Oct 19, 2004

Suggestion for Kerry

by Cliopatria

Over at Talking Points Josh Marshall is recommending that Kerry slap together an ad showing Bush lied at the debate when he claimed never to have said that Osama is no longer important. Turns out, as Marshall indicates in an update, that moveon.org has created such an ad.

I've got my own suggestion of what Kerry should do. He should buy a half hour on prime time next week and talk to the nation the way FDR used to.

Focus on the war on terror. Tell us 1. why we should be worried. 2. what we can do about it.

Bush is so busy popping off like a rooster that he has left a wide opening for Kerry to fill as the reasonable, fatherly wise man. Think Ike talking about the military industrial complex.

Not a fancy speech. Just an honest one.

It should be on tape so he can practice.

For tips I'd have him look at Ross Perot's addresses using TV. They were very effective.

The 30 second spots have about run their course. Nobody's paying much attention anymore. But a plain spoken Kerry looking directly in the camera could be a powerful message that he is 1. presidential, 2. capable of talking plainly, 3. shares our sincere concerns about terrorism, 4. is willing to share with us his strategy for defeating terrorism.

Straight talk.

If he can do this convincingly he'll be the next president. If he can't, maybe he shouldn't be.

More Comments:

Nathan M Williams - 10/20/2004

I've been calling up undecideds for the Kerry campaign recently, and the biggest thing keeping undecided voters from committing to Kerry is that they're still not sure what he's about and what his plans are. They certainly don't want to vote for Bush, and a half-hour program like this would answer a lot of questions and go a long way towards locking these undecideds.

The question is, would Bush be compelled to respond with his own 30-minute spot?

Jonathan Dresner - 10/19/2004

... I think Kerry got to say most of what he needs to say on the subject in the debates, including presenting a strong and competent image. I have trouble believing that he'd say anything different.

Of course, the novelty value alone would be worth something; I'd much rather he use the time to talk about domestic policy, as the debates did not give him adequate time to both critique the Bush record and present his alternatives (plus explain how he will get them through Congress).