At 07:23 AM 8/27/2004, you wrote:
>"WASHINGTON -- President Bush has moved past Sen. John F. Kerry in three
>of the most hotly contested Midwestern battleground states despite
>continued doubts about the country's direction and the president's
>policies, new Los Angeles Times polls have found."
><http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/la-082604poll_lat,0,7912861,print.story?coll=ny-top-headlines>http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/la-082604poll_lat,0,7912861,print.story?coll=ny-top-<http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/la-082604poll_lat,0,7912861,print.story?coll=ny-top-headlines>headlines
Published on Wednesday, August 25, 2004 by CommonDreams.org http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0825-02.htm
What Would Dukakis Do? by David Michael Green
Now I remember why I liked Howard Dean so much.
When will Democrats learn? The Grand Old Party of respectable mainstream conservatives like Gerry Ford or Howard Baker has now morphed completely and irretrievably into the Greasy Oily Party of Lee Atwater, Karl Rove and Bushes I and II.
Apparently John Kerry didn't get the memo. He should have a little chat with the remains of Messrs. Dukakis, McCain, Gore and Cleland.
How Kerry failed to see the events of the last week coming is as unfathomable as it is inexcusable. How he allowed two Vietnam dodgers turn a war hero into a question mark with hardly a rebuttal suggests that he may be in way over his head in this campaign.
[...]
How is it that Kerry didn't see this coming, especially after the four Bush League victims above were so notoriously thrashed by this ugly cartel? The events of the last week suggest an ineptness at grand strategy perhaps rivaled only by Bush's invasion of Iraq while America is at war with al Qaeda.
This year, however, Kerry carries a heavy burden on his shoulders. It is not too much to say that the fate of the planet will be determined by the vote of November 2nd. Maybe Kerry goes off to join Dukakis and Gore in the unhappy pasture lands of public policy graduate seminars if he loses, but the rest of us are stuck with his failures. More is arguably at stake for the country and the planet now than in any election in American history.
[...]
The alternative will be repeated iterations of what has just transpired: the Bush camp makes the most outrageous assertions against Kerry, who lamely, tardily and ineffectively responds with indignation, whereupon the Bush camp insinuates that Kerry is psychologically unbalanced, while the false accusations meanwhile stick in the minds of at least some of the public and Kerry loses votes.
This will require some serious strategic thinking on the part of the Kerry campaign, which so far seems frighteningly absent.
[...]
There is no excuse for the Kerry campaign to have been so ill-prepared for the Bush garbage machine. It is has now been previewed in multiple campaigns over the last two decades, and a devastating preemptive strategy should have been implemented months ago.
It is worth remembering that in 1988 Dukakis came out of the summer with a commanding lead over Bush Senior, who then proceeded to eat him for lunch, all while Dukakis looked on. It may not be too late for another Massachusetts liberal to avoid the same fate, but it certainly will be if he doesn't start swinging now.
David Michael Green (pscdmg at hofstra.edu) is assistant professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York.
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