Kerry advisers plot general election strategies

[Feanorcurufinwe]

With each of his 12 primary season victories, Kerry has stepped up his criticism of Bush. He calls White House foreign policy feckless, Iraq policy reckless, domestic policy ruthless and distortions of his own record baseless. "George Bush and the Republican smear machine has begun trotting out the same old tired lines of attack," Kerry said recently, adding that he has news for Republicans: "I am not going to back down."

Thus, he's already begun to build up his general election campaign. It starts, as with much in American politics, with money. Kerry plans to tap $15 million in the Democratic National Committee coffers to respond to a multimillion dollar TV ad campaign Bush is poised to unleash once Democrats select a nominee. In addition, Democratic interest groups are raising tens of millions of dollars that can be spent to criticize Bush, though not in coordination with Kerry.

<snip>
Republicans are already calling Kerry a tax-raising social liberal who is soft on defense. Aides say Kerry can counter that he supported balanced budgets in Congress, opposes gay marriages, supports gun rights as a hunter, plus his military service. His media team hopes to inoculate Kerry from Republican criticism with TV and radio ads, as well as placing stories with traditional media outlets in targeted markets, some unaccustomed to getting attention from presidential campaigns.

In his public remarks, Kerry intends to continue making the case that Bush has violated the public's trust on a wide range of policies, from Iraq and taxes to the environment. Aides see the flap over Bush's Vietnam-era commitment to the National Guard as an extension of their integrity argument. But advisers want Kerry to represent positive change in education, health care and jobs -- not just define himself as the anti-Bush. Thus, they're planning a series of policy speeches later in the year.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/02/11/politics1648EST0777.DTL

[Octafish]

1. The guy kept his head while all about him were losing theirs.

:kick: to the Little Turd from Crawford.

Bush: You better have a good lawyer!