Hey Mary Beth Cahill - WAKE UP!This should be the final straw. This incident should send up fireworks in the DNC and Kerry campaigns signaling that there is a horrific communication gap within the Democratic Party.
I'm watching Meet the Press right now with Jane Harman (D) and Pat Robert (R). Harman has just been asked about John Kerry's attendance at Senate committee meetings and was skewered by Pat Roberts with Republican talking points that mirror the Bush campaign. When it was Harman's turn to defend the attack she hemmed and hawed and stuttered her way to finally saying -
"Well, I haven't heard John Kerry tout this...I I can't speak to that specifically."
What the f***??? How can you let a prominent democrat go on a Sunday morning talk show and not have her prepped to respond to attacks on her Presidential candidate? This representative was incredibly unprepared and was obviously not prepped unlike Roberts who whenever he's on television seems like he spent the whole day before in a boiler room being prepped by Karl Rove.
In this race, being right is not enough. The one thing we have in our favor over BushCo is the truth, but it doesn't mean jack if you don't arm our spokespeople with it...or if they completely mishandle it as Harman did this morning.
Everybody - and I do mean EVERYBODY - needs to have our talking points. No exceptions. The press. The general media. The GOP (imagine them reacting to US for once). And for GOD'S sake, the DEMOCRATS! Every last one in the Senate, the House and on every goddamn level should be using the same battle plan and should stick fastidiously to the script.
You can keep Kerry's and Edwards' hands clean. But dammit, you've got to train and motivate every one else to be the bad cops here, because the bad cops are winning this one.
Forget this nuance crap once and for all. It's not working and it will never work against this administration. We need points and rebuttals that can be repeated over and over and over, and we need them NOW. The GOP is so far ahead on this, it's not funny.
Get the Democrats on the same friggin' page IMMEDIATELY. Pound it to death. Make it front of mind in voters' heads. And if we don't have a page yet, I'd say right now is a reeeeal good time to make one, wouldn't you?
Because I'm getting real tired of otherwise normal people spitting out the words "Kerry's a Flip-Flopper" without even thinking about it.
