Top Dem Rips Kerry Campaign
Coehlo: “There is nobody in charge.”
Longtime Democratic insider Tony Coelho lashed out at the John Kerry presidential campaign, characterizing it as a campaign in chaos. With yet another appointment of a former Clinton administration staffer to Kerry’s team on Tuesday, Coelho argues the problem is worsening.
“There is nobody in charge and you have these two teams that are generally not talking to each other,” says Coehlo, who ran Al Gore’s campaign early in the 2000 presidential race. As Coelho and other detractors see it, there is a civil war within the Kerry campaign.
Of course, this is bad news – not good news. After the debates, expect to see a resurgent, vibrant, and rejuvenated John Kerry; new message and all. How would I do it?
1. Economy. It’s strong, but not that strong.
2. Taxes and the Deficit. $450 billion. No brainer.
3. Clinton. Run on the Clinton record, treat him like we treat Reagan. That way, when/if the GOP hits on the Clinton record (and the person of Bill Clinton), we look like the bullies that John Kerry and the Dems currently look like. That’s probably the #1 image problem of the Kerry/Edwards campaign – they look like angry, irrational, and visionless radicals.
What should the GOP response be? The war on terror. Reiterate, reiterate, reiterate. Kerry isn’t just weak on defense, he’s vascillating and fragile. That’s going to win the election for Bush, and there’s not a lot that the Dems can put forward as an alternative.
Above all else, the Dems need to back off of the National Guard “Rathergate” nonsense. . . unless of course the reason why CBS, the DNC, and the Kerry/Edwards campaign is *not* backing off is because the forged documents came from inside the Kerry campaign. In which case, the Dems can give up right now and focus on applying the tourniquet on Congress. Daschle is down by 3, and the Dems are going to lose seats in a big way if Kerry doesn’t start building some cohesion.