Someone please reassure me that Kerry is right to apparently be turning his guns totally on the economy and other domestic issues, while significantly downgrading the talk of Iraq.
As the NYT reports, the campaign is all but dropping foreign policy ads for a spate of new economic ones:
Mr. Kerry's campaign upended its menu of television advertisements on Saturday, replacing spots attacking Mr. Bush on Iraq and national security with ones in which Mr. Kerry talks about health care and job creation, while attacking Mr. Bush as a tool of "the powerful and well-connected."
This is hardly the first time that Mr. Kerry's advisers have sought to gain the advantage in what has been a long tug-of-war with the White House over whether the campaign should be fought over domestic issues or national security. Mr. Kerry's advisers acknowledged that he had been largely unsuccessful at this effort for much of the year, in no small part because of the spiral of violence in Baghdad.
And some Democrats questioned whether it made sense for Mr. Kerry to try to turn the subject away from Iraq at a time that continuing violence there was raising doubts among some voters about Mr. Bush's credentials to manage foreign policy crises.
But Mr. Kerry's aides and Congressional Democrats argued that Thursday's presidential debate - confined to foreign policy issues at the insistence of Mr. Bush's aides - gave Mr. Kerry credibility on this subject, allowing him to pivot to the critique of Mr. Bush on the home front that Mr. Kerry has long thought is his path to victory.
I guess I share the concerns of "some Democrats" -- I know that we all hate when journalists use that word "some," lol. But given the home run our man hit Thursday night, isn't it best to continue to hammer away at Bush on this stuff for a few more days while starting to bring domestic issues into the mix? Especially with that whopper of a line about invading Iraq because we were attacked? I would have perhaps dropped the foreign policy ads, say, Tuesday or Wednesday, giving ol' John a few days to then work up domestic issues.
My main concern is, if Bush somehow finds a new, good line of attack on Kerry regarding foreign affairs (and "global test" ain't it judging by the media's skeptical coverage thus far), and if Kerry then has to respond with an ad or a speech, things might shift to "Kerry on the defensive" again in the media's eye.
Below is a poll. And I'm honestly just expressing a genuine question, and not trying to troll it up. Actually, I just realized I'm a trusted user, I wasn't before. Woop woop!
p.s.: Would it be possible, powers that be, to include the text for embedded links and the gray box below the list of "diary rules"? I am bad at HTML and always have to open a second window and go to the FAQ. No biggie, just askin'.
p.s.s.: GOING UPRIVER is gooooooooooood.