Do you think Kerry's non-story will hurt us?

[Ignacio Upton]

I'm concerned that the MSM spectacle of Kerry's "gaffe" will be used to fire up the right-wing base and by the MSM so that all we hear for the next week is shit about Kerry's comment. He wasn't making fun of our troops, but rather he was talking about not having a good education would lead you to become incompetent like the current administration in planning things like Iraq.

[Old and In the Way]

1. No

nt

[Rainscents]

2. No...

[ixion]

3. Nope...

[RobertSeattle]

4. No - Best October Suprised Yet!

I had the initial "knee jerk" response that Kerry had screwed up, but when I saw Kerry's excellent counterattacks, i thought, bring it on wingers - if you want to talk about the Iraq Fiasco until midday on November 7th - bring it!

[DURHAM D]

5. You are late to this party. n/t

[Lautremont]

6. Kerry can borrow a line from the shrub:

"I'm not running."

I think it's an obvious non-story, obvious even to the troglodytes.

[Nite Owl]

7. No

In fact hell no. It might help, they don't want to talk about the war they are trying to focus on their great ecomomy. (Like people will be fooled about that too!)

[devilgrrl]

8. No but keep throwing shit against a wall...

maybe something will stick.

[Placebo]

9. Yes...

if it's the big headline story for more than a day in this final week going into election day, which the Republicans are going to do everything possible to make sure it is. And the media might just play along, especially if Bush mentions it in speeches in the coming days.

And it's only going to hurt us because it knocks us so off message and pulls us down to their level into some kind of "he said" "he's a bad man" debate when there is SO MUCH ELSE TO TALK ABOUT!

[patcox2]

12. But, your supposed to be drunk on his fighting rhetoric!

Sily you, being realistic.

[DURHAM D]

23. You are wrong - it knocks them off message. In fact, it is our

message to talk about the war in Iraq. The "our" assumes you are a Dem.

With any luck at all the Iraq War issue will have a 7 day news cycle.

[Placebo]

27. It does nothing to shine light on the Iraq debate...

and gives the Republicans a chance to make it a "Who Supports the Troops?" question.

[DURHAM D]

31. It does shine light on the Iraq debate and it will shine light on the

who supports the troops discussion. Another winner for the Dems.

Talk about funding for the VA, talk about economic situation for returning Vets, talk about homeless vets. Repugs can't pass the smell test on anything to do with supporting vets.

Then talk about equipment -they can't pass the smell test on troops in the field support.

Talk about bringing the troops home - a majority of the voters want to do that.

[babylonsister]

10. No. nt

[patcox2]

11. Yes, it will.

Some people get so excited over hearing someone say the right words they lose all touch with reality.

It was nice rhetoric he came up with in defense of his gaffe, but the whole brouhaha is definitely not going to help the democrats in this election. Its confirming the stereotype of democrats as elitist northeast liberals who look down on the troops.

[Red Right and BLUE]

15. And the award for most out-of-touch, ironically, goes to... nt

[Red Right and BLUE]

16. dupe

[Placebo]

18. Basically.

We have all these great "Fighting Dems" who have spent this entire election cycle trying to mold themselves into the true champions of the troops in the public eye, and they may have even brought in Kerry to campaign with or for them too, and now he says something which, like it or not, is as you said being interpreted in this era of Sound Bytes and 2-minute news segments as "The troops are fucking idiots. If you're a moron you'll go and die in Iraq."

This ain't what we needed only a handful of days from election day...

[Ignacio Upton]

19. I agree

Kerry should have phrased his comment better. I'm afraid that the MSM will try to make this is an "important" issue to swing the elections. The Republicans also want to make this a replay of 2004 by making Kerry the target and getting voters to vote against Kerry symbolically-speaking.

[DURHAM D]

26. What exactly is wrong with you ? n/t

[sabra]

13. some new GOP scandal will come out,and we'll all move on :-)

[KAZ]

14. Depends on what he does with it.

If he keeps kicking butt like he did today, with his "stuffed suit", etc., then it will benefit us. Need to keep the so-called Dem insiders from backstabbing.

[Red Right and BLUE]

17. Nope, it's helping us. nt

[Ignacio Upton]

20. There is no way in hell that this is helping us

I won't be surprised if GOP House and Senate candidates start using his comment in their ads in the next few days.

[DaveJ]

21. This will transform into something positive...

There is enough time. I think we've learned that when a false accusation the media makes is determined wrong the victim usually ends up benefiting.

[Placebo]

22. not a chance

[DURHAM D]

29. You started your own thread and it didn't work. Now this ...

[warrens]

24. No, we talk about Iraq, not gay marriage etc, for the next week

This is a good thing.

[City Lights]

25. Unfortunately, I do.

It's all the rage on MSNBC.

[chelsea0011]

28. No...anything about iraq is a winner to dems.

[Fleshdancer]

30. the faux outrage looks extremely desperate to me

I personally wouldn't have advised him to say what he did, but it certainly is an interesting way to keep the conversation on Iraq. This may haunt Kerry if he runs again in '08 but with the Congress approval ratings this low right before midterms, I doubt Kerry could say anything to change the fact that most Americans are sick of having no checks and balances.