Thursday, September 09, 2004

Advice to Kerry 

I dont blog much but post Republican convention I wanted to shares these thoughts:

Sept 6,2004 Labor Day

ADVICE TO THE KERRY CAMPAIGN:


The Clintonization of the Kerry campaign will not be enough to defeat George W. Bush .

Unlike the 1992 election where ìitís the economy stupidî was the right frame--- this yearís electorate is primarily concerned with security.

Itís safety stupid.

The Democrats already tried to run an election against George W. Bush in which they ignored security. They ran 2002 mid-terms on social security, jobs and prescription drugs and they suffered one of the worst mid-term defeats ever for a party not in control of the White House.


Bushís decline in popularity 2003 and early 2004 had nothing to do with the economy it as the result of a huge and justifiable loss of public confidence about his conduct of the war on terror.


Some pollsters claim that their research shows that the economy is the biggest issue that comes out of their focus groups but it defies common sense to assume that the various colored alerts and the memory of the World Trade Center attacks do not dominate the psyche of American voters. Any research that tells politicians to ignore security is flawed and is failing to get at the core emotional issues effecting Americans.

Karl Rove knows this. The over riding theme of the Republican convention that created such a bump for Bush was related to September 11th and the war on terrorism . Tax cuts and other Republican issues were mentioned only in passing.


ìDo you feel safer than you did four years ago?î The answer is ìno.î

1.Bush was commander in chief on Sept. 11th. Richard Clarkeís book and testimony to the 9/11 commission makes it clear that the low significance Bush gave to the Al Qaeda threat made us less safe.

The 9/11 report itself says that Americaís ìdomestic agencies never mobilized in response to the threat. They did not have direction and they did not have a plan to institute. The borders were not hardened. Transportations systems were not fortified. Electronic surveillance was not targeted against a domestic threat. State and local law enforcement were not marshaled to augment the FBIís efforts. The public was not warned.î

As Thomas Powers points out in the New York Review of Books---ìThese things that were not done must have been not done by somebody and the somebodies reporting to them are not criticized by nameî That is because the 9/11 commission was bi-partisan. The Democratic campaign need not be. George W. Bush was the responsible officer of the government who did not do the things that the 9/11 Commission said needed to have been done.

2.Bush was the commander in chief during the time of the prison abuses of Abu Gharib. Regardless of who is directly responsibleóthere is no question that the top level position papers of his legal counsel Albert Gonzalez and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld didnít create the best climate for the command structure. Notwithstanding Rush Limbaughís assertions to the contrary, most Americans do not believe that this kind of humiliating and immoral conduct makes Americans safer.

3. Bushís pre-emptive approach to foreign relations that led to war with Iraq, and that could lead to wars with Iran, Syria and North KoreaÖ.makes Americans less safe. We need governments and populations of other countries to help find and arrest terrorists. American workers and tourists around the world are now less safe.


4.Bushís insistence on offending traditional American allies make sit far more difficult to get their help on the war on terror, and it makes the full $200 billion plus cost of the war
Americaís burden. This reduced funds for domestic security, protection of our borders, better equipment for police and fire-fighters, etc. This makes America less safe.

5.Bushís constant religious rhetoric about the war on terror, beginning with his reference to it as a ìcrusadeî has needlessly converted millions of Moslems into anti-Americans. Itís bad enough that we have to deal with Jihadists like Al Qaeda, who indeed must be stopped by force. But making such fanatics sympathetic to extreme anti-American rhetoricómakes Americans less safe. Pakistan, which does have a real nuclear arsenal is less stable. These things too make Americans less safe.

In all of these areas, Kerry has policies that would make Americans more safe.


posted by Danny 7:03 AM [+]
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