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August 18, 2004

SwiftVets Score Hit on Shadowy, Elusive Opponent

Kerry "denounces" the MoveOn ad assaulting Bush's TANG record (even as his surrogates and spinners push the story to the press, not even having the courtesy of doing so on background).

Now, why would Kerry do such a thing? Do not make me laugh and say he's acting out of principle.

No, he'd only denounce the MoveOn ad in order to help him get the SwiftVets ad taken down, and he'd only do that were that latter ad hurting him.

Guess what? It is hurting him, and polls show it.

The conspiratorialists/liberals/reporters -- it's really sort of a continuous spectrum -- have raked Bush over the coals for his non-AWOL non-scandal to the point where the public largely believes it in rough outlines (despite never having been presented actual proof by the media).

So Bush has already taken his lumps on that score; you can't scuff him up much more than he's already been scuffed.

On the other hand, Kerry's four months in Vietnam are his Fortress, his Crown Jewels, and those jewels haven't been uglied-up yet.

But they're starting to crack under the pressure.

Which is what happens to faux jewels, you know. They look pretty, but they're only paste and cheap colored glass.

posted by Ace at 01:22 AM

Comments

Kerry must be PRAYING this issue fades away. He's made his war record the foundation of his candidacy, and he's toast if it's perceived to be fabricated, or even greatly exaggerated. And he knows it. The fact that he has not personally responded to the Swift Boat Vets' charges, letting minions mount adhominem attacks against his accusers instead, suggests to me he's in a no-win situation. Because their accusations are true.

Posted by: Kirk on August 18, 2004 04:54 AM

He's a week away from very serious trouble. Two away from self-implosion. And three away from political has-been. Maybe four if he's lucky.

You wanna call me crazy, but just watch. Once this wrecking ball gets moving there is nothing that can save his house of cards. At this point it doesn't even matter if he was ever in Cambodia, he has to release the records to defend himself and we know what happens then...Checkmate.

Posted by: Kerry Is Nearly Done For on August 18, 2004 08:17 AM

You're dreaming. These clowns have had four years of near-apoplectic thrashing at Bush and they've succeeded in cementing a tremendous anti-Bush faction. Kerry will duck-and-weave until November and that won't motivate his "undecided-but-leaning" voters, so Yes, he could get thrashed in November.

But the only thing that'll hurt him in the polls in the next four weeks is if the GOP rally in NYC turns ugly and no one wants to be associated with the freaks. Then maybe he gets toasted in the polls shortly. Otherwise, this thing's going to the wire and if you are dissatisfied with the media now, prepare to require sedation shortly for the pass they'll be writing for him.

Posted by: spongeworthy on August 18, 2004 08:40 AM

This is the old Dem trick of innoculating yourself in order to preempt the opposition's claims later. Only this time, instead of calling his opponent a liar first or whatever the case is, he is trying the "denounce the 527's" tack in an attempt to get Bush to do the same. Innoculations usually work because when the legit charges come back from the other side they look like "Oh yeah? Well so are you!" I don't think that's going to work here. It will probably backfile by dragging the whole 527 issue out into the light for everyone to see what a great job McCain and his Democratic allies did on campaign finance reform.

Posted by: Dacotti on August 18, 2004 10:10 AM

What Kirk said.

As far as the convention and the planned protests, I have remarked on that here. I don't think America has gotten a real good look at the unmasked ugliness of the Left since '68 when Daley I cracked heads at the Donk convention.

Waiting in the wings, ready to launch into Kerry is the POW/MIA Family Members Against John Kerry.

Dead man walking.

Posted by: ransom on August 18, 2004 11:22 AM

OK, either the Kerry campaign is incredibly clever, or just lucked into a clever gambit.

Kerry denounces an ad by Moveon? With what intended action? Surely he can’t publicly say he denounces it but hopes they run it again and again (even if he might think it).

Moveon is a 527 organization. Coordination with the campaign is ILLEGAL. So if Moveon STOPPED showing the ad, it might appear that the campaign was coordinating strategy with a 527, in contravention of the law. So MOVEON has to continue showing the ad, otherwise it might be guilty of breaking the law.

Very clever, grasshopper.

Is the campaign this clever? The same campaign that thinks Kerry was Vice-Chair of the intelligence committee (sorry, it was Bob Kerrey, not John Kerry)?
I’m thinking they just got lucky.

Posted by: Phil on August 18, 2004 01:43 PM

spongeworthy: You're right about strong anti-Bush sentiment, but that only motivates 30% of the electorate and outside that segment Kerry's "support" is very soft. Even if everyone in the middle just gets disgusted and stays home, Bush still wins with large margins.

If Kerry gets cut off at the knees early, the press will wait until the second term and launch a campaign to get Bush impeached, but they won't waist time and resources on trying to get a guy elected as CinC who has zero chance because he's a demonstrated liar (and not in the euphemistic sense the left accuses Bush of being a "liar") and a peacenik cranck that never showed up for duty in the Senate after having showed briefly in the 'Nam.

Posted by: Kerry Is Still Unelectable on August 18, 2004 03:05 PM

So the polls say that Kerry is being hurt by the ads?

Hmmm. The ads are running in Ohio. Zogby polled there 8/13 to 8/15. Result? Big John 50% Chimp Boy 41%. http://2.004k.com/state/?s=Ohio

It hurts so good.

Posted by: mkultra on August 18, 2004 08:53 PM

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Funniest thing I've read about the Virginia mess. Back when they were hustling the referendum through the assembly both Senators, Warner and Kaine, advised them to go slow and play by the rules. Louise Lucas said she respected them but didn't need advice from the "cuck chair" in the corner. The gerrymandering was overturned and Louise is heading for the big house. Edward G. Robinson voice "where's your cuck now?"
Posted by: Smell the Glove

I posted his post on twitter and it's gotten 25K views so far. Thanks, Smell the Glove

Chris
@chriswithans

"Ahhhhh ahh I put my career on the line for Louise Lucas and Jay Jones thinking they'd vault me into presidential contention and we ended up costing Democrats 20 House seats and unleashing a Reverse Dobbs ahhhhh ahhh"

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click That Sums Up the Democrat Communist Party Today
Something is wrong as I hold you near
Somebody else holds your heart, yeah
You turn to me with your icy tears
And then it's raining, feels like it's raining

TJM wonders about world building in stories, mostly The Hunger Games

"It's f**king f**ked."
-- reportedly a genuine comment offered by a "senior Labour source"
Correction: I wrote that Labour is losing 88% (now 87%) of the seats it is "defending." I think that's wrong. The right way to say it is the seats they are contesting -- that is, they don't necessarily already hold these seats, but they have put up a candidate to run for the seat. It's still very bad but not as bad as losing 87% of the seats they already held.

Basil the Great
@BasilTheGreat

🚨ED MILIBAND [a Minister in Starmer's government] SAYS KEIR STARMER WILL RESIGN AS PRIME MINISTER

He has reportedly reassured Labour MP's that Starmer will be resigning following the disastrous results tonight

It's over

"The end of the two party system in the UK" as first the Fake Conservatives and now Labour chooses political suicide rather than simply STOPPING THE INVASION
Incidentally, the only reason this didn't already happen in the US is because of the Very Bad Orange Man (who is right on 85% of all policy calls and extremely, existentially right on 15% of them)

No political party that is NOT also a doomsday religious cult would EVER choose a cataclysmic loss -- and possible extinction as a party -- to support a toxically unpopular favoritism of NON-CITIZEN ILLEGAL MIGRANTS over actual citizen voters.

Only a cult does this.

Now they've lost 84%.

Annunziata Rees-Mogg
@zatzi
If this continues Labour loses 2,148 seats tonight.

That is much worse than the worst case predictions I’ve seen.

Cataclysmic

Update: They've now lost 88% of the seats they're defending. As I mentioned earlier, I think I heard that London will not bail them out, as many of those Labour seats will probably flip to "Muslim Independent" or Green. Detroit's 5am vote will not save them.

Yup, Labour is losing 80% of its seats...

The British Patriot
@TheBritLad

🚨 BREAKING: Labour have lost 80% of all seats contested as of 2:25 AM.<
br> If this continues, Keir Starmer will be out of office next week.

Reform has surged and projected to pick up between 1700-2100 seats.

Wow, up to 1700-2100 seats. It's not incredible that this is happening. It's incredible that the Davos crowd is so absolutely determined to privilege Muslim "migrants" over the actual native population who elects them, no matter how loudly the natives scream that they want to be prioritized, that they will gladly self-extinguish as a party rather than simply representing the interests of their own voters. Astonishing.
Remember, when they call other people "cultists" -- they are the ones so imprisoned in their social reinforcement and discipline bubbles that they will choose political death rather than dare upset the Karen Enforcement Officers of their cult.
Update: Now they've lost 83% of the seats they were defending.

(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges

Reform are basically wiping Labour out in the North. It's not a defeat. It's not even a rout. Labour are simply ceasing to exist.

Nick Lowles
@lowles_nick

Tonight’s results are calamitous for Labour. Not just for Keir Starmer's leadership, but for the very future of the party

STARMERGEDDON: In early returns, Reform gains 135 seats, Labour loses 90, the Fake Conservatives lose 36 (and I didn't even know they could fall any further), the Lib Dems lose 4, and the Greens gain 6. Note that the only other party gaining seats is the Greens and they're only gaining a handful of seats.
Update: Reform now up 145, Labour down 98.
Labour projected to lose Wales -- where they've ruled for 27 years.
Fulton County Georgia just discovered 400 boxes of ballots for Labour
Update: REF +156, LAB -107, CON -45
Brutal: In four out of five council seats where Labour is defending, they've lost. 80%.
I'm sure it's not this simple, but Reform is straight taking Labour's and the "Conservatives'" seats. They've lost almost exactly what Reform gained. If understand this right (and warning, I probably don't), all of London's council seats are up for election, and Labour might lose hugely there, as their old voters abandon them for Reform, Muslim Indenpendents, and the Greens.
REF +190, LAB -134, CON -56.

Updates on the Labour collapse in council elections -- which wags are calling #Starmergeddon -- from Beege Welborne. There are about 5000 seats up for grabs, Labour is expected to lose 1,800, Reform will probably gain 1,580, up from... zero. So this would be more than that.
People claim that while Labour has adopted the Sharia Agenda to appeal to the million Muslims it allowed to migrate to the country, those voters are ditching Labour to vote for the Muslim Independent Party or the Greens. Delicious. This shadenfreude is going straight to my thighs.
Oh, and if Starmer loses about as badly as expected, Labour will toss him out of a window Braveheart style and replace him. He will announce he is resigning to spend more time with his Gay Ukrainian Male Prostitutes.

Media bias and senationalism are as old as, well, the media:

That was written by Denny O'Neill and illustrated by, get this, Frank Miller. Editor to the Stars Jim Shooter was in charge at the time.
I always thought the gag was original to the comic book, but in fact the "Threat or Menace" headline was a satirical joke about media bias and sensationalism for a long while. The Harvard Lampoon used it in a parody of Life magazine: "Flying Saucers: Threat or Menace?"

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