation...and the fuckers who were attacking him use film of his vacation to attack him even more.

We could go on. President Gore's light bill. Senator Edwards' home. Senator Obama's middle name. Congressman Ellison's religion. All of it's fair game for these assholes.

Now...on the other hand...we could run Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer...

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2240/

In the waning days of the election, the Republican Governors Association (RGA) hammered Schweitzer with an ad accusing him of bogus business deals. "The RGA had already been kicked out of other states for deceptive advertising," says Brad Martin, executive director of the Montana Democratic Party. "At the last minute, they ran an ad with a man who had tried to deceive money out of the Schweitzers, a wealthy landowner portraying herself as a destitute widow, and the cousin of the Republican nominee for governor." The three Montanans alleged bad business activity on Schweitzer's part, but failed to disclose their own conflicts of interest.

The Montana Democrats hit back with an ad highlighting the fact that Schweitzer's accusers had felony criminal records, as well as family and business connections to the Republican candidate for governor. The attack ad fell flat on its face.

In 2008, the Repukes are going to throw as much shit as they possibly can at us. Brian Schweitzer has a history of packing it into cannon shells and firing it back at them.

[Radical Activist]

1. The most important thing is a candidate with a message people respond to.

Reagan and Clinton won because they had a message and style that captured people. Swift-boating worked against Kerry because Kerry wasn't saying anything people cared to hear. If you inspire people, they won't care about the petty attacks.

[jmowreader]

10. Let's try his Energy Policy

Time Magazine did a story about the Democratic politicians popping up behind the Rockies--Janet Napolitano, Brian Schweitzer, that bunch.

In the piece, which is at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580387-7,00.html, they discussed a presentation on energy he gave to the Lions Club of Helena...

Later I asked Schweitzer how a Democrat could sell that energy pitch in a presidential campaign. "I can do it in a 60-second spot," he said. "Put me on the clock." And he was off to the races: "Folks, we've got a problem. We Americans use 6.5 billion bbl of oil a year. We produce 2.5 billion ourselves. We import 4 billion from the world's worst dictators. We need to stop doing that. We can save 1 billion bbl through conservation. Things like more efficient cars, homes and appliances. We can produce another 1 billion bbl of biofuels with agricultural crops like corn, soybeans and canola. We can produce 2 billion bbl a year turning our enormous coal reserves to clean-burning gas. We can achieve energy independence in 10 years, create a whole new industry with tens of thousands of high-paying jobs, and you'll never have to send your grandchildren to war in the Middle East. I'm Brian Schweitzer, and I approved this message."

That's how we win. Plain talk and a message people like, plus immediate counterattacks when the Republicans try something stupid.

Remember where this guy is from: Montana, the reddest state in the Union, a place no one campaigns for president in because it's assumed the Republicans are going to take it. (That, and it's a three-vote state that's 550 miles long and impossible to campaign in because of the way it's populated.) Schweitzer's coattails are good enough to have cleaned the Repukes out of both chambers of the Montana legislature.

[Radical Activist]

13. We'll have a Republican energy policy for another four years

if we don't have a candidate who can say that without reciting a bunch of numbers. People tune out when you do that.

I like Schweitzer but he's no Obama.

[jmowreader]

15. I like Schweitzer's persuasiveness

I don't feel like looking for the link right now, but this concerns the Bush administration's overturning of Clinton's roadless-area rules.

There's a county in Montana that's got a lot of roadless area, and the county commissioners and lumber companies in that county (Montana counties, as you'd expect, are very large) wanted to put roads in them. Schweitzer managed to talk them out of it on economic and environmental grounds without ever using the word "environmental."

He will also win the voting bloc who chooses candidates based on whether you'd like to sit down and have a beer with them. Bush won that one in 2000 and 2004, even though if you sat down and had a beer with Bush he'd drink his beer, then your beer, then everyone else in the bar's beer...Kerry had that "sitting down and having a beer" photo op and he looked like it was the first beer he'd had since Nam...Schweitzer really would sit down and have a beer with you.

[dkofos]

2. If we were to run Jesus H. Christ, they would still swiftboat him.

[Czolgosz]

3. You know the "H" in Jesus H. Christ stands for Hussein, don't you???

[dkofos]

4. No I didn't. It's just something my mother used to say.

[walldude]

5. LOL... now that was funny!

:toast:

[kimmerspixelated]

6. The swiftboaters/rw's idea of Jesus and the real man

are two different people. If Jesus were to sit down to supper with any one of them, they'd be shocked at how Hippielike he was. They'd think someone had let in a drifter. The real Jesus wouldn't be welcome at all. That's what I hate about the RW's, they are such huge hippocrits!
Bastids!

[nevergiveup]

7. I loved

Obama's immediate "smack down" of Australia's Prime Minister. A candidate can't possibly respond to all the crap out there but you hit the major ones quickly and you can't be gentle.

[blm]

8. Media is different now - defend and counterattack and they don't repeat your side.

or give it the airtime they'll give the smearers.

This is the way it's been since IMPEACHMENT. The swiftlie coverage imbalance was nothing new. It happened to Gore, to Dixie Chicks, to Dan Rather and to Kerry.

Their defenses didn't get 10% of the coverage the liars who smeared them received.

Check out the DU Research Forum and see the data on the response to swifts. The media was fully complicit in what they chose to give the airtime.

This will happen to anyone who sticks their neck out - for long before the swifts and long after - until we expose the RW control of the media by its parent corporations.

[jmowreader]

9. It might be different if we ran Schweitzer

That's because Brian Schweitzer's entertainment value is REAL high.

Example: There is a bar in Butte called the M&M. It is one of the most historic bars in the state of Montana, and it was closed for a good long time. When it reopened, Schweitzer hand-delivered its liquor license and was served the first drink--a shot of Jameson's Whiskey, which he consumed. (He consumed the bar's second drink too--another shot of Jameson's.)

I read a description of him once: "Bill Clinton on methedrine."

[blm]

14. I agree he is very entertaining and tough and I like him - but when the public

hears more from those who claim he's an eccentric, a drunk, or a blowhard and he is editted down to sound that way it's a whole other story.

Did you or anyone you know ever hear that Kerry attacked the swifts and challenged Bush to debate their service during Vietnam? Most people NEVER heard this, even many Dems. Why? The corpmedia refused to air Kerry's speech to the Firefighters Convention and barely even reported it that he made the speech. No networks covered it. You think they just forgot to show up? It was Aug 19, 2004. Exactly when the media now claims that Kerry never fought back.

BushInc never wanted the public to see Kerry in front of the Firefighters Convention - the firefighters who ENDORSED Kerry - firefighters' endorsement post 9-11 should have been a HUGE story and the corpmedia obliged Bush on this. The story was also big in that Kerry challenged Bush to debate their Vietnam-era service if he was going to hide behind front groups like the swifts and attack Kerry on his.

Never underestimate the media and the corporate needs of those who own and CONTROL it.

[PhilipShore]

11. Democrats should continue to be friendly - but be more liberal

We as Democrats have a serious problem: we're too nice.

I say keep the being nice: that is one of the main differences of Democrats and Republicans; and in order to prevent the swiftboating tactics, the Democrats simply need to be more liberal and/or progressive.

[Homer Wells]

12. This is a great post

I cannot believe it has not been kicked and kicked again.

Anyway, I definitely K&R this.

[pat_k]

16. Impeach and demonstrate strength. Impeach and become champions. . .

. . .of the Constitution (as amended) and the People's Government. (You don't get much more inspiring than that.)

The best thing the so-called "leadership" can do for the Democratic Party is also the best thing they could do for the future of the nation. Enforce our common contract. Stand and fight Bush and Cheney with the ONLY loaded weapon in their arsenal -- impeachment.

Reality trumps all perception.

Actually fight for the nation and you are seen as a champion.

Refuse, try to finesse, and play games, and you are seen as an unprincipled game player.

Allow fear of "backlash" stop you from fighting for your beliefs and you are seen as a coward.

The choice is simple (apparently too simple for the "strategerists"):

Impeachment or Impotence.

Courage or Cowardice.

Duty or Complicity.

[WI_DEM]

17. Schweitzer isn't running for president, but he could be on short list for VP.

[jmowreader]

18. Gore's not running for president either

but that hasn't stopped DUers from declaring him a candidate.