Rant: Kerry/Edwards, Please Stop "Fighting"

A deliberately provocative title, but this is an aspect of the Kerry campaign's message (Shrum? this is Shrum's doing, I don't doubt) which desperately needs some work.

My problem is.. every time I hear Kerry or Edwards answer a question with the gratuitous use of the verb "to fight," it makes me so fucking angry...

So, a message to Team Kerry:

I think Kerry is an excellent candidate.  I do admire the man and think he is pretty inspiring, and I don't say that about many people in politics.  But I think the people shaping his image have got him  wrong.  What's coming across to me is the message that it's all about looking and talking stupid tough (bring it on!) and fighting, fighting, fighting everyone, everywhere.  That's George W Bush's own stereotypical tough-guy stance and we should let him have it.  

Yes, Kerry's a tough guy as well and we know he's a former prosecutor (and of course, there's Vietnam..), but what's interesting and perhaps even inspiring about Kerry's record in this sense is a different sort of toughness, the kind required of a real leader.  Sticks to core beliefs.  Loyal and generous to friends.  Honorable and principled in dealings with his political opponents.  Relentless as an investigator - see BCCI, Iran-Contra which I wish someone would talk about already.  Willing to work as hard as necessary to accomplish a goal.  Confident.  100% cool under pressure, and will make tough decisions when it counts.  

But by saying fighting, fighting, fighting all the time Shrum and company have succeeded in making all these real strengths sound boring, fake, trite, and hideously dull.  So please, stop! All this talk about what happened in Vietnam is, in a way, limiting the level on which people can understand how Kerry would lead the nation. Indeed, it's admirable to be physically tough in a situation like that.  But this doesn't translate to presidential and strong leadership when the other end of Rove's attack is to totally undercut the mental aspect of leadership: hence, flip-flop, wavering, Bush out there saying "at least you know where I stand."  Answering this attack with "I will fight, I have fought, I am fighting" does not work, it's rhetorically on a whole other level and just evokes physical strength without really telling you much about the mental, about leadership.

I heard Edwards the other day get asked by someone at a campaign event, to paraphrase, when were the Dems going to come out swinging against the lies and distortions of Bush/Cheney?  And he says, to paraphrase, blah blah blah blah, we have to decide what we'll fight for and when we're fighting for the American people and what we've fought for all our lives. And not a word of it sounded sincere.

Just stop with the "fighting"!