Kerry camp plans for hard road ahead - boost his 'likability'

[papau]

If John Kerry can convince Americans that President Bush will continue to make a mess of Iraq (wrong choices), he can win the election — and nothing else matters - but Bush will chide Kerry for promoting a policy of "defeat and retreat." and ask how and whycan Kerry manage foreign policy better than Bush. But the the Kerry Team has a plan.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/09/20/kerry_camp_plans_for_hard_road_ahead?pg=full

Kerry camp plans for hard road ahead
Advisers strategize to boost his 'likability'
By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff | September 20, 2004

With about six weeks until Election Day, advisers to Senator John F. Kerry say they believe they have turned a corner after a month on the defensive: Their campaign is reorganized and refocused, their political message is raising doubts about President Bush's choices on Iraq and jobs, a battle plan is now in place, and the candidate is on the attack, they say.<snip>

"I think we have stabilized the situation where John was falling behind Bush, and now we are playing offense," said a senior campaign adviser in Kerry's inner circle, one of several who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Last week was stronger than the week before, and this week will be even better. But this is not where we hoped to be.

"Is it too late? I don't think so. But no one wanted to be asking that question in September," the senior adviser said.

Among Kerry's top lieutenants and closest friends, the mood is less pessimistic than clear-eyed that the race will come down to a series of factors over which the senator has varying degrees of control: how crisply Kerry draws distinctions between himself and Bush; how adroitly the two perform in the debates; how energetically the media, especially Democratic editorial pages, come out to endorse Kerry; and how likable Kerry comes off to voters, given his goal of casting Bush's leadership in negative terms while appealing to Americans as an optimistic, unifying leader.

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[Catfight]

1. It's hard for me to not like him, I admire many things about Kerry.

I admire his ability to think about things in a very open deep way, I admire his ability to fight for our country, I admire that he went to Yale and graduated with honors, he went on to be a lawyer, he was a prosecutor, he's a great father who seems to have great kids without much effort, he seems fun and light hearted to me. He's tall, he's thin and in shape, he's warm and inviting. I really just can't see why people don't find him likable but find Bush likable. I guess it's like the awkward tall skinny nerd kid in high school that was quiet and intelligent, everyone didn't like him, but when he grew up he ended up being Bill Gates or someone successful, but everyone still doesn't like them because they are smart. Bush on the other hand was the bully kid who was leader of the brat pack and people hung around him doing bad things and laughing. Society really hasn't evolved that much when the standard is Bush, a very low bar on morality, ethics and humanitarian causes. But I remain an optimist and I still think when people are in the voting booth, they'll vote their conscious and not their ego.