if i understand you correctly, you're saying kerry's entire campaign is just payback for bush attacking his buddy mccain 4 years ago? that's pretty pathetic ,don't you think? doesn't he have any ideas of his own, other than "i want to raise taxes and eliminate free trade?" if, as the polls seem to indicate, the economy is issue number one, those two positions are just idiotic. he's got nothing, no plan, no ideas, no "vision thing" other than a deep, pathological hatred of republicans, and an obvious sense of entitlement that he should be president. come on, why is kerry leading with his chin when he should be putting his best foot forward. or, if this is his best foot, he needs to run down to duane reade and buy some tinactin.
No, you seem to be attacking Kerry (even though it is moveon.org and not Kerry doing the attacking) for playing negative politics when YOUR candidate ran one of the dirtiest mudslinging campaigns (thanks to Rove) that I have ever witnessed. As far as many of us are concerned, Kerry has a much more appropriate "vision" for America than Bush does. The only reason you don't see the vision is that you have not investigated, instead appearing to rely on the opinions of the pundits and bloggers on the right that you like to post.
so kerry is going negative because rove attacked maccain 4 years ago and chambliss had the temerity to campaing on max cleland's record in 2002? what does any of that have to do with 2004, much less john kerry? it's an idiotic arguement, and if it's the best you've got, kerry is already a loser. i said it before about dean, but it must no be applied to kerry, as well as perhaps the whole democratic party: hate and anger are no substitute for ideas.
Basso is right, there is no substitute for ideas like this: "There is no such thing necessarily in a dictatorial regime of iron-clad absolutely solid evidence. The evidence I had was the best possible evidence that he had a weapon."
"Get rid of the guy. Impeach him, censure him, assassinate him." - Rep. James Hansen (R-UT), talking about President Clinton, as reported by journalist Steve Miner of KSUB radio who overheard his conversation, 11-01-98 "We're going to keep building the party until we're hunting Democrats with dogs." - Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), Mother Jones, 08-95 "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building." - Ann Coulter, New York Observer, 08-26-02 "Homosexuals want to come into churches and disrupt church services and throw blood all around and try to give people AIDS and spit in the face of ministers." - Pat Robertson, The 700 Club, 01-18-95 "Chelsea is a Clinton. She bears the taint; and though not prosecutable in law, in custom and nature the taint cannot be ignored. All the great despotisms of the past - I'm not arguing for despotism as a principle, but they sure knew how to deal with potential trouble - recognized that the families of objectionable citizens were a continuing threat. In Stalin's penal code it was a crime to be the wife or child of an 'enemy of the people.' The Nazis used the same principle, which they called Sippenhaft, 'clan liability.' In Imperial China, enemies of the state were punished 'to the ninth degree': that is, everyone in the offender's own generation would be killed and everyone related via four generations up, to the great-great-grandparents, and four generations down, to the great-great-grandchildren, would also be killed." - John Derbyshire, National Review, 02-15-01 "We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors." - Ann Coulter, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, 02-26-02 "I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus - living fossils - so we will never forget what these people stood for." - Rush Limbaugh, Denver Post, 12-29-95
Judging by your posts, you have on blinders. And the entire Bush campaign is based on making Americans afraid of terrorists after 9/11, and justifying horrible policies predicated upon exploiting this fear.
It's politics, Andy, not chess. It may have been the dirtiest campaign you've ever witnessed, but it was relatively mild taken in historical context. Politics is a dirty business and frankly, I like dirty tricks. I admire the gutter tactics of the Clinton war room. I loved the "Willie Horton" ad. Go for the jugular. We live in a 30-second soundbite society, so why not pander to the lowest common denominator. It at least makes it entertaining.
rim- friggin' brilliant- quotes from 5-10 years ago by the biggest blowhards on the right. show me a quote from Bush, from the current campaign, comparable to kerry's "crooked liars" comment and perhaps we can talk. the president is running a positive campaign focused on his record and the record of his opponent. the democrats are digging through the garbage cans behind the whitehouse looking from slime to smear the president with. the contrast is stark, and the american people are beginning to realize what really matters to democrats. it's not principle, it's win at any cost, and rules, civility, respect for the voters be damned.
Considering there is an ongoing grand jury investigation of felonies committed by administration officials, including endangering the life of a covert operative as part of a political revenge scheme, I would think 'crooked liars' is a little light. How about "Treasonous felons," "Traitors" or "Benedict Arnolds" Anyway, as far as crooked lies goes: "HEalthy Forest Initiative" "Clear Skies Plan" "Jobs and Growth Act of 2003" "Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction"
After losing nearly 3 million jobs, watching health care costs rise out of control, turning record surpluses into record deficits, and breaking his own promises on everything from improving schools to making America secure, this President has now decided to launch a negative advertising campaign against me. What’s most interesting about this new ad is what’s not in it. This President can’t talk about his positive vision for America, because at each turn he has put this nation on the wrong track. It’s time he pays attention to that old saying, when you’ve dug yourself into a ditch, stop digging. I am running for President because I want to change the direction of this country. If I’m elected, we’ll create new and better jobs, lower the cost of health care, and get Bush’s runaway deficits under control. What you’re seeing is the last gasp of air from the failed Bush Administration that has no record to run on and nothing but more of the same failed policies to offer the American people John Kerry's response to the Bush attack ads.
Hey, that was the best I could do in the seconds before a conference call. Here's some more on the ads runnign today... from The New Republic's Campaign Journal... _____________________ ANOTHER CAMPAIGN FIRST: Bush's first round of ads became immediately famous for using images of Ground Zero and a flag-draped coffin being carried away from the rubble of the World Trade Center. His newest spot, "100 Days," might soon become famous for another campaign first. It is the first ad to use the image of a dark-skinned man who is obviously meant to be a terrorist. The ominous slow-motion footage comes about halfway through the 30-second ad. A female voiceover darkly warns about John Kerry's agenda, charging, "On the war on terror: weaken the Patriot Act used to arrest terrorists and protect America." On the left of the screen flash the words "John Kerry's Plan." On the bottom a red box warns, "Weaken Fight Against Terrorists." If you look closely, on the right side of the screen you can see an airplane taking off. The center of the screen is filled with three different rectangles of slow-motion video. In the top panel travelers at an airport study the arrivals and departures monitor. In the center panel there is a shadowed image of a person wearing a gas mask. And on the bottom there is a close-up of a swarthy, somewhat sinister-looking man with darting eyes who slowly turns toward the camera. He is clearly the terrorist in this scary montage. The Bush campaign held a conference call for the press this afternoon to unveil the ads, and one reporter asked whether it was appropriate to use an Arab-American to depict a terrorist. Campaign aides said the actor in "100 Days" wasn't Arab-American. One official on the call insisted it was just a "very generic" image. Here's a screen shot from the new ad:
re:liars Another fact supporting the Bushies as liars day in and day out - do a search of scientific studies and Bush policies, they'll use any study as long as it agrees with their policy, otherwise they'll pretend it doesn't exist. Then we can talk about lying about what information they had to support the war in Iraq but we already have fifty or so threads on that, apparently a few posters still believe the original Bushie accusations. Then there's the Bushies lying out their orifices when they said something like "we had no idea that someone would even conceive of flying airplanes into buildings" after 9/11. The numbers of lies on this subject alone are staggering.
why the hell wouldn't it be apporpriate to use an arab looking man as a "terrorist." are eskimos blowing up airplanes? did i miss the news about suicide swedes? african anthrax attackers? the press is just silly, and i can't believe you're all ready to believe another "instant" controversy.
I love how both sides are arguing in this thread as if the other side has a monopoly on dirty politics...
Here's a good ad : We'll do anything to get our way. From justifying the Iraq war to giving money to our friends in big healthcare, we'll make up data to back up our goals. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8164060.htm Bush administration ordered Medicare plan cost estimates withheld By Tony Pugh Knight Ridder Newspapers WASHINGTON - The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan. When the House of Representatives passed the controversial benefit by five votes last November, the White House was embracing an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years. But for months the administration's own analysts in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had concluded repeatedly that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion more than that. Withholding the higher cost projections was important because the White House was facing a revolt from 13 conservative House Republicans who'd vowed to vote against the Medicare drug bill if it cost more than $400 billion. . . . re: using a dark skinned man versus a specific terrorist - aka Osama http://www.abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040311_2327.html . . . James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, urged Bush to withdraw one of the new ads because it illustrates the section on terrorism with a picture of an olive-skinned man with bushy eyebrows. "If they wanted to put Osama bin Laden up there that's fine, but using just a face stereotypes," Zogby said. . . . Taking us back to the Bush Willie Horton ads. A positive, forward thinking administration indeed.
Here's another good one: We outraise the opponents special interest money by more than 10 to 1. Bet on us.
Via Atrios, here is the first draft of 100 Days, before the PC thugs got their hands on it. http://www.thepoorman.net/archives/002403.html#002403
