May 27, 2004

THE UNKNOWN CANDIDATE:

Marquis de Bush? (MAUREEN DOWD, 5/27/04, NY Times)

John Kerry's advisers were surprised and annoyed to hear that Mr. Gore hollered so much, he made Howard Dean look like George Pataki. They don't want voters to be reminded of the wackadoo wing of the Democratic Party.

They would like Mr. Gore, who brought bad karma to Mr. Dean with his primary endorsement, to zip it and go away. But more and more Democrats think it is Mr. Kerry who should zip it and go away.

Mr. Kerry has made a huge $25 million ad buy in recent weeks, believing that the better voters know him, the more they'll like him. But many Democrats fear he's one of those supercilious/smarmy candidates (like Al Gore) for whom the opposite is true: the more you know him, the less you want to see him.

They wonder whether Mr. Kerry should just let the campaign be Bush vs. Bush. As the president's old running buddy, Lee Atwater, used to say, don't get in the way when your rival's busy shooting himself.

Couldn't the Democratic standard-bearer use a William McKinley front-porch strategy, talking only to those who bother to show up at his front porch? After all, Mr. Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, have five front porches, stretching from Sun Valley to Nantucket and Georgetown.


Now that Mr. Kerry has decided to accept the nomination of his party, we've taken the liberty of writing an acceptance speech/stump speech for him: "I'm not George Bush. Thank You."

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 27, 2004 9:04 AM
Comments

I have a great idea for an ad, should any Republicans decide to start using 527s.

Play the clip of Dean screaming, then the clip of Hillary screaming, the the recent Gore clip.

After these clips, a voice says, "Much as he would like to distance himself from these extremists, Mr. Kerry is being supported by them to do their bidding.

Don't let MoveOn.org become MoveOn.gov"

Pass it on.

Posted by: BB at May 27, 2004 9:26 AM

I like the 'dot.gov' angle. But my idea is those very clips, play one, then play pictures of Iraqis receiving school supplies, meds, frisbees, etc, play another "HE BETRAYED US" clip, another Iraq clip.....

And end with a familiar Texas voice saying, "We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail."

Boom.

Posted by: Andrew X at May 27, 2004 10:25 AM

Very good, Andrew.

It nicely contrasts to the Kerry theme: "We will tire, we will falter, and we will fail."

Posted by: pj at May 27, 2004 11:07 AM

Thanks, I was curious about the article this AM but will never click on to MODO or "the economist" at the NYT site. They make me cringe. Not too bad for MODO.

Posted by: Genecis at May 27, 2004 11:40 AM

Andrew and all,

How many here are familiar with the new machines and software, and how easy it is to produce web ads (tv ads as well)

OJ, do you have any interest in providing a spot/link where all the blogs can have "ad-roll" as well as a blog roll.

It would be an interesting demonstration of networked production (conservative/market based) v. centralized (MoveOn, liberal)

Each ad could have a "donate to fund this ad" button. The best could all get aired, all with out a 527.

Any thoughts?

Posted by: BB at May 27, 2004 12:10 PM

BB:

Whahappen?

Posted by: oj at May 27, 2004 12:15 PM

I know that I have entered an old episode of the Twilight Zone when MoDo thinks Algore has slipped his moorings. When the going gets tough, the tough get weird.

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at May 27, 2004 5:21 PM
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