Undisputed Heavyweight Champ

The thing about a champion fighter, you drop your left hand an inch and a half and he'll hit you in the eye.

A lot has been said about how Kerry is "immune" to attacks on his patriotism because of his war record. That's hooey. Bush and the GOP smeared McCain, they smeared Cleland and they'll for damn sure smear Kerrry.

What Kerry's war record gives him is a platform to attack from. His latest same-day rebuttal of Bush's, "I got an honorable discharge" defense is an example of both his agility and his aggressive desire to hurt Bush, as often as he can, any way he can.

A few days ago he was distancing himself from Michael Moore's "deserter" remark. But circumstances alter cases, and Kerry isn't the kind of guy to ignore a swelling around an opponent's eye.

Is that nice? To hit a man in the eye just because it looks like it might be closing up? No, it's not nice. But in a boxer or political campaigner, it's a beautiful thing.

A beautiful thing, I tell you.

WORD UP

John Kerry is winning because his campaign resembles a Republican campaign. His personal style may be a little bit boring, but it follows the rules of winning GOP campaign managers:

Rule Number One: Avoid mistakes. Since everyone makes mistakes, the next best thing is to make your mistakes in private. Republicans do not allow the press promiscuous access to their candidates, and neither do John Kerry's advisors. Kerry's personal style is conservative, even dull and long-winded, but his risk-averse strategy makes him very dangerous to George Bush. If voters feel safer with Kerry in the White House, he'll win.

Rule Number Two: Visual images rule. As more than one Dean contributor/blogger has complained, Dean lost IA and NH in part because of his crappy cheapskate TV commercials. Visuals matter even more in the free media, and the current White House excels at blasting its message of the day home on television. But Kerry is no bum at this either; even the ABC news pros were slack-jawed in admiration at his ice-skating event with the Boston Bruins.

Rule Number Three: News thrives on contrast and conflict. In other words, beat on Bush and the GOP like an old carpet. Key message: Bush and the Republicans RUN Washington DC, including both houses of Congress. If we don't have peace and prosperity, it's their fault.

Think I'm making these GOP rules up? Read what Roger Ailes, the so-called news director of the so-called Fox News Channel had to say about how he beat Mike Dukakis:

[George Herbert Walker] Bush’s media adviser, Roger Alies, said that the media was only interested in gaffes, attacks, and good visuals.  He declared, “That’s one sure way of getting coverage.  You try to avoid as many mistakes as you can.  You try to give them as many pictures as you can.  And if you need coverage, you attack, and you will get coverage.”  Alies went on to describe his “orchestra pit theory,” that if one candidate had an answer to the Middle East problem, and the other candidate fell in the orchestra pit, that the candidate that fell would be on the evening news.  Judy Woodruff, of The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, asked, “So you’re saying the notion of the candidate saying, ‘I want to run for President because I want to do something for this country,’ is crazy.”  Alies replied, “Suicide.”

One potential advantage to Kerry and the Democrats is that Karl Rove runs campaigns very much in the same style as his mentors Ailes and Atwater. As a result, with careful polling and analysis, the Kerry Team should be practically able to write the GOP attack spots before they air and develop pre-emptive strategies. Kerry's taunting of Bush to begin the attacks now is very effective on the stump, and it shows he's learned a lesson from the Dukakis humiliation. He's not going to sit around fat, dumb and happy until the GOP and its cash-rich allies hit him with a shock-and-awe burst of television advertising on or about 9/11/04.

It's never to early to start winning.