We are offering two different designs on t-shirts, posters and mugs to help get the word out about John Kerry.

Questions?

‘Tell a lie, tell it big and tell it often

by Roger Wm. Hughes

Tell a lie, tell it big, and tell it often – Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propagandist

Senator John Edwards and the Kerry campaign continue to use Sen. John Kerry’s Vietnam service as the gold standard for trusting Kerry to be Commander in Chief. This is because in time of war no other question is more important in the election for President in 2004.

Edwards offers in a much-repeated ad in battleground states with the statement, "there is no one better prepared than Senator John Kerry to keep America safe."

He further goes on to say that if we have any questions we just need to spend "three minutes" with those veterans that Kerry served with in Vietnam. Now, in defense of the lawyer, Edwards offers a lawyer-like covenant that implies that we should only talk with those veterans who still stand by Kerry today -- instead of saying the swift boat veterans’ picture that Kerry used in his ‘band of brothers’ ad earlier in his campaign.

With the repeated fact that only two of the 19 individuals shown in that ‘band of brothers’ veterans picture by Kerry actually support his campaign for the presidency, why is Kerry continuing with this argument? After all, 11 of the 19 wrote a letter stating that Kerry is unfit to be Commander in Chief. Clearly, the question that boggles the mind of anyone who is paying attention is: Why does Kerry keep alluding to his Vietnam credentials?

Anyone who spends time visiting Vietnam veterans’ websites will soon find out that Sen. John Kerry is not only disliked but is emphatically despised by his brethren and for good reasons:

·        There is the fact that Kerry lied in 1971 to Congress about war atrocities committed by his brethren.

·        There is the fact that Kerry is recognized in the North Vietnamese War Museum as one of their heroes for helping them defeat the USA and win the war for the Communists.

·        There is the fact that Kerry has voted against more than a dozen of the key weapons that are critical to our nation’s defense.

·        There is the fact Kerry voted to go to war and then voted against the $87 billion to fund it. (Oh that’s right, he "first voted for it before he voted against it.")

Given the damning evidence of Kerry’s lousy past support of our nation’s defense and the anger and contempt that Vietnam veterans hold towards him, why is Kerry trying this gambit?

Because the media is not talking about any of the damning evidence and if Kerry – or his surrogate, Edwards -- keeps telling his story then people will believe him rather than the facts.

Is Kerry Liberal?

The Washington Post has an article that seems to try to make Kerry out to not be liberal. However, even the Post can only go so far. The other question asked is if being the big (L) Liberal is bad:

Mark J. Penn, Clinton's pollster, maintains that the liberalism charge is still dangerous for Democrats, who he says should move aggressively to rebut the accusation. The liberal label is dynamite, he said, because for many of the 80 percent of the electorate who do not identify themselves as liberals, the word is synonymous with high taxation and naive dovishness on national security. But he said the dynamite cannot explode if most voters do not believe it is real.

"You still don't want to be perceived as 'liberal,' " he said, "any more than you want to be perceived as 'right wing.' " In this year's race, he said, Bush is carrying the greater ideological burden. Rankings such as the National Journal's do not cause problems for Kerry so long as "you don't have a real-time event that depicts him as a liberal."

Scott Stanzel, a Bush-Cheney spokesman, said the campaign does have such real-time evidence of Kerry's leanings, including his vote against an $87 billion spending measure to support military operations in Iraq. Kerry said he would have backed the spending if the administration had agreed to pay for it by rescinding some of its tax cuts for the wealthy. Kerry also is opposed to the death penalty, which most Americans support. Stanzel said Kerry has "the pattern and record of someone who is out of the mainstream."

Ad wars strategies

A number of groups are analyzing how the two campaigns are spending the ad money. The base is getting most of the attention according to the studies. Democrats are spending more in urban markets leaving Republicans spending more in the rural markets.

Bush's ads are saturating every nook of the battleground states, even small towns and rural areas where Republicans are expected to prevail. Kerry is placing his bets in bigger cities and suburbs and putting less emphasis on smaller media markets – according to the LA Times.

·        Nearly 60% of Americans live in areas that have not been targeted by presidential campaign ads on local TV. That includes nearly all of California, except for a few areas that have seen ads targeting the competitive neighboring states Nevada and Oregon.

·        Bush has reached viewers more often than his opponents in 31 of the 93 TV markets with presidential advertising activity. His campaign has raised more money overall than Kerry's and is expected to run a TV blitz after the senator is formally nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Boston next week.

·        Both sides are targeting women more than men and older voters more than younger voters. "Young viewers are notoriously difficult to reach through television advertising," said Jeff King, managing director of Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

·        Both sides are focusing their advertising on local newscasts and national network programs such as NBC's "Today" and ABC's "Good Morning America." They also are spending money to advertise during syndicated talk shows like "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Dr. Phil" and "Live With Regis and Kelly" and game shows like "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!"

But the data suggest that Bush is pursuing male voters somewhat more intensively than Kerry by placing more of his ads on TV shows men like to watch. That includes crime shows like "NYPD Blue," "Law & Order" and "JAG."

Media sources

Here are a few of the more intriguing findings by Scarborough Research (a joint venture between Arbitron Inc. and VNU Media Measurement & Information):

·        Republicans, more than their counterparts, are avid newspaper readers.
Independents enjoy going "online" for news and are 30 percent more likely than others to use the Internet to visit a newspaper's Web site.

·        Independents, surprisingly in higher percentages than Republicans, tune into news/talk radio formats. Only 17 percent of Democrats tune in to such shows.

·        Considerable percentages of all three watch cable "all-news" networks, although each has personal preferences. Democrats, for instance, don't watch the Fox News Channel in large numbers, whereas most Republicans prefer the network.

·        Democrats are more likely to tune into ABC and CBS evening newscasts, whereas Republicans tend to tune into NBC.

Kerry’s run-up

The Kerry campaign has developed an interesting pattern travel to Boston. The Campaign expressed that the stops represent crucial optimistic moments in the nation's history and will emphasize Kerry-Edwards campaign themes:

·        Aurora, Colo.: The Friday event at Kerry's birthplace in an Army hospital will emphasize family and service, focusing on the military career of Kerry's father and his mother's lifetime of volunteer service.

·        Sioux City, Iowa: The Saturday campaign stop will focus on American optimism in a town that was part of the Lewis and Clark expedition to discover the West.

·        Columbus, Ohio: The Sunday event has a theme of opportunity, contrasting the state's long ties with the railroad industry contrasted with Ohio's troubled economy now. Kerry will talk about his plans to improve employment opportunities.

·        Cape Canaveral, Fla.: As the convention starts in Boston, Kerry will talk about America's future Monday, July 26, at the Florida site of space launches and highlight his plans to strengthen the nation's health care.

·        Norfolk, Va.: Kerry, a former naval officer, will stop at the Navy port Tuesday to talk about his commitment to the nation's military strength.

·        Philadelphia: Kerry will speak Wednesday about the Democratic ticket's plans to strengthen this nation's position in the world by rebuilding alliances. Edwards expects to touch on similar themes in his acceptance speech at the convention in Boston.

·        Boston: Kerry will accept his party's nomination Thursday — expanding on the Kerry-Edwards' campaign theme of making America "stronger at home and respected in the world."

The Cleland factor

The LA Times has a big piece on how Max Cleland is the second biggest motivation for Democrats to defeat President Bush -- the first being Florida.

The motivation for Cleland seems to be:

His purpose, he states repeatedly, is to help other Democrats, to "turn my pain into someone else's gain." It is one of the many aphorisms and little self-help squibs that Cleland collects, the way another person might seek exotic stamps or gather rare coins. They sound hokey, except that Cleland seems to cling to their inspiration so utterly.

Boston Union tactics

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is urging delegates to next week's Democratic National Convention not to be deterred by picket lines by city police officers unhappy about working without a labor contract. The Police Association has asked the convention delegates not to cross their picket lines to the welcoming parties hosted by Mayor Menino.

The Mayor of Boston is going to hate this convention for a long time...

Dems’ Lesson Time

The Democrat National Convention is planning to train those attending in the art of winning campaigns.

Organized by Democratic GAIN, the program will offer training sessions with such titles as "Road Map to Victory: Campaign Planning and Budget," "It's Party Time: Crowd Building As an Organizational Tool," "Every Voice Counts: Mobilizing New Voters," and "Fear Factor: Campaign Finance 101."

"This is the largest convention training in the history of the party, so we're really setting a precedent here," said Simone Ward, executive director of Democratic GAIN, an association of Democratic operatives from environmental, women's rights, and labor groups.

Nader helped by Republicans

Nader had 50,000 signatures, out of 30,000 needed, handed-in so that he could be on the ballot in the battleground state of Michigan.

The Democrats are charging that the Republican Party in Michigan violated the contribution laws in gathering the petitions. Contributions by PAC’s are limited to $5,000.

Kevin Zeese, a spokesman for Mr. Nader, said that the Republicans’ work on behalf of Mr. Nader was not coordinated with Mr. Nader's campaign and thus was not subject to campaign contribution limits.