Playing Campaign Manager

Gokul43201

If you were Bush/Kerry's Campaign Manager, what would your strategy entail ?

What would you list as your candidates strengths and achievements ? What areas would you completely avoid as disaster zones ? On what fronts would you attack your opponent ? Other ideas ?

phatmonky

Kerry should:

forget vietnam and never ever brought it up
focus on positives in senate record shortly
Focus on plans for the future.
attack failures in Bush's economy
Key issues for Kerry to win: Iraq/healthcare/jobsdeficitdebteconomy
Stop changing your damn mind. Do some research on your statements made before, and realize that they will be brought up. Kerry has left himself as a verbal punching bag with no recourse. He could shoot down one thing after another if he tried. Get on TV MORE!

For whatever reason someone on his end thought it a good idea for Kerry to spend 3 days trying to make the assault weapons ban a campaign issue. It's a loser.

phatmonky

oh, and for the love of god. Get your damn uppity snobby alienating wife out of the spotlight! She is a polarizing woman who manages to push moderates away on a personal level. TH Kerry is HORRIBLE for his campaign.

kat

Kerry: Stop with the spray on tan and botox treatments! Stop flicking your tongue in and out of your month when on T.V. and really concentrate on short, straight effective answers...drop the nano-nuansce! Tell Terayza to stfu for now, many woman love to be outspoken, but we really don't love to watch other women, particularly those that are going to represent us to the world be brutally outspoken....I don't know...just call us "catty"

Bush: Keep on letting Kerry do you work for you. Continue to place the Iraqi Prime Minister in media spotlight. Continue to use your "secret weapon" Woman love them, all three of them.

russ_watters

Bush is doing fine letting Kerry do all the talking (we all know what happens when Bush opens his mouth...) - and keep focusing on Kerry's flip-flops (or, as an ad I saw last night noted - that Kerry doesn't even know where Kerry stands on the issues).

Kerry: Completely drop all references to Vietnam in your campaign: its hurting, not helping. Focus on 3 things: what to do about Iraq, the war on terror, and the economy. Tackle all 3 with equal parts of what Bush is doing wrong and how Kerry would do it instead (or maybe, 75/25 toward the what Kerry would do instead part). Defeating an incumbent is easy in theory: all you have to do is convince the public that he's doing a lousy job (which Bush has already taken care of) and that you can do better (which Kerry has utterly failed to do).

BobG

An easy strategy for Kerry is to point out Bush's shortcomings in performance. But he also has to make it clear how he'll do better.

In all normal elections, the economic performance has been bad enough to virtually guarantee an incumbent's defeat. Concentrate on jobs and how Kerry will increase US competitiveness internationally. (BTW - reducing corporate taxes is only a short term fix. We've done it before. It just forces other countries to reduce their own corporate taxes about 5% below the US's. But there is a time lag.)

Bush has to concentrate on recent improvements in jobs and blame earlier problems on something else, such as 9/11.

Kerry should be able to attack Bush's record in Iraq. The large number of insurgents coming into Iraq suggest that we should have continued to concentrate on terrorist groups after the invasion of Afghanistan. The sudden change in intel conclusions about Iraq in Oct 2002 and the unclassified version which presented the intel as fact, with the uncertainties and disclaimers removed, that led to the invasion of Iraq are extremely confusing. At the least, trusting such a drastic change in conclusions with no close scrutiny suggests some incompetence. Suggesting Bush incompetence isn't enough. Kerry also has to explain why he'll do better. His projection that he can start bringing troops home within six months isn't very promising. One way he can do that is to accept defeat and blame it on Bush. He should concentrate on why he is more likely to get increased UN buy in and how this will reduce the support requirements that fall solely on the US. Considering Bush's world wide popularity, it shouldn't be that hard of a sell.

Bush needs to challenge Kerry's commitment to Iraq and emphasize the impact if Iraq is abandoned. This is a little bit of a risk, since there's still a chance Kerry will explain how he can build an international coalition that will allow some troops to come home. He'd probably be better off not to insist things are going well in Iraq when it's so obvious things are not going well that other leading Republicans are pointing it out. Or, he can keep changing the subject via Swift Boat ads and windsurfing ads.

Moonbear

I agree with the others, for Kerry, just drop the whole Vietnam issue, especially with regard to the purple hearts. The only part of that which matters is that he served, and no point quibbling whether he deserved a purple heart or whether he threw out his medals or if he protested the war afterward. That's only distracting from the real issues. He should have started damage control a long time ago on the flip-flop thing. Spend some time educating the public on the complexities of the bills he voted for and against when the votes seem contadictory on the surface. Most of the public doesn't realize how complicated those things really are. Stop assuming he's smarter than the average voter and oversimplifying things for them. Provide some details of how he plans to accomplish the things he says he will accomplish.

For Bush, well, I'm probably too biased against him to give a fair statement. I'll try. Admit he was wrong with Iraq. Just keep his mouth shut; everytime he opens it, something stupid comes out. Admit his daddy got him out of National Guard duty, that he was more into partying than studying as a kid...these are not crimes, and the honesty would make him more human. Most people against him are having trouble with his lack of honesty in addressing his mistakes, even past mistakes that have no bearing on the presidency but go a long way toward demonstrating his general character. Then again, he might lose his followers who believe him infallible if he admitted his mistakes. Tough call.

wasteofo2

Kerry should get a new position on Iraq!

Bush should keep on saying Iraq's improving daily and insisting that any criticism is unpatriotic!

Gokul43201

Nice try, Moonbear !

motai

If I were Kerry I would plaster the images of the fallen soldiers all over the place and remind Americans how much this war is costing us. I would continually drill it over and over in every commerical.

As for Bush, the Republicans already do a fine job of taking Kerry's name and relating it to other information that has nothing to do with it (such as the mess in Iraq).

phatmonky

All this would do is make people hate kerry more. I for one would be pushed away from either candidate that did this.
Using dead soldiers is not a winner

russ_watters

That only works for the most radical on the left (who are already going to vote for Kerry). The rest of the country would be disgusted by such ads. This is why Kerry's losing the soft-money battle even though he's getting several times more support than Bush: People like MoveOn.org make ads that disgust people and that doesn't help Kerry at all.

kat

Lol, this is the funniest comment on this entire thread.

Gokul43201

Talking about lost lives is important, but using images is a NO NO.

Gokul43201

I second that. Just barely beats out Moonbear's attempt at being fair.