October 2004

Two headlines from yesterday’s papers:

“Bush Campaigns With Brother, Accuses Kerry Of Using Scare Tactics”

(The Frontrunner, 10-20-04)

“Cheney, Invoking Specter of a Nuclear Attack, Questions Kerry’s Strength”

(NYTimes 10-20-04)

Hey Sports Fans, Yankee Doodle here, close and personal friend of Uncle Sam’s. Yesterday, I received a letter from the Pillsbury Dough Boy asking:

Do you have any info on why I should vote Kerry and not Bush?

Honestly, I don’t like either, but I would hope to have some real facts to work with. Unfortunately, the American Political landscape is full of lies and deceit. Especially the 2000 election bullshit in Florida and the Iraq War. That is why I won’t vote for Bush, but Kerry really isn’t a good replacement. What do I do?

~ PDB

Dear PDB,

Well, I completely agree. However, always remember that you are voting for one of two “behind the scenes” World Order (WO) agendas. And from where I sit as our nation’s _other_ red, white and blue superstar, I would rather have the Kerry World Order faction in place than the Bush one. The Bush WO faction is about Oil, Arms, Pharmaceuticals (big profits from the disease model of health care) and other Drug Running (propping up Wall Street – i.e. FARC and poppy’s cabal), and basically makes its power from creating war (including the draft BTW).

Remember Bush’s father’s famous one-liner in 1990 that nobody but the insiders understood – eternal war for eternal peace? Or Bush Jr.’s “I just know how the world works,” line the other night? Kerry’s faction is more aligned around technology. While they are hell-bent on outer technology to disempower the masses, at least it is not as environmentally insane as the Bush WO approach. And when democrats are in the White House, it’s just a helluva lot easier to make your way through the “system,” to deal with bureaucracy. Plus, it gives us all a better opportunity to wake up to our own INNER power. At least with Kerry, I have a better shot of hearing from my inner power than from the Bush faction, with the overload of everyone running scared from some terrorist boogeyman.

Many of my international colleagues believe that the Bushco WO faction was behind 9/11 in order to ignite and further their agenda. My belief, along with Uncle Sam, is that Bush looked the other way in hopes that 9/11 would be the break his faction needed. Indeed, if you look at it big picture, 9/11 shifted the economy from technology as we knew it (circa 1990’s) back to the old guard military industrial companies, such as Lockheed, Halliburton, etc. Basically, you have two bonesmen representing the two WO factions, so it is a choice of how you want your Lords and Masters to rule over you.

The third choice is to buy a small island in the South Pacific, declare it Sovereign, pitch a tent and move there. The Powers That Be have pretty much locked up the rest of the planet at this point.

Blessings,

Yankee Doodle

If Bush wins (and I do mean “if”) the key reason will be that Americans are afraid of changing pale horses of death in mid-nightmare. So Kerry needs to shout: “Wake Up!” And he needs to do so in so many different ways that somehow enough people hear it and have time to rise from their brainwashed slumber by November 2. Kerry needs to convey this vibe in all his answers, a sense of almost disbelief at what’s going on (laughing and shaking his head in mock shock at the latest Bush attack). And mainly, he needs to be having fun. In every sound byte, we need to see that fun is still possible, that levity and humor can still have a place in the West Wing. Kerry can win if he lifts us out of the pall of terror.

And, I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising that current polls are showing that, post-debate, Kerry isn’t getting the bounce that he needs. What Kerry needs is to make his own bounce. He needs five (5) big messages that he just pounds on, from here to the election. When you go to www.johnkerry.com, there should be five compelling graphics with these themes, and when you click on them, a one minute video of Kerry talking his core position on the theme comes up, underneath of which there are more choices: Ask a Question Read Policy Paper See what America Thinks See more Video.

Herewith the five themes:

1) Right war or wrong war, we’re losing the war…

Kerry explains that we need to recast to win, and that he has the credibility to start fresh, and the experience to run the new war. He must emphasize that he’s not going to bail on the war on terror, and that he can be just as tough and vigilant as W.

2) We need allies to win the war; I can get ’em.

Kerry needs to remind us that hitting the reset button buys the US a lot. What might our allies say and do if the entire country throws Bush out. Kerry can reframe the situation. He can say: “I have wiggle room Bush has burnt up.” He can use his flip-flopper powers for good! If he is feeling particularly bold, he can even say that he will open up a second “peace” front, because he knows that war is not the only answer.

3) Bush is paid for by the rich and is not your friend. He lied to you and steals from you.

Nobody really cares about this one, but at least one of the five messages has got to say it.

4) I love America and always have – my history proves it.

We need constant, heart-rending rhetoric from Kerry about how “really loving America” means criticizing and helping to fix it. How America is always unfinished, but unless we keep improving it we stagnate. All that classic comic-book rhetoric: we need it now!

5) You can’t privatize everything and tax nothing.

Back to the economy, he can just point out again and again that Bush is bankrupting the country, losing us jobs, giving it all to the rich, and has no plan to reverse the trend.

But at the end of the day, Kerry has to show that he is a tough-minded, military-minded, no-nonsense true believe who will not lose control if we hand him the reins. That’s the majority of it.

It takes a big man to say he’s sorry. And given how exploitable Bush’s inability to apologize for anything is, Kerry’s gaffe identifying Mary Cheney as someone who is likely biologically gay could have been his opportunity to lead by example and shame the Bushies.

Mike McCurry, Clinton’s former Press Secretary, who recently started helping run the Kerry campaign, and who has political instincts like Vince Lombardi had sports instincts, knew right away what to do: “Say you’re sorry,” he told Kerry. Show what a real man does. Take the issue away from them. Unfortunately, Mary Beth and the rest demurred, and so the Republicans managed to get their post-debate distraction issue from an unlikely place: righteous indignation at insulting a person of the gay persuasion. You can’t say these guys don’t appreciate irony.

Kerry could have said: “If I hurt Mary Cheney’s feelings, I’m sorry.” He could have continued: “Believe me, I have no desire to discuss people’s sexual orientation on TV. But this would not even be an issue if the Republicans weren’t trying to legislate morality. I’m only bringing it up because there is a little hypocrisy on their side. And they themselves made an issue of the Vice President’s daughter. But sometimes people get used in this process in a way that I don’t believe in, and I inadvertently participated in that the other night. I’m sorry. Any other questions.”

Think of what the media spin would have been: Is he a woosie for saying he’s sorry? The answer would have ended up being, no, he’s the kind of role model I want in the Oval Office. How many parents teach their children that character is about owning your mistakes?

Time and time again, history shows us that if a politician steps up to the plate and just apologizes, the public forgives him. It even worked for Jimmy Swaggart, and it worked for Clinton the first time. And when Clinton didn’t do it the second time, it almost sunk him. McCurry saw this carnage first hand, and the Kerry team should have listened to him.

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