[davesimondotcom]

Other than an appearance on the Daily Show and some random press releases taking on the Swift Boat Vets, Kerry seemed to completely avoid the press in August. Not one "serious" interview during the month.

It's typical for a candidate to take time off before of after a convention, and during their opponent's convention, but this seems unusual to me.

Is this a purposeful strategy by the Kerry Campaign, hoping that if he's not in the press, it's harder to define him? Was he just saving money for the last two months of the campaign?

Thoughts?

[BRussell]

Originally posted by davesimondotcom:
Other than an appearance on the Daily Show and some random press releases taking on the Swift Boat Vets, Kerry seemed to completely avoid the press in August. Not one "serious" interview during the month.

It's typical for a candidate to take time off before of after a convention, and during their opponent's convention, but this seems unusual to me.

Is this a purposeful strategy by the Kerry Campaign, hoping that if he's not in the press, it's harder to define him? Was he just saving money for the last two months of the campaign?

Thoughts?

If the strategy is to allow the Bush campaign to define him, he's doing a great job! From what I've heard, Kerry's campaigns often take this route: play it safe until you need to. Apparently he can be a pretty tough campaigner, but only if he's behind. So maybe these recent problems will be good for him. I've heard he's also making some campaign staff changes.

I suppose a play-it-safe strategery makes some sense, given the poor realities for Bush, with his two primary presidential issues - the tax cuts and the Iraq war - not doing too well right now. But 1) it probably won't work in the end and 2) it shouldn't work - he should play a more active role in defining himself if he wants to be president.

[Zimphire]

He is dodging. Plain and simple.

The Kerry boat is going down.

[davesimondotcom]

Originally posted by BRussell:
If the strategy is to allow the Bush campaign to define him, he's doing a great job! From what I've heard, Kerry's campaigns often take this route: play it safe until you need to. Apparently he can be a pretty tough campaigner, but only if he's behind. So maybe these recent problems will be good for him. I've heard he's also making some campaign staff changes.

I suppose a play-it-safe strategery makes some sense, given the poor realities for Bush, with his two primary presidential issues - the tax cuts and the Iraq war - not doing too well right now. But 1) it probably won't work in the end and 2) it shouldn't work - he should play a more active role in defining himself if he wants to be president.

Exactly the kind of response that I was asking for. No surprise it's coming from you BRussell, you always seem to have something thoughtful to say (whether I agree with it or not.)

I would, however, disagree that the tax cuts/Iraq war are not doing well. After all, the tax cut has hardly been brought up recently, and the economy is doing fairly well. It isn't "the best economy in 20 years" but it isn't "the worst economy since the Great Depression" either. It's, like most everything else, somewhere between the two vocal extremes.

That is to say, the general economy. Individual economies may be doing better or worse - individual economies being a single household. If someone lost their job last year, they would probably say the economy is awful.

As for Iraq - the common notion among Democrats and often in the press is that things are going bad there. There is no argument that it's not an easy time, but things are much improved now versus two years ago for the average Iraqi. And I think the average American shares that view - that the average Iraqi is better off even with the insurgence than under Saddam. Could it be better? Oh yeah. But there is an optimistic part of Americans, and they'll say it's "getting better every day."

I think playing it safe as an incumbent Senator is one thing, but if he doesn't convince the "undecided" voters to vote FOR him, they won't - if they are undecided, they aren't part of the "anybody but Bush" crowd. Those folks will vote for Kerry no matter what he does. In order to win though, he's got to get swing voters to vote for him. And so far, I've seen no evidence of him doing that.

But at least he's not going around promising everybody he talks to that he's going to find some new government program for them in order to give them reason to vote for him.

[BRussell]

Originally posted by davesimondotcom:
Exactly the kind of response that I was asking for. No surprise it's coming from you BRussell, you always seem to have something thoughtful to say (whether I agree with it or not.)

I feel a certain responsibility towards a fellow Montanan. For anyone else I'd just lay down some troll bait.

I would, however, disagree that the tax cuts/Iraq war are not doing well. After all, the tax cut has hardly been brought up recently, and the economy is doing fairly well. It isn't "the best economy in 20 years" but it isn't "the worst economy since the Great Depression" either. It's, like most everything else, somewhere between the two vocal extremes.

That is to say, the general economy. Individual economies may be doing better or worse - individual economies being a single household. If someone lost their job last year, they would probably say the economy is awful.

As for Iraq - the common notion among Democrats and often in the press is that things are going bad there. There is no argument that it's not an easy time, but things are much improved now versus two years ago for the average Iraqi. And I think the average American shares that view - that the average Iraqi is better off even with the insurgence than under Saddam. Could it be better? Oh yeah. But there is an optimistic part of Americans, and they'll say it's "getting better every day."

Well, at best, there are mixed perceptions of both the economy and Iraq. More people say the Iraq war wasn't worth it. I'm not sure how people perceive the economy, but cutting taxes should be a slam dunk, and my feeling is that it hasn't been. I know job growth is a lagging indicator, but it is really really lagging this time around. That whole "first president since the depression to have a net job loss" thing is going to really hurt, I think.

I think playing it safe as an incumbent Senator is one thing, but if he doesn't convince the "undecided" voters to vote FOR him, they won't - if they are undecided, they aren't part of the "anybody but Bush" crowd. Those folks will vote for Kerry no matter what he does. In order to win though, he's got to get swing voters to vote for him. And so far, I've seen no evidence of him doing that.

Most of the analyses I've seen show that undecided voters tend to go for the challenger in greater numbers than the incumbent - they are undecided because they don't like the president. But this year there seem to be many fewer undecideds, so who knows what will happen. I sincerely hope that, whoever wins, he gets a solid majority in the popular vote and the electoral college.

But at least he's not going around promising everybody he talks to that he's going to find some new government program for them in order to give them reason to vote for him.

You must be joking. I'm not sure who's worse on that, Bush or Kerry.

[boots]

Not sure that this is really a defining reason for his lack of interviews, but he has been on the road doing a tone of small "town hall" style meetings. Much smaller audiences than at the Bush rallies and, I think, more frequent. He's really targeting the undecideds and is taking to them in a face-to-face way. Time consuming, and only time will tell if the investment pays off.

(I'm in MN, so we see a lot of both candidates.)

[zigzag]

It's the old Nixonian rope-a-dope strategy. The problem in this campaign is that you're not always sure which one is the rope and which one is the dope.

It does seem odd that Kerry has laid this low in terms of national exposure - as I understand it, he has even more money than Bush. Either it's a deliberate lying-in-wait strategy and/or he's waiting for the Swift Boat stuff to die down - even if the record supports Kerry on most counts, the accusations would draw most of the attention in interviews. I dunno, but it'd be fun to be a fly on the wall.

[itai195]

The one thing the Kerry campaign seems unable to avoid is traps set by the Bush campaign. It looks like Bush even snagged them unintentionally this week with his comment about winning the war on terror. Now Kerry is popping up everywhere talking about how we 'absolutely can win the war on terror.' Not only that, but he's talking about Iraq in the context of the WoT. WTF is wrong with this campaign? They seem totally incapable of framing the issues in their own terms.

[davesimondotcom]

Just realized I should have titled this "Kerry's Strategery of Avoidance." Damn.

[Zimphire]

[PacHead]

Originally posted by itai195:
The one thing the Kerry campaign seems unable to avoid is traps set by the Bush campaign. It looks like Bush even snagged them unintentionally this week with his comment about winning the war on terror. Now Kerry is popping up everywhere talking about how we 'absolutely can win the war on terror.' Not only that, but he's talking about Iraq in the context of the WoT. WTF is wrong with this campaign? They seem totally incapable of framing the issues in their own terms.

I agree with you on that. It seems like he's mimicking Bush on certain issues. I have 5 words for Kerry. "It aint gonna work buddy".

[Monique]

And where was George Bush during the Democratic convention; well he was not in the White House either. On vacation again; isn't he going to be tired of being on vacation soon??

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by Monique:
And where was George Bush during the Democratic convention; well he was not in the White House either. On vacation again; isn't he going to be tired of being on vacation soon??

Was he supposed to be at the DNC?