Republicans tend to beat us in the free media largely because we Democrats like to talk too much.
We're proud of the fact that we base our arguments on fact. We like to prove our point. We like to explain ourselves.
We need to get over it.
In the last several weeks, Bush has regained traction because Kerry and the Democrats have been able to effectively respond. To help our nominee, and other Democrats reading the board, let me offer these suggestions on helping to simplify the message:
- The core of Bush's weakness is his credibility. The trail of lies is long, and hard for him to defend. We need to keep talking about that. Every time Kerry opens his mouth, he should start by listing a few Bush lies to underscore that the President has already sacrificed his credibility on the issue at hand.
- After detailing the lies, each response should then segue into a simple explanation of how President Kerry would do things differently.
Lets see how this works in practice with a mock interview:
Judy (media whore) Woodruff: "Sen Kerry, President Bush is running ads that are critical of your votes to cut defense and intelligence spending prior to 9/11. How can you assure voters that you are not weak on the war on Terror?"
Kerry: "Judy, you should take everything the President says on this with a grain of salt. This is the president who cut veteran benefits and combat pay while he was sending American soldiers to die in Iraq, who has overseen two massive intelligence failures in 9/11 and WMD - and still hasn't held a member of his team accountable. He has no credibility on this issue.
"A photo-op holding a megaphone at ground zero does not make one a strong leader. Solutions do, and my ideas on how to conduct this battle against Al-Qaeda are rooted in reality, not fantasy.
"First, we need to re-focus the battle where it belongs - on Al-Qaeda, and use whatever military and financial means at our disposal to defeat them.
"The second step is to bring credibility to the operation in Iraq. That means rebuilding relationships with our allies and internationalizing the reconstruction of Iraq.
"Lastly, we need to get serious about Homeland security - that means resources to improve border security and ensure protection of possible targets for attack."
See how easy this is? The issue is credibility. Every attack lacks credibility because the President is a failure. Its Kerry job to remind people every single day.
Pull no punches, keep it simple!