Combat Survival Mode
Reported by Eleanor - August 21, 2004 -
Heartland with John Kasich (Aug. 21, 8:00 p.m.) discussed the Kerry response to the swift boat ads with Susan Estrich, democrat and Frank Donatelli, republican.
Kasich noted that Kerry has filed an official complaint claiming coordination between Bush and the swift boat vets. Kerry also launched an Internet ad showing McCain confronting Bush about using a "fringe" vet group to attack him in 2000. Kasich noted that the Viet Nam ads are taking a toll on Kerry in the polls.
Estrich disagreed, saying that the toll is on Bush. Donatelli said Kerry's response shows that Kerry is being hurt. Kasich observed that if the republicans are behind it, this could boomerang on Bush. Donnatelli noted that republicans are behind it, but there's "not a shred of evidence" that it's the Bush campaign.
Kasich suggested that it's time to change the message. Susan ended this discussion with an observation that going into the republican convention, the biggest issue is whether or not Bush will condemn " a sleazy ad" put out by old friends of Karl Rove and Texas republicans.
Comment: Hopefully, the Internet ad and the graphic description in the Chicago Tribune by William Rood, a man who witnessed Kerry's actions that day in 1969, and disputed everything the John O'Neill crowd has said about Kerry's silver star, will put the other side on the defense. An Aug. 2, Time Magazine article called "Inside the Mind of John Kerry" by Joe Klein used a metaphor to describe Kerry, when he's really challenged, as entering a phone booth sipping French wine and emerging with a knife in his teeth, ready for battle. Maybe we're involved in a "phone booth" transformation right now. Klein added "his premordial sense of survival on the battlefield, honed and burnished in Viet Nam, kicks in, and he does what he must do to win: he acts like a real politician."
