i think his point is the kerry campaign is blowing the election. putting aside what one may *feel* about cockburn, he makes very clear, simple and valid points.
1. few people at the NYC demonstrations were carrying Kerry for President signs. not much in itself but indicative of the fact that few people have Kerry bumperstickers across the nation (i've seen almost none on the Los Angeles freeways or streets -- and that's a lot of cars believe me) and few people are kerry supporters; the move is basically ABB.
2. Bush has appeal for middle americans and kerry doesn't.
3. the kerry campaign isn't making use of the domestic issues that republicans are ignoring during their convention and that should be "meat and drink" for the kerry campaign, such as "more people had slipped into poverty, more kids were hungry and now 45 million are without health insurance"
4. kerry's mistake at having his vietnam war record be the starring element of the dem convention rather than attacking shrub and the countless things the shrub group has screwed up. the GOP is sure attacking kerry at their convention. yet, the dems didn't attack shrub.
5. the choice of "insufferable Jamie Rubin, top State Department flack in the Clinton years" -- how true -- to announce, in effect, kerry wouldn't have voted otherwise on the iraq invasion even if he knew there were no WMDs, etc.
6. "How stupid do you have to be to throw away the Non-Existent WMDs as a stick to beat Bush with?" speaks for itself
7. the anti-war voters tendency to abandon kerry as a viable candidate.
doesn't this make it clear what cockburn is talking about? it's all old news, folks. al isn't saying anything that's not in our faces every day. the kerry campaign must pay attention to its strongest issues or loose.
the kerry campaign is a bust so far, and on the defensive most of the time. if it doesn't get its act together, cockburn's sarcastic comment about needing an october surprise -- as reagan used to oust jimmy carter -- is a humorous indication of how hapless the campaign is. one doesn't have to be arrogant or a believer in chaos to figure this out. one just has to have more brains than the kerry campaign.
R
At 09:41 AM 9/2/2004, you wrote:
>Right. But hasn't Cockburn managed to cozy up to the well-heeled? He can
>sip his Martinis while chaos rises and the inevitable(?) revolution that
>proves him right brews into the perfect storm.
>
>Joanna
>
>Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>>Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>>
>>>R quoted
>>>
>>>> Kerry's Slippage
>>>> The Stench of Doom
>>>> By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
>>>
>>>
>>>What is exactly his point? This man, who obviously is intelligent and
>>>knows how to write well, used 675 words (and innumerable trees cut down
>>>to spread these words) to say exactly what? Don't bother with Kerry,
>>>stay with Bush? Don't bother with the election, go fuck a duck? Or
>>>perhaps " I will say anything to spite and annoy those naïve liberal
>>>dimwits to show how much smarter I am?"
>>
>>
>>Cockburn has said many times that his aim is to increase the level of
>>chaos in the system. Anything that increases chaos is good; anything that
>>decreases it is bad. Therefore Jerry Brown is good. Ron Paul is good. The
>>Michigan Militia is good. Presumably, by this standard, Kerry is worse
>>than Bush.
>>
>>Doug
>>
>>___________________________________
>>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>>
>>.
>
>
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