Kerry Attacks Backfiring In Pleasant Valley Sunday

[KharmaTrain]

Last evening my wife and I, generally known around these parts (an upper-middle class "hood" northwest of Chicago) as "The Democrat" or "The Librul" or other unmentionables, attended a function at the high school. A year ago, the flags were flying and shrines were being built to the commander in thief. That was then this is now.

We've noticed a lot of chaffing in this predominately Repugnican area with the re-revealing of Chimpster's missing military records, then the Clarke revelations and so on...people are starting to wonder about this regime and if they're really what they say they are. This is especially the case among the women who see the prices rising, the money getting tighter and the chance their sons and/or daughters could soon be shipped off to war.

The attitude towards us over the last year has gone from disgust and ridicule to acceptance and now it looks like some are starting to reach out. (Insert Cheshire Cat smile here).

Last night the discussion centered around the attacks on Kerry's ribbon/medal throwing crap coming out of Rove Central. Maybe this tactic is to whip the military into shape and to keep Kerry on the defensive rather than focus attention on this regime's military record, but it may be having the opposite effect.

One of the women in our group started the ball rolling saying how she was tired of all the partisan bickering, especially against the "war". Then another chirped in how it's so ironic those who are ready to "send our kids off to war" (her exact words) never served themselves. The first women agreed saying the "lying going on about *'s military record is worse than Clinton's" (whoa!!!!). A neighbor...very GOOPy...then said how he was tired of the attacks on Kerry's military record. It's OK if it's about his "flip-flopping" (note to Kerry people, you've got a real problem here...if you already didn't know) but not about the military and that it is Bunnypants who is exploiting the military, not Kerry.

This opened the door to a discussion about where we were in 1971 and how we felt about Vietnam. To a person (and there were, by now at least 10 people gathered around) not a one who supported the war by that time and only a few said they ever really did. We all expressed how we feared that either one of us or someone we knew would be shipped off. For someone not only to go, but volunteer is still an incredible move...especially in that war...and especially when there were ways for those with money to avoid going to war (Junior!!!). We all agreed that those who stood up against the war...even at that date...did so at their peril (someone mentioned Nixon's enemies list...whoa again!) and that it took balls for Kerry to do that. Then my wife had to let loose saying "just like speaking against the government now"...she got a lot of nodding heads. Whoa!

The discussion soon turned to more local matters...a local property tax hike that will be taking affect to make up for a shortfall in state and federal funding. It brought a smile to my face when someone said "too bad this government is too busy stuffing its pockets with this war to worry about our kids...unless it's to go off to war".

These chickenhawks have no clue what a Pandorra's box they've opened with this one. It makes the poor military record of this regime stand out big time and exposes the lies and partisan attacks for what they are. No one is being fooled that this attack is to tear down Kerry's military record by Rove that is shining a light on where the goons that stole the White House were in those days, where we were and how big what Kerry did was in light of the draft dodging done by Bunnypants, Chenney, Rove and all the others. This elephant isn't just in the room...it's stomping on the furniture.

I don't think we're about to see a mass rush to Kerry in my area, but you're sure not going to see * pull the 65% he did in 2000...or even 55%. The loss is more from people staying home than going for Kerry, since I still can't see these people being mad enough, yet, to vote for a Democrat.

Cheers!

Note to Ed Gillespie and Karen Hughes: Keep up the attacks! Even your friends are starting to wonder about you. :evilgrin:

[dusty64]

1. I'm VERY glad to hear this

and I'm experiencing something similar. Support for the chimp is dwindling and his remaining cheerleader have fallen silent. Its becoming obvious, the extreme right has NOTHING positive to offer this Country and has only smears, lies, and slander. I hope they all backfire on their evil asses.

[opihimoimoi]

2. I have several GOOPY Friends also who have flip flopped on Bush.

One of them was SO convinced Bush was the MAN and the Pub Party was the best for Business. He works for the airline industry and his Company took major hits due to 9/11. Now that it comes out, this all coulda been PREVENTED with a couple phone calls of early warning....and Bush did nothing..... my friend is besides himself with anger. No more Pub Voting for him and many of my other Pub friends.

[BabsSong]

3. Great account - and a suggestion to Kerry campaign about the

"flip flop" issue. Why not gather clips of all Bush's dancing around with the Iraq issue on why we are going there, what our mission is, etc. Then do an add that just has one clip after another blending finally into a massive noisy collection of Bush's lips waging and waging....and then say "and they say Who is a waffler"?? They can do that on a number of other subjects also. That's the kind of ads they need to put forth. Then they add something to it all. They begin to pound into the people's minds via ads that Bush and his regime are LIARS----lairs, in time of war, trump the 'waffle' charge every time. Thank god, (read here last night) the ad writers have been fired. His ads were pathetic. Now they have to stop the snooze ads and start attacking this bastard non-stop. Bush can attack but, trust me, these thin skinned creeps can't "take" it in return.

[Octafish]

6. Only thing bush is good at is being stupid.

Example: In the debates with Al Gore, Bush was "agin' 'Nation Building.'"

Now: $87 billion to create public health care, education, roads, electricity, etc. in Iraq.

Nice waffles, there, eh?

Let Rove play games now. We DEMOCRATS know how to play real hardball.

[Killarney]

4. I love hearing stuff like that

:toast:

But regarding the Kerry flip-flop thing... Kerry or moveon should do an ad like the Daily Show did when they had Bush 2000 debate Bush 2004. Then say, and they say Kerry is a flip-flopper? That was the best Daily Show ever.

[Sparkly]

5. It's just the start

I really hope it does backfire, but this non-issue is only one of many they'll be rolling out. They simply want to amass little bytes into one big pile of "John Kerry is an untrustworthy flip-flopper" (vs. "Chimpy is STEADY!").

Did anyone else hear the Gillespie yesterday discussing this and he mixed in the stupid SUV thing ("first Kerry said he drives an SUV and then he said he doesn't own it")? This is the kind of piling up and piling on they'll be doing -- throwing out as many unrelated "examples" as possible, whether all stick or not. "It all just goes to show that Kerry can't give a straight answer/is all over the place on everything/ flip-flops..."

This is how they did it to Gore. It wasn't any one misquote twisted into a "lie," it was months of amassing them together into "Al Gore is a pathological liar."

I think we need to hit back on "steady" and "flip-flop" and redefine both of them somehow. (Steady = obstinate even when wrong, followed by too-little-too-late flip-flops; Kerry's "flip-flops" = thinking through issues and moderating one's position based on facts... Well, we need to boil that down to something memorable...)

[Bandit]

7. "The loss is more from people staying home than going for Kerry,"

Let us hope and pray that this is the case. I would rather they all just sit this one out than actually go vote for Kerry. They may vote Kerry for President but they will vote Republican on all the rest. We need to pick up seats in the House and Senate and nothing could help our cause more than if a bunch of Republicans just stayed home.

[KharmaTrain]

8. Thanks All...We Have To Keep Working

I know I'll get flamed, but all I care is these people stay home on election day and I'm not going to waste time debating or trying to "convert". These are 50 year olds...they should be able to read the tea leaves by now. If not, it's useless anyway.

I agree that the Stewart type/Daily Show (http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.php?reposid=/multimedia/tds/stewart/jon_7131.html) here's the video link...it's great!!!

The problem is these people are still looking for a reason TO vote for Bunnypants. A good scare...9/11 style will still do it as will any doubts or real mess that sticks on Kerry. Of all issues to try to "energize the base" on Kerry's record? The cynical side of me wonders if this is just softening people up...dumbing them down, numbing them so they just tune out altogether.