An article released by the French press AFP enumerates a list of recent attacks and claims by the seemingly desperate Kerry campaign and their negligible, perhaps negative, effect on voters.
First, let’s look at the attacks.
Kerry’s claim that the White House has a secret callup plan stirred up the presidential election campaign….
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Kerry has condemned the president over his own military service and his handling of Iraq and the economy.
He has also hit out at Cheney over his links to Halliburton, the controversial oil and general services giant which is in trouble over military contracts in Iraq.
In his latest assault, Kerry said the president has a secret plan to call up large numbers of reservists for Iraq duty, which he said will be announced only after the November 2 election.
“He won’t tell us that day by day we’re running out of soldiers and that we’re now resorting to a backdoor draft from our reservists and our National Guard,” the Massachusetts senator said during a campaign stop in Albuquerque on Friday.
First, yes, many reservists are currently scheduled to go to Iraq. This is known, not secret. Many have been called up and scheduled to rotate in January. More will assuredly be needed. Second, the attacks on the president’s service won’t work as long as surrogates assisting in the assault rely on forgeries and shoddy journalism. Maybe not even then, as the focus on Viet Nam has not helped Kerry since the primaries. Third, the evil Halliburton attacks only work with the far left, and ignore the abilities and sacrifices of the corporation. Fourth, can someone freakin’ tell Kerry that the phrase “backdoor draft” refers to stop-loss, not utilizing the reserves. It means keeping people from exiting after their commitment is complete. This guy will only have limited respect from the military as long as he cannot speak their language.
The article then looks at the current effectiveness of the strategy of attacking everything Bush while never establishing anything Kerry.
Two polls published Thursday had shown Kerry pulling even with Bush, but a third gave the Republican a healthy 13-point margin.
The CBS/New York Times poll said Bush’s lead had widened from seven to nine points in the past week.
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The Times said voters are saying that Kerry “has not laid out a case for why he wants to be president and expressing strong concern about his ability to manage an international crisis.”
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But it said that Bush has been “lifted as much by what Mr Kerry has done wrong as by what Mr Bush has done right.”
Maybe, just maybe, the American public doesn’t want a candidate whose stance on Iraq and other terror issues is a wheel of fortune, spinning around with constant options of definitely, definitely not, and definitely maybe but certainly differently if so. Unfortunately for the Kerry campaign right now, a good chunk of the electorate is still living in a post-9/11 world.