Dick Morris has a
piece in The Hill entitled:
How Bush can destroy Kerry fast
His general point of view is that the Dem's picked the wrong candidate.
In opting for Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and turning down Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, Democrats have broken from the pragmatism and moderation that dominated their party's profile under Bill Clinton and Al Gore in the 1990s.
Their party has now moved back to the liberal extremism of Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis that characterized the 1980s -- with the same predictable result.
He proposes a three-tiered platform for Bush to go after Kerry.
First, his paid media must attack Kerry's voting record to define him as an ultraliberal.
. . . if Bush uses the next eight months to educate voters on Kerry's opposition to the death penalty, his vote against the 1991 Iraq war, his poor attendance record in the past year and his opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act, he could put this election away.
Second, while his anti-Kerry ads are running, the president himself needs to make Americans understand that the war on terror is still atop our national agenda. He needs to elevate the sense of threat so that his advantage as a war president begins to count.
Finally, Bush must begin to pull American troops out of Iraq after the handover in June. He should leave a sufficient number there, in safe, secluded bases, to intervene if the bad guys try to come back in power. But the daily drip of casualties must end.
Translating this into more human terms, what Morris is saying Bush should do is:
- Drive Kerry's negatives up by painting him as a liberal.
- Scare the heck out of the American public by raising their anxiety over terrorism.
- Present the illusion/reality the Iraq War (at least America's role in it) is ending.
To me this seems simplistic and overlooks a lot of variables, but who knows, maybe Morris is on to something.
I'd like to try to figure out answer to two alternative questions.
- Saying Morris knows something we don't, how do we/Kerry counter this Bush strategy?
- Saying Morris is a misinformed over-the-hill hack, what is he missing or overlooking that negates his self-assured prophesy?
Any thoughts?