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[KissMyAsscroft]

1. They are habitual liars...

They are secretive.

They are corrupt to the core.

Cheney's image as a secretive manipulator.

They are religious zealots.




Of course the difference is that all of these things are true!

[NewHampshireDem]

2. They are afraid to discuss the facts.

nfm

[wyldwolf]

3. Bush/Rove are one dimensional thinkers

For them or against them.

They believe that if Americans are given a choice, they will surely make the wrong choice. This is the confidence this administration has in you.

So America, how do you like having your decisions made for you? How do you like not having a voice?

[surfermaw]

30. Like the three of them, that is what it is going to take to win.

Yes it is.

[Fovea]

4. They are Secretive because they are Cheating.

Halliburton alone, is enough proof of that. Enron alone likewise.

[flaminbats]

5. and it only works when things go well...

when things went badly, this strategy destroyed Bush I, Nixon, and Ford.

[pinto]

6. how dare they let al Qaeda influence an American election!

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[Sparkly]

8. They run from their record

Everytime they make a negative, personal attack on John Kerry, it's because they don't have a record of progress to talk about instead.

Everytime they blame Bill Clinton, they're showing they're afraid to take responsibility for their own actions and inactions.

Everytime they bring up 9/11, it's to distract from their failures or use it as an excuse for their failures.

9/11 was a failure of the Bush administration! They have no right to politicize it.

The Bushies exploit the military when it suits them, yet diss decorated veterans, even though they never saw combat themselves.

[Dogmudgeon]

9. The October Surprise

Using Osama bin Laden as an October Surprise is almost impossible now, since so many people have been talking about it. If Team Bush really can find him, they'll use him at an earlier opportune time.

To be more precise, inoculation involves spoiling the surprise effect of the opponent's argument(s).

There's also a variant, which I call Preventive Transference -- it's where you accuse your opponent of planning to use a trick that you yourself intend to use. The GOP does this a lot, and when it accused Kerry of planning to run a smear campaign, that was Preventive Transference in action.

Also note: "Gore stole the election", "the Democrats are hate-obsessed", "liberals hate freedom", "Clinton is arrogant", and "No religion at all is itself a religion".

Since it's officially The Age of Irony, these techniques have become very important. Everybody likes to think of themselves as being too hip to be conned, so spreading the propaganda in the guise of giving them the "inside dope" works better than less "sophisticated" methods.

--bkl

[Robb]

17. Very interesting

...This could produce effective messages, especially if you target the "Git offa mah land" brand of conservatives. Focus on the largest expansion of government in history and the growing deficit, for example, and produce "Republicans are big-government spenders".

I like. :)

[arcos]

27. imagine Bush giving his acceptance speech at Ground Zero...

and suddenly announcing: "I just got off the phone with the Iraqi Temporary President, and he said they captured Osama Bin Laden".

I wouldn't be surprised. :puke:

:tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

[blm]

10. Can't find Bush's TANG papers, go after James Bath's records.

After all, Bath was grounded the very same day and Bath has (coincidentally) been involved in many other dubious adventures with Bush - abortion for Bush's underage girlfriend, Harken deal, bagman for Saudi and Bin Laden money earmarked for the Bush family, etc.....

[KittyWampus]

11. Bush & GOP Are Obstructing Progress On Energy Independance

Undermining our National Security and making us dependant on Foreign Nation.

Is it a coincidence that Bush and Cheney are tied to Petroleum/Energy Industry?

[JPJones]

12. John Kerry would have caught OBL a long time ago.

[KittyWampus]

13. Kerry Doesn't Need To Hide From His Wealth

his entire adult life has been dedicated to public service and fighting to make sure that those less well off have a voice.

Bush pretends to be an Average Joe even while his entire adult life has been amassing wealth for himself and his cronies at the expense of those less well off.

Pete, it's important for Kerry's campaign to run away from Kerry's background and wealth. It's not how much money you have... it's whether you use it to empower others or try to prevent them from achieving their full potential.

[OKNancy]

21. I love this one

...lol,, because that was what I was going to say. Kerry has used his education and upbringing ( he actually wasn't really that wealthy as a youth) to serve, first in Vietnam, then as an assist. D.A., then as a Senator.

[KittyWampus]

40. My Mistake: Kerry's Campaign Should NOT Run Away From His Wealth

In my last paragraph I wrote Kerry's campaign should... meant exact opposite.

Most average Americans support the GOP for two reasons:

1.The GOP is largely the only party to talk about Family Values (even though it's just empty rhetoric on their part)

2. Most average Americans have it in the back of their head some day THEY TOO WILL BE WEALTHY and think that the GOP is the party of "wealth".

[gulliver]

14. Bush always attacks people on his own weaknesses.

For example, he attacks Kerry for flip-flopping when Bush himself has backed down and flip-flopped more than any politician in recent memory.

Bush attacks Kerry for taking payola from corporations when in fact Bush took more money in 2000 than Kerry has taken in his entire political career.

In other words, I think we have to take the third derivative of this judo/innoculation pattern. We have to pre-inocculate against innoculation.

Kerry should point out that any attack Bush makes is likely to point to a Bush weakness. It's true.

Bush reveals his own weaknesses by what he chooses to attack. That's a pattern. What will Bush do next, question Kerry's service in Vietnam? Of course this whole thing could be settled if Bush would come out of hiding and do his own talking instead of pumping out ads full of BS and violin music...

[blm]

15. Kerry WROTE the book that alerted of terror in 1997 - Bush never read it.

.

[KittyWampus]

18. Zing----------------

[blondeatlast]

16. Kerry was there (in Vietnam). Bush wasn't.

Just push that fact--the details don't matter to Joe and Joan America,
only to political junkies and hacks.

[oasis]

19. "Would you buy a used car from this man?" (picture of Bush's stupid face).

[jumptheshadow]

20. Nail Bush on Social Security

Believe me, it's an issue that resonates with many people, especially the Baby Boomers who will retire soon.

I'd like to see a well-researched, concerted, yet editorially concise campaign that drives home everything Bush has done to hurt Social Security. That way, when he tries to paint John Kerry as an out-of-touch elitist or a tax raiser or a big spender, you already have already planted the justifiable image in the public's mind that Bush is creating a desolate retirement for many Baby Boomers because of his policies.

Many retirees are suffering right now because of changes in the Medicare system. The pain is real; lots of voters are facing a series of everyday hardships and injustices that will influence the way they cast their ballot.

So I say blast away with a campaign that is detailed, not abstract. Get real life stories of people who are being screwed by Bush's policies. Don't use platitudinal stuff. Go to people, like my aunt, who is a Republican poll watcher and who will vote for Kerry because of her anger at Bush's awful stewardship of support for the elderly.

[sangha]

22. They want to distract from their failures and lies

When they say "He'll raise your taxes", it's to distract your attention from huge budget deficits, and jobs flowing overseas

When they "He's a liberal", it's to distract your attention away from their radical agenda to rob the poor to profit the powerful interests.

When they say "he flip-flops", it's to distract your attention away from the changing justifications for the invasion of Iraq, and the lies and broken promises of his administration.

And when they say "Weak on security", it's to distract from the greatest failure in our nation's history, and their response to it which has failed to make Americans any safer or more secure.

[Crunchy Frog]

23. They want to focus on Dems "negative attacks"

because they want to avoid discussing the real issues.

[troublemaker]

24. Okay...

All elected Dems and surrogates should hammer hard on the idea that Bush's people insanely believed that Al Qeada was run by Saddam until 9/11 forced them to accept the Clinton admin view that AQ was a separate and distinct menace. Controversy brews. Documents are demanded. In the end Bush is "exonerated" simply because it's almost unprovable, but Bush gets roughed up plenty while the story's alive. Everyone in America--even Bush supporters--have their own conspiracy theory about why we went into Iraq. Play on that.

The Osama's already on ice rumors seem to be getting around -- the large black comic on TOUGH CROWD refers to it often.

Presponisve (and even self-inoculating) framing of the 9/11 report is a good idea.

The Berger and Clarke stuff will be devastating. (The administration tried to prenoculate themselves with the NBC CIA-video link.) A listing of the topics of NSC meetings between 1999 and 9/11 would be instructive. Probably 30-40 Clinton NSC meets on Al Qeada in 24 months vs. 3 under Bush pre-9/11. Clarke's ignored demand of C. Rice for a top level meeting in Jan. 2001 about "the impending al qeda attack" is tough stuff. Most of this stuff is already known from 2002 but we're going to see it through different eyes post-Iraq.

Hit the "Cheney runs everything, Bush is simple-minded puppet" note now. When the 9/11 commission report comes out most Americans will be hearing for the first time about Bush and Cheney's very different 9/11 roles with Cheney ordering (unsuccessfully) that the Pentagon plane be shot down while Bush was wandering around Florida doing god-knows-what. The timeline stuff and unresolved mysteries will get big TV play because TV excels at that kind of story.

Anything that gets Bush's first post-9/11 appearance re-shown on TV is a plus. Everyone was traumatized and doesn't remember it. Seeing it now, after years of gung-ho tough-guy stuff, is almost unfair -- Bush was visibly frightened and weird; not at all the TV star of today.

[jeter]

25. Bush never takes responsibility for anything

this therefore makes him a bad leader.

You can use this for anything.

The responsibility thing will stick.

I've come up with a great line:

"When Harry Truman was President, he said 'the buck stops here.' Now that George W. Bush is President, 'the buck stops everywhere else.'"

[PurityOfEssence]

36. Good one: "Is ANYTHING ever this guy's fault?"

Aren't the Republicans all about personal responsibility? This is the guy who told Russert "I don't testify". Who does he think he is?

This is all good, since it hits at the dishonesty of his persona: that he's a straight-shooter and take-charge kind of guy. Is he incapable of getting a handle on any of this? It must be if it's all Clinton's fault or the fault of those pesky renegade Islamists.

[never cry wolf]

26. Here's an interesting correlative article

For those who have not seen it before.

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml

[cally]

28. Bush says one thing and does another

Turn the flip flop issue back on him. Kerry has already done this somewhat but I find it very effective. Show clips of his campaign promises and then policies he's enacted. I would also go after Laura this way. She advocates reading but * slashed funding. * appears at this social service agency and then proposes slashing funding.

The second one I would use is why does not trust us with the truth? Why did he keep the medicare info away from Congress, why did he not tell us all the facts before the Iraq war, why did he not tell us the air was dangerous in NY city, and why do they hide the info on mad cow disease?

This is off your topic but I think * is very vulnerable on environmental issues. Go back to arsenic in the water, air pollution standards, and again mad cow disease. The emphasis is that he can't be trusted to protect us.

[Leilani]

29. What does Bush have going for him?

People think he's strong on national security, & he's protecting them from terrorism.

Kerry should convene a Think Tank panel of security experts, & have a public forum on what we are doing WRONG. Let Garry Hart lead it & point out how many times the govt has been warned, yet nothing is done.

IOW, try scaring Americans about Bush. Make them see they are more vulnerable in his hands.

[tedoll78]

31. the very first one that comes to mind:

John McCain.

No, not necessarily nominating him as VP. But certainly using his kind words in the fall campaign.

McCain, like him or not, is accepted as an image of American political moderation. And when he takes a stance against his own party's orthodoxy, it almost always gets positive press.

So, when Senator McCain pronounces Kerry strong on defense, we need to splash it everywhere we can. That's a good innoculation.

With this innoculation, voters can heed the message that this isn't an either-or campaign. They don't have to choose between either a good economy with Kerry or their own safety with Bush - they can have both with Kerry.

[welshTerrier2]

32. how about a top ten list ??

top ten things you'll never hear bush talk about:

10. we lied about WMD's in Iraq
9. Clinton warned us Al Qaeda was a major threat
8. John Kerry has never taken PAC money
7. we killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis during the invasion
6. my "manufacturing czar" was busy opening a new plant in China
5. our policies caused hundreds of thousands of Americans to stop looking for work
4. we have no policy to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil
3. if we pass more tax cuts, the budget deficit will grow even larger
2. we've come very close to finally destroying the social security system
1. you don't raise $250 million for your campaign without doing a few favors

[welshTerrier2]

39. The Best "Flip-Flop" Inoculator

the greatest flip-flop of them all was bush's opposition to the formation of a Homeland Security department and then turning around to support it when it became politically popular ...

of course, in the end, he underfunded the department ... sort of a flip-flop-flip ...

[KerryEdwards]

33. Team Shrum has this figured out IMO

1) Assert that Bush has no credibility with the American people.
Example: Today's rebuttal by Kerry spokesman David Wade:
"Every single day they launch these false attacks, it worsens their credibility problems with the American people," said Wade. "These guys have dug an enormous hole for themselves."

2) Assert that Bush is trying to distract voters from the real issues at hand and naive.
Example: Kerry today:
"Today, George Bush proved to the American people that he is incapable of solving our economic problems for the simple reason that he doesn't see them."

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. They distract you with flags and Bibles

so they can pick your pocket.

[PurityOfEssence]

35. They only scare us so they can take over the world

Not subsidizing the rich doesn't help terrorism.

Keeping corporations from polluting helps the economy.

People who remove workers' rights want to enslave you.

Really religious people don't use it in politics.

Preemption only works if you're correct.

People who hide things in government are guilty.

People who constantly try to scare you are up to no good.

The rich don't need any help; they're doing better than ever.

There's no such thing as a jobless recovery.

Making it easier on the rich stifles innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit.

People who believe in a black and white world define you as black; don't help them.

If you're not a fundamentalist or a multi-millionaire, you're their enemy.

[displacedtexan]

37. Bush/Cheney suffer from "Panic Attacks!"

Bush/Cheney suffer from "Panic Attacks!"

If your poll numbers drop, attack some country or someone (either with bombs or words): Every person and every country is a potential target if you suffer from "Panic Attacks."

[DrFunkenstein]

38. They Only See Two Choices

With us/against us

Pro-war/anti-war

Pro-Patriot Act/anti-Patriot Act

For defense spending/hating our troops

You could go on and on, but it would be helpful to create the impression in the public's mind that there are, in fact, more choices, but Bush-Cheney is trying to treat Americans like idiots.