Kerry's Campaign Needs a Shot in the Arm....soon...

[BabsSong]

..and it's not the one he's getting today. Look, we started off this 'season' with all our candidates bashing Bush because Dean did and was burying the other guys in the polls. It forced them to 'bash'...and the results blew their socks off.

We had Dems pouring to the usual boring primary polls, united, mad and ready to roar. I asuumed we then wouldn't be doing any of that political science predictable stuff like after firing up the fringe to get the nomination, just sliding to the center and being low key.
But now I really have to say something because I've run out of excuses to myself.

Take this gas pump thing as one of many expamples. We let Bush do a preemptive strike and smear Kerry. This issue was hanging there for weeks, and we didn't strike first and we had ALL the ammo on our side because we could point to this all taking place under Bush's watch and pointing to how his administration is nothing but one big oil cartel. Correct?? Well, our answer after that strike was "here's John Kerry's plan for gas prices". Besides being 'forgettable' it signaled to me that we are NOT going to attack these people. Okay if he wants to stay away from attacking on 'war' issues, but there is no excuse to stay away from the domestic. Someone in that campaign is making terrible decisions. Kerry can attack without ads and the attacks will be covered on tv; and when he puts out an ad (and we have some here in my state) why are they putting out "mushy" stuff instead of some hard hitting like the MoveOn people??--wasting what little money they have. I've seen enough of these campaigns and the strategy right now is very dumb. It's losing the interest of those Dems who thought we had just begun to fight and Bush is hitting us all over as we sit with a big sack of bombs and are not using them. I certainly hope that someone hasn't made the decision that now we "move to the center" and just be nice and talk policy. Kerry has to give the people a reason to get rid of Bush; but all he's doing is trying to make them believe he would be better. He has to remind them what this bastard has done, what he will do, his lies, his corporate agenda, etc. John needs to come out swining NOW even with a bum shoulder.

[montanacowboy]

1. You are absolutely correct

I have never seen such a fizzle of a campaign - Kerry reverting to being "Senatorial" - right, that will get you lots of votes.

Once Dean was out of the picture, all the fire went out - Kerry no longer has any reason to be out there bashing bush -the DLC and McAuliffe have him just where they want him - in the center, being the nice moderate "look, I have a better plan shit"

This is all over unless things turn around right away and I haven't seen anything from this campaign that makes me thing it will change.

[BabsSong]

3. Yes, be it the "tax" thing or the "gas" thing we have info up the butt

and we just sit there with out "plans" and we let Bush launch the attacks. God, these are areas where we shouldn't be hearing a peep out of Bush because he's been so poor in these areas; but we are letting him twist the facts and strike first. It's making us look like we have nothing and Bush is the might man on all fronts, war and domestic. Like I said, this has to be MoveOn type of attacks and soon. Whoever is telling these people that what the American people want to hear is that same mushy crap still has learned nothing from the primary campaign. I'd like to say to them: Scoreboard, scoreboard----take a look at what has happend in those states where Bush has his ads. They have gone from 7-8 point leads of Kerry to Kerry being now 5 points behind Bush. Kerry was smart enough to fire the crew during his primary....he needs to kick their asses now....and stop listening to goddamn Terry McAuliff who couldn't deliver a vote if his life depended on it!!!!!!

[sampsonblk]

9. Dean was the reason for the season

Disclaimer: I wasn't a Dean supporter, I was for Wes Clark.

Kerry's campaign was lackluster from the beginning. It was Dean who filled the tents with Dems old and new. IMHO, pragmatism took over at the last minute (in Iowa) and those people voted for Kerry instead. I didn't see anything Kerry did to earn all that support. "I can beat Bush" is not going to work in a general election. I hope he has something up his sleeve. So far it looks like the same Kerry from the primaries.

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

2. Give it time!

It's the last horse to the wire that counts...not the first out of the gate

[BabsSong]

4. Unfortunately, our horse is still munching hay back in the barn!!

Bush should not be allowed to own these issues that are his weakest. If we let him have those, do you seriously think we will be able to fight him on his perceived 'strong' points??? The only thing that we have lucked out about so far is that this 9/11 commission has disrrupted things a bit---so use the time, Kerry, and reorganize. Once Rice appears that will be one big informercial for George. He will be back on top of the "strong leader" garbage. Thus, Kerry, has to kick the slats on all things domestic out from under him NOW.

[BillZBubb]

5. Agreed!

Something is very wrong with the Kerry campaign at this point. I don't know if they've just decided to let Clarke do the heavy lifting for a while, or if they just have run out of gas. They have to know that keeping Bush* on the defensive is the only way to win.

What bothers me the most is that the Kerry campaign doesn't already have some attack dog surrogates going out and blasting Bush* on a consistent and vocal basis. Shrub's campaign has Cheney, Miller, Gillespie, Hughes, etc. all out attacking Kerry daily.

[BabsSong]

7. amBushed--that's what is bothering me. Where is the follow up on

all this blather by McAuliff of how hard hitting we are going to be. Right now is the perfect time to slam Bush on all the great things we can lob at him regarding the domestic front as he's having his weeny roasted on the terrorism front. Hit him on all sides. But we've let him hit us on the domestic front first and we tell what our "plan" would be..we have to tell the people how he failed, first and what his corporate motives are, etc. We told supporters we were united and now it's like all these big Dems have disappeared into the woodwork. What gives??? Likel you said, they even have Karen out (what the???). Why aren't we booking people on the news shows?? What's Terry doing will his zillion dollar new facilities that have 'stuidos' and all that jazz. What are they saving it for?? Appearances cost nothing.

[Selwynn]

6. It's why we're going to lose.

[lancdem]

11. We're going to win

People seem to forget Kerry was given up for dead months ago and came back and won the nomination. Would I like to see more agressiveness? Sure, but it's a long way till November, and I believe he'll be fine. He's been outspent 10 to 1 on ads and the absolute worst he's doing is running 4 points behind in a questionable poll. There's no reason to panic at all.

[sangh0]

8. Bush* spent $10 million and his approval #'s stood still

while his approval rating for his War on Terrorism dropped from 70% to 57%.

I repeat, his spent $10 million to see his #'s drop, and you say Kerry is doing badly.

The left's circular firing squad never sleeps

[DeepModem Mom]

10. I wish we could get all the candidates back on the road --

Clark's been pretty active, Dean has made some media appearances, but I wish all of them -- Edwards, Gep, Bob Graham, Carol MB, maybe even Lieb and Al Sharpton -- would just crisscross the country, speaking to the constituencies they'd be most effective with. They went from the seven dwarfs to attractive, articulate spokespeople for the Democratic message. We had press, and public, attention. We need them now; we need every last one of us who understands the stakes in this election, donating, volunteering, being heard. We need pressure on the media. And we need bold, expert leadership from the Kerry campaign.

[BabsSong]

12. DeepModen--exactly---I would like to see these guys in a baton

race hitting the media circuit and handing the baton the next day to the next one. Unfortunately, all I've seen is Lieberman and he's back at kissing Bush's arse and criticizing us, and Clarke, et al......blah. Come on Terry, schedule the people in on a running commentary that goes from here to Novemember. The people still remember these candidates. Don't wait until "no one remembers their name anymore".