PC Dave
09-21-2004, 09:34 AM
Hey, at least he took a position. Good for him.
Sorry 'bout the long post Ted, but it can't be linked. From Stratfor:
"Speaking at New York University on Sept. 20, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry labeled the invasion of Iraq a "mistake" and laid out parts of his solution for dealing with the Iraq situation. Kerry's statements confirm the direction he has chosen for his campaign: In condemning the war, he has chosen to pursue the votes of the Democratic left, possibly at the expense of those in the center and the undecideds.
Kerry's timing is conspicuous, coinciding with events that will lend extra weight to his remarks.
First, CBS on Monday released a highly publicized retraction on a story about President George W. Bush's National Guard service record -- in essence, apologizing for using unverified memos as source material. In the memos, purportedly written by Bush's superiors in the Guard, the authors claimed they were under pressure to "sugarcoat" his performance and, among other things, criticized Bush's flight skills. Concerns over the authenticity of the documents were raised almost immediately by the Bush camp, which pointed to inconsistencies in phrasing and word processing.
The CBS airing gave Kerry -- who has been on the defensive throughout his campaign, having battled questions related to his Vietnam war record and stance on Iraq -- an opportunity to break out and take the offensive instead. He did this Monday by answering the question that most American voters have been asking -- namely, his ultimate position on Iraq.
There was an added bit of serendipity to his statements -- coinciding as they did with a new videotape that apparently shows the beheading of a U.S. hostage, Eugene Armstrong, by militants claiming to belong to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group in Iraq. Kerry's description of the Iraq invasion as a "mistake" on the same day such a video was released well might resonate with a horrified public.
Though this in no way suggests that the timing with the video was intentional -- in fact, it could not have been -- the release of a new USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll that put Bush 13 percentage points ahead of Kerry, 55 percent to 42 percent, might have provided impetus for his bolder speech. The "bounce" that Bush received after the Republican National Convention seems to have held steady, possibly pushing Kerry toward more drastic statements than he has made in the past in efforts to close the gap.
With the speech at NYU, Kerry will have shored up his "left flank" by painting himself as an anti-Bush. But in all likelihood, the gamble will cost him the crucial center.
Though most Americans are not thrilled with the way the war has turned out, there is little evidence that many believe the war itself was a fundamentally bad idea. Now that he has locked down the left, the question is whether Kerry will be able to offer enough, in the way of Iraq solutions or otherwise, to the center to lure their votes away from Bush."
Sorry 'bout the long post Ted, but it can't be linked. From Stratfor:
"Speaking at New York University on Sept. 20, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry labeled the invasion of Iraq a "mistake" and laid out parts of his solution for dealing with the Iraq situation. Kerry's statements confirm the direction he has chosen for his campaign: In condemning the war, he has chosen to pursue the votes of the Democratic left, possibly at the expense of those in the center and the undecideds.
Kerry's timing is conspicuous, coinciding with events that will lend extra weight to his remarks.
First, CBS on Monday released a highly publicized retraction on a story about President George W. Bush's National Guard service record -- in essence, apologizing for using unverified memos as source material. In the memos, purportedly written by Bush's superiors in the Guard, the authors claimed they were under pressure to "sugarcoat" his performance and, among other things, criticized Bush's flight skills. Concerns over the authenticity of the documents were raised almost immediately by the Bush camp, which pointed to inconsistencies in phrasing and word processing.
The CBS airing gave Kerry -- who has been on the defensive throughout his campaign, having battled questions related to his Vietnam war record and stance on Iraq -- an opportunity to break out and take the offensive instead. He did this Monday by answering the question that most American voters have been asking -- namely, his ultimate position on Iraq.
There was an added bit of serendipity to his statements -- coinciding as they did with a new videotape that apparently shows the beheading of a U.S. hostage, Eugene Armstrong, by militants claiming to belong to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group in Iraq. Kerry's description of the Iraq invasion as a "mistake" on the same day such a video was released well might resonate with a horrified public.
Though this in no way suggests that the timing with the video was intentional -- in fact, it could not have been -- the release of a new USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll that put Bush 13 percentage points ahead of Kerry, 55 percent to 42 percent, might have provided impetus for his bolder speech. The "bounce" that Bush received after the Republican National Convention seems to have held steady, possibly pushing Kerry toward more drastic statements than he has made in the past in efforts to close the gap.
With the speech at NYU, Kerry will have shored up his "left flank" by painting himself as an anti-Bush. But in all likelihood, the gamble will cost him the crucial center.
Though most Americans are not thrilled with the way the war has turned out, there is little evidence that many believe the war itself was a fundamentally bad idea. Now that he has locked down the left, the question is whether Kerry will be able to offer enough, in the way of Iraq solutions or otherwise, to the center to lure their votes away from Bush."