My letter to Senator Kerry
Posted : September 5, 2004 at 12:30 am [America/Los_Angeles]
Dear Senator Kerry,
Here’s my little mantra for you to use between now and Nov. 2nd:
You cannot let any accusations against you go unanswered. And you must challenge President Bush not on things that he is WEAK in, but on things that he thinks he is STRONG in.
Allow me to explain what I just said:
You need to respond to the vicious attacks made by the Republicans during their Convention this past week. The key is to make sure that your responses are clear and will make for good soundbites on local and national television and radio. Also, you must ensure that not a single day goes by without your surrogates on cable television making the exact same case. It is imperative that this be done and done surgically until the day you feel that the message has percolated to the voters or November 2nd, whichever comes first. Following is a list of things that I think you need to cover starting NOW:
- Your Medals in Vietnam War: Take this time to answer the charge that “somehow” you manufactured the medals in just four months so that you could get an early discharge from duty and start a political career. Use humor here as much as possible. Show how ludicrous these charges are. Also, take the time to point out President Bush and Vice President Cheney’s dubious records during Vietnam
- Your 1971 testimony: Take this time to answer the charge that you called all Vietnam veterans “war criminals” in your testimony
- Your Senate Record: Take this time to elaborate on your achievements as a Senator. Also, pick one of the most outrageous charges made by the Republicans and expose it clearly to the voters for what it really is - a cheap Republican spin! You don’t need to answer every outrageous accusation that they have made. That’s the key. Just explain a few and the rest will lose its shine. Also, feel free to attack Vice President Cheney’s Senate record.
- You are a flip flopper: Take this time to answer the charge of being a “flip flopper” by either using humor or going on the offensive and showing how President Bush is an even worse flip flopper. And end it by saying something like “…And yet do you see me whining about that”.
- Your votes on the Iraq war: Take this time to explain the two votes: what they were for, in your viewpoint, and why you did what you did. I would say you should also try to explain your infamous “I voted for it before I voted against it..” line. I know what you meant. The undecided American voter is still not sure, thanks to bias in the media
- President Bush and his Republican cohorts have consistently lied to the nation by intermingling the two wars waged by United States since 2000 - War on Terror and War in Iraq. Repeat after me: “The Iraq War IS NOT the War on Terror. Saddam Hussain IS NOT Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda as led by Osama Bin Laden attacked United States on 9/11, not Saddam Hussain” Make your listeners understand that there is a huge difference between these two wars. To many, it’s a no-brainer, but trust me, there are many, many in this country who will not consider the two as separate wars. And if you don’t make that distinction, they will say “President Bush did the right thing to launch a War on Terror and was therefore right about invading Iraq!”
- Repeat this line as many times as possible when you talk about the Economy - “There is nothing conservative about running up big budget deficits and there is nothing conservative about increasing the size of government”. Even conservative guys don’t like President Bush’s “borrow-and-spend” economic policy of the last four years.
Hammer this point again and again. Ultimately, if done right, it should take care of the first half of the statement above - “You cannot let any accusations against you go unanswered.” Let’s move on.
There is this mantra that I learnt in a hurry this summer as a rookie in the field of politics, from a bald and innocuous looking American “Kautilya” named “Karl Rove”:
Attack your competitor not where he is WEAK but where he is STRONG!
I for one actually believe that President Bush is quite vulnerable in the very same things that he thinks he is strong in - War on Terror and Homeland Security! If you think I am nuts. hear me out:
- First, as I stated earlier, you MUST make the case that the War on Terror and the Iraq War are two mutually exclusive wars. This should be fairly simple as there really has never been credible evidence of Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussain working in tandem. Just because Al Qaeda operatives lived or traveled through Baghdad or North Iraq proves nothing. Why? Because, as we all know, there are Al Qaeda cells right here in the United States of America! Does that mean President Bush and Al Qaeda are pals? I think not.
Anyway, once you’ve made that case, all you need to do is to show that going into Iraq, besides being a costly and a miserable failure, has potentially opened a Pandora’s box with more young Muslims joining the ranks of Al Qaeda. Make the case that the inability to nail Osama Bin Laden in Tora Bora coupled with the poorly planned Iraq war has severely jeopardized our standing on the War on Terror.
- Hit back at President Bush’s lack of conservative agenda! Yup, that’s right. As I alluded to earlier, talk to voters about how there is nothing conservative about big budget deficits and “borrow-and-spend” economic policy of President Bush.
A well wisher.
Yours truly,
- Anand
Category: United (or not) State of American Politics 2004