September 20, 2004
TO KNOW HIM IS TO NOT LIKE HIM:
Kerry camp plans for hard road ahead: Advisers strategize to boost his 'likability' (Patrick Healy, September 20, 2004, Boston Globe)
Yet behind the Democratic presidential nominee's public confidence of victory in November, his advisers harbor concerns that not enough voters are comfortable with Kerry personally or enthusiastic about his ideas, a critical mass they long felt the senator needed to achieve by now to knock off an incumbent president. [...]This week, Kerry will also take steps to address what advisers call "the likability factor" -- trying to raise voters' comfort level with Kerry on a personal level. A Pew Research Center poll released Thursday suggested that Bush edged out Kerry when voters were asked which man was "down to earth," "honest and truthful," and "willing to take a stand, even if unpopular." Asked who was the stronger leader, voters favored Bush by a margin of 57 percent to 30 percent.
Kerry will appear on the "Late Show with David Letterman" tonight and "Live with Regis and Kelly" tomorrow, and this weekend taped a segment of the daytime show "Dr. Phil" that will air early next month. But the greatest opportunity to up the likability quotient will probably come in the debates, advisers said. Kerry plans to seclude himself with aides next weekend at his wife's home near Pittsburgh to prepare for the first debate, tentatively scheduled in Miami on Sept. 30.
Bush, Kerry campaigns reach tentative accord for 3 debates: GOP backs off urging 2 face-to-face sessions (Mike Allen and Dan Balz, September 20, 2004, Washington Post)
The campaigns of President Bush and Senator John F. Kerry have tentatively settled on a package of three face-to-face debates, which both sides view as a potentially decisive chance to sway huge audiences ahead of the Nov. 2 election, Democrats and Republicans said yesterday.Bush's campaign, which opened the weeklong negotiations by urging two sessions involving Bush and Kerry, yielded to the full slate of debates that had been proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates, according to people in both parties who were briefed on the negotiations.
Even more alarming for the Kerry camp than how few people like him in the Blue Battleground poll has to be how many still don't even know who he is well enough to be other than neutral. The Bush camp is counting on them not liking him much once they do get to see him, which is why they agreed to all three debates--after getting the press and Democrats to help them lower expectations for the President and raise them for the Senator. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 20, 2004 8:37 PM
To Know Him Is To Loathe Him
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at September 20, 2004 8:44 PMLoath
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at September 20, 2004 8:45 PMHe's going to come out at the debates with a box of those little foil ketchup packets, and will start throwing freebees to the audience. That's sure to jack up his likeability quotent.
Posted by: John at September 20, 2004 9:37 PMEver been pestered by someone, say at a cocktail party, who you know is trying to get you to 'like' them? 'Nuff said.
Posted by: Fred Jacobsen (San Fran) at September 20, 2004 9:37 PMActually, Robert, I think "loathe" was right there. "Loath" is for when you're loath to do something. But take all that with a grain of salt because I'm not looking it up. :)
Posted by: Guy T. at September 20, 2004 9:40 PMUnfortunately for Kerry, the old saw about getting only one chance to make a first impression is true. Now that most voters think of him as a pompous phony, I doubt any strategy can change that in six weeks.
Posted by: PapayaSF at September 20, 2004 10:01 PMLet's hope the Bush campaign is right and that the added risk of Bush pulling a major gaffe is offset by people not liking Kerry.
PapayaSF - true but the MSM is still charging hard for Kerry.
This morning, the debut of all Iraq, all the time, as Senator Kerry accuses the President of lying us into war and of a series of catastrophic decisions in prosecuting the war.
This evening, attempting to be likable on David Letterman.
Yeah. That's a coherent strategy well-executed.
Posted by: David Cohen at September 20, 2004 10:30 PMGuy T: You Da Man. My Bad.
loathe tr.v. loathed, loathˇing, loathes
To dislike (someone or something) greatly; abhor.
loath adj.
Unwilling or reluctant; disinclined: I am loath to go on such short notice.
Source: The American HeritageŽ Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at September 20, 2004 10:42 PMRobert: forget spelling. Your gravest error is scansion. It's not : to know him is to loathe him. It's :
To know, know, know him
Is to loathe, loathe, loathe him
And I do (yes I do)
And I do (yes I do)
And I do (yes I do)...
Fifty BJBPs for anybody who can name the original artist, songwriting credit and the year.
I can hear it in my head. but I can't name them.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at September 21, 2004 1:22 AMJoe:
Phil Spector. Donate the BJBPs (whatever the heck they are) to a charity of oj's choice.
Posted by: Fred Jacobsen (San Fran) at September 21, 2004 4:50 AM"for anybody who can name the original artist, songwriting credit and the year."
1958
Artist Group Teddy Bears ?
Writer Phil Spector
Let OJ have the prize
By the way Annette Kleinbard was the female singer for the Teddy Bears. Later she changed her name to Carol Connors and became a songwriter. She wrote Vicki Lawrence's "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia".
Posted by: h-man at September 21, 2004 8:59 AM