September 3, 2004
THAT ADDRESS UNKNOWN:
Fallout From Democrat's Address Still Unknown (John F. Harris, September 3, 2004, Washington Post)
Despite signs of GOP ambivalence, a focus group conducted with 17 independent voters in Ohio by GOP pollster Frank Luntz for MSNBC drew a mostly positive response. These voters, Luntz said, did not care for Miller's attacks on the Democratic Party because they were too "broad-brush," but the attacks on Kerry resonated because Miller anchored his criticism in specific arguments about Kerry's record."They liked facts," Luntz said. "They're not responding to style. They're asking for a level of detail."
The group, in which voters turned dials to register reaction to each line of the speech, thought the most "memorable" passage of Miller's speech was his recitation of weapons systems Kerry supposedly voted against, then asked how such a man could lead the armed forces. "U.S. forces armed with what?" Miller asked. "Spitballs?" [...]
Doug Schoen, a pollster for President Bill Clinton, said the Miller speech was effective, since "it is keeping the focus on Kerry" and is preventing the nominee from changing the subject to more promising topics, such as his agenda or his critique of Bush. "If this election is a debate about John Kerry" and his war service or national security record, Schoen said, "he's not going to win."
Tim Hibbitts, an independent pollster in Oregon, said that despite negative commentary from the "chattering class," he suspects the speech "may have connected with middle-American voters who are concerned about security." Even so, he believes the novelty of a Democratic endorsement of Bush would have been more effective if delivered with a more-in-sorrow-than-anger tone, and he cautioned that any impact in either direction will be short-lived: "I don't think in a week it's going to matter diddly."
The key to the speech was citing specific votes. It's not negative if it's true. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 3, 2004 2:50 PM
Or, taking it directly off of John's 1984 campaign memo.
As reproduced by Lt. Smash, Kerry unleashed a campaign memo in 1984 saying, among other things:
Congress, rather than having the moral courage to challenge the Reagan Administration, has given Ronald Reagan almost every military requiest he has made, no matter how wasteful, no matter how useless, no matter how dangerous.
The biggest defense buildup since World War II has not given us a better defense. Americans feel more threatened by the prospect of war, not less so. And our national priorities become more and more distorted as the share of our country’s resources devoted to human needs diminishes.
---
There was no "glasnost" visible on the horizon in those days; they were among the darkest of the long Cold War. But Kerry still explicitly called for the outright cancellation of:
NUCLEAR FORCES
* MX Missile --- Cancel --- $5.0 billion
* B-1 Bomber --- Cancel --- $8.0 billion
* Anti-satellite system --- Cancel --- $ 99 million
* Star Wars [sic] --- Cancel --- $1.3 billion
* Tomahawk Missile --- Reduce by 50 per cent --- $294 million
LAND FORCES
* AH-64 Helicopters --- Cancel --- $1.4 billion
* Division Air Defense Gun (DIVAD) --- Cancel --- $638 million
* Patriot Air Defense Missile --- Cancel --- $1.3 billion
NAVAL FORCES
* Aegis Air-Defense Cruiser --- Cancel --- $800 million
* Battleship Reactivation --- Cancel --- $453 million
AIRCRAFT
* AV-8B Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircraft --- Cancel --- $1.0 billion
* F-15 Fighter Aircraft --- Cancel --- $2.3 billion
* F-14A Fighter Aircraft --- Cancel --- $1.0 billion
* F-14D Fighter Aircraft --- Cancel --- $286 million
* Phoenix Air-to-Air Missile --- Cancel --- $432 million
* Sparrow Air-to-Air Missile
Posted by: Sandy P at September 3, 2004 3:48 PM