Kerry needs to tell America to "GET A GRIP"----remember in old

[Gloria]

movies when people would get hysterical the hero would always give them a good slap to settle them down?

Frankly, after being unimpressed with today's GMA, I think Kerry has to go directly to America and tell them to GET A GRIP, ie, the modern day version of that wakeup slap.

Forget trying to get Bush off message. You've got to undercut Bush by slapping America to its senses:

"America, it's time to get a grip. Terrorism wasn't invented on 911. There's always a chance something might happen in the future, no matter how careful we are. But one attack won't bring down this country. What WILL bring us down is if we forget that we all have lives to lead. We have children to educate. Seniors to take care of. The sick to make well. This is what our lives are about. If we continue to act only in fear, then we stop living.

Living as free Americans is what this election is about. So, get a grip, America. Don't be driven to fear. Be driven to action. Vote to keep living your lives and making it better in the future!!!"

*****
That's what it comes down to, doesn't it?????????

[mark414]

1. i don't think many americans would much like being told

to get a grip by someone trying to win their vote

[LuminousX]

2. You are right, this is the job for surrogates

We need the Clarks, Deans, Sharptons, Brauns, and Kucinichs to all get one message and repeat it loud and often everytime a mic is put in their face.

Going all the way back to the pirates of the barbary coast, America has fought with terrorists of one sort or another. No one can protect us against terrorism, but someone can work to lessen the conditions that allow terrorism to thrive (e.g. Afghanistan after we threw them away in the late eighties, Iraq right now).

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

3. He shouldn't say it like that, but

it would be helpful to inspire people to have courage and act with optimism for the future and the next generation, the way FDR did. The next part of the quote "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" is to the effect that unreasoning fear hurts a country, he was saying keep calm, use your heads. I think Kerry will do this.

[Gloria]

4. Furthermore...Bush has many cowed....we've become a nation of cowards

Throw that out there, too. Forget relying on the press to call Bush a coward, as the LA Times did, alone out there....

It's gotta be personal. I don't care if Bush is a coward.....but I do care that he's trying to make ME live like a coward.......