Kerry's strategy with bringing up Cheney's daughter:

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

I'm just curious what people think his strategy was, if there was one. The media seems to think that he's trying to siphon off conservative votes from Bush. That theory makes no sense, because anyone homophobic enough not to vote for Bush, isn't voting for Kerry, either. I think he was trying to point out Bush's hypocrisy, but didn't pick the best way to do it.

[Droopy]

1. I think that he did it to show Bush's hypocrisy

And Republican's hypocrisy in general. They enlist a homosexual to campaign for them specifically to court the homosexual vote and then turn around and try this anti-gay marriage amendment. That not only matters to homsexuals, but to fair minded people everywhere.

[freetobegay]

2. Other

I don't think it was planned it just happened. Kerry was speaking from the heart.

[Jim Sagle]

3. His aim was to alert w's fundamentalist base that the Cheneys have a

lesbian daughter, with the goal of discouraging them from voting at all.

[JohnnyCougar]

8. Agreed!

[Melodybe]

4. They is no "trying" to it, Kerry was smart and did it straight out.

And it worked, it is backfiring on Bushco, because like most of their plans it is just plain stupid.

Even my husband's young redneck co-worker pointed out how sad it was that Bush and Cheney are trying to make an issue out of this. He said it makes Bushco look very weak. He recently decided to vote for Kerry, but it was great to hear that not only is he voting for good but he is now recognizing Bushco lies and hipocracy.

[pacalo]

5. It was extremely clever of Kerry to mention the Cheneys' daughter...

It was a way to put the brakes on one of their main criticisms about Kerry, the gay marriage issue. He comes from a state that created a law to allow gay marriages, & they love to call him the most liberal senator.

Kerry sent them a message: If you want to make a major issue out of gay marriages, you have to deal with your own reality.

[foo_bar]

7. it probably forced them to reproduce all their advertising

[Crunchy Frog]

6. I think that it could siphon off extreme RW voters.

Not that they would vote for Kerry, but that they might just stay home instead of voting for Bush/Cheney. I don't know that was Kerry's intention, but it is one possible effect.

Although Mary Cheney is out and most of the world already knows it, I think alot of fundy voters kind of live in a bubble in which they aren't exposed to the same information that the rest of us are. For them, it may have come as quite a shock to learn about Cheney's daughter, and might make some of them more reluctant to get out and vote.

The media seems to be making it "worse" right now by making a huge deal out of it and creating a sort of scandal and manufactured outrage. It's kind of funny, every time they talk about it, more of the RW base will have an opportunity to learn that the Cheneys have a lesbian daughter.

[arewenotdemo]

9. He knew the question was coming

and it was a very politically shrewd way (jujitsu?) of stuffing the Repuke knife of gay marriage in their own backs. They deserve it; they brought it to the fight.

At first I almost flinched and thought that no individual's sexuality should be a topic for national discussion (without their consent, obviously). That was before I read that she's out and the female equivalent of a Log Cabiner campaigning for the murdering bastards.

The beauty of the remark, to me, is that it hits home. Repuke homophobes need to be educated. If it takes calling them on the fact that homosexuals are...gasp...EVEN IN THEIR FAMILIES, that's fine with me.

[zara]

10. he was trying to rile up republicans

who profess neighbor love but really hate and are ashamed of gays/intolerance will turn off some in the middle/extreme gay haters may even think bushcheney weak on homosexuality and not vote

[VoteJohn04_com]

11. Who cares...

I don't really care WHY he brought it up...but there
wasn't anything wrong with it and he wasn't in
anyway "attacking" cheney's daughter...

So I wish the news would stop playing up this whole
republican smoke screen!

[Lexingtonian]

12. jamming up Bush and Cheney

The K/E people gave the subject a trial run at the VP debate, if you remember. I'm sure they focus group tested it beforehand. But I think they got some kind of fun result out of the focus groups they ran during the VP debate and decided to run it at Bush hard at the next opportunity.

I can only guess that it caused extreme embarrassment and cognitive dissonance scores and bizarre semi-psychotic behavior afterwards among different Republicans and Republican leaners they followed. In a world and worldview where homophobia is considered normal and desirable, 'outing' people puts them in danger. But if you 'out' a family member in this kind of society, it leads to a massive clusterf#@% of the logic chain of blame/obligation/'morality'/love. Of course, the reason for it is that homophobia isn't actually reconcileable with human decency and compassion.

In a glorious spirit of experimentation Kerry placed the fox in the henhouse- again- yesterday. The countermove by the Bush people...I can see why they don't want the problem to fester, but some genius convinced them to put out this fire with a massive swig of gasoline. Maybe some pissed off Log Cabin Republican consultant saw a grand opportunity to sabotage this crew and took it.

[arewenotdemo]

14. "In a glorious spirit of experimentation"

I like, I LIKE. :)

I agree it was totally calculated. For one thing they saw Cheney's reaction...he genuinely melted. How much of his reaction was from perceived sympathy for the family I don't know and it doesn't really matter. And say what you will, Cheney did have the chutzpah to come out and say what he felt he could in support of his daughter and gays and lesbians at large.

But for the Repukes who CAN'T handle homosexuality in their families (like Lynne) the guilt and shame are too much. For them it IS a disease.

In one move Kerry took the "gays" out of the Repuke "gays, guns and God" arsenal and has a whole lotta Repukes either lookin in the mirror or at each other. And that just can't be a pretty sight.

[freestyle]

13. I think he gave an honest answer to a fundamentally stupid question.

Kerry brought up a well known lesbian to put a human face on an issue the religious right uses to divide people and that he does not believe is a choice. I just reread what Kerry actually said. He begins with "we are all God's children". Since GLBT folks have been called everything but children of God, acknowledging that basic fact is a good thing. Kerry looked and sounded sincere and then followed up with comments generally supportive of equal rights. Bush launched into a defense of writing discrimination into the Constitution.

The basic issue is equal rights, and current antidiscrimination laws cover things that are choices and are not. Race and gender are not choices, but that does not stop anyone from trying to discriminate on those bases. The only problem this gay man had with what Kerry said was that he still stops short on marriage equality. I don't know what universe calling someone a child of God is an attack in. Must be that fantasy world of spin.

[Hot Water]

15. Bush also wouldn't come right out and say he would outlaw abortion

either. The religious right didn't want to hear that waffle. It was a double home run.

[sandnsea]

16. "Let's talk about it"

Kerry likes to talk about things, everything. I understand he's supposed to do a speech about his beliefs sometime soon, maybe he's laying the groundwork for some honest discussion in America about gays, abortion, family and the rest. Everybody has a gay family member, maybe he's going to say it's about time we grow up and deal with it. But I don't really know.

[HuskerDem]

17. It's the hypocrisy stupid!

I think it works as a campaign motto. Has a nice ring.

[boyblue2005]

18. What about Alan Keyes' statements re Mary?

As a gay man, I was absolutely thrilled with Kerry's response to the question...and it was an elegantly phrased question as well, one of the few in the debate.

Dick and Lynne Cheney's statements are obviously drafted by the RNC and are intended to deflect attention from more substantive issues raised in the debate, just as the whole gay marriage issue is in the campaign. Kerry owes no apology, not even a weak one. In fact, he ought to just reiterate what he said. I don't know of a single gay person who objects to what Kerry said or how he handled it. I thought it was a class act myself.

What the media are ignoring is the remark by Alan Keyes only a few days ago where he stated in unequivocal terms that "Mary Cheney is selfish for being a lesbian." It was a horrendous quote which wasn't reported much outside the gay press. The Cheneys had not a word to say about it. Does that tell you where they're coming from on this very unimportant flap?

<blockquote>
THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION Keyes: Mary Cheney 'Selfish'
From a Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 1, 2004

NEW YORK — Alan Keyes, the Republican candidate for a vacant U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, said Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter Mary was a "selfish hedonist" for being a lesbian.

Keyes, who twice unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in Maryland, is trailing Democratic State Sen. Barack Obama in the Illinois race. His comments came in an interview with OutQ, a satellite radio station for gays and lesbians.

Expressing support for a proposed amendment to the Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage — an issue that the vice president has said is best left to the states to legislate, Keyes said: "The essence of … family life remains procreation. If we embrace homosexuality as a proper basis for marriage, we are saying that it's possible to have a marriage state that in principle excludes procreation and is based simply on the premise of selfish hedonism."

Asked whether that meant Mary Cheney was "a selfish hedonist," Keyes said: "That goes by definition. Of course she is."