Don't fall for the bait and switch. They win on process then try to claim a policy mandate. Remember those fleeting early August days when Kerry pulled ahead? Didn't last long, did it? I bring this up because
they are going to do it to us again next time . They continuously run sleazy negative campaigns but they are never held accountable for it because we immediately go into soul search mode. Think about it and save some anger for next time. Sure Kerry was not perfect, and he did not run a perfect campaign, but he did what he had to do. He raised serious doubts about the President and provided solid evidence that he could do the job. Yet he lost. Why? Because they used lies and smears to raise more doubt about him. We ran a veteran who has killed multiple times for his country against an AWOL frat boy, and we lost on who would better defend our country. We ran against a third generation Yalie who has recently acquired a Texas accent and we lost on who was more genuine. We ran against a guy who continuously promises tax cuts he can't pay for, and we were the panderers.
Remember after 2000 everyone talked about the things Gore did wrong. Now everyone is talking about what Kerry did wrong. Thats what they do. They make you look bad. Its really hard to run against a relentlessly negative campaign. Kerry and Gore had pretty good winning streaks going into their showdowns with Rove, yet both looked incompetent. Did they suddenly become bad politicians, or are the Republicans really good at knocking people off their game?
Imagine how they would run against Mother Theresa. They would start early with the flip-flopper and liberal wimp theme. Eventually, people would be pretty sure Mother Theresa feels sorry for Osama. And then there would be a 527 running ads suggesting she is a pedophile. It would work so well that she would be afraid to even mention her great strength-her compassion for children.
I see several lessons here. They are going to smear our candidate no matter what we do so we are not going to be able to stay above the fray. We have to counter any and all attacks immediately (I thought we had already learned that one). Even more important, we have to be willing to attack their candidate early and often. Finally, the inevitable smears emphasize our need to have a strong party message that is not tied to any candidate. Our candidate is going to take hits. A strong message will help prop them up through the onslaught.