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JANUARY 28, 2004 – We have been
receiving a number of e-mails from people who are frustrated or
infuriated about what has transpired during the course of this
last primary.
We told you what the right-wing's
desired script would be, and it played out exactly. And we
have told you what will happen next: they will push Edwards,
start to knock Kerry off his throne, and start to push Dean as the
one who will eventually hold out in the end.
You can see clearly this is already
being done:
"I think Edwards is the sleeper,"
(supposed Democratic analyst Donna) Brazile said. "More and more,
people are looking at him now as the alternative to Kerry," the
Washington Post tells us tonight."
Yes, exactly the switch we told you they
would now make, moving away from Kerry to Edwards.
"While retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark and Sen.
Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut insisted they will continue to
compete, their rankings far behind Kerry and Dean -- in a state
they had all to themselves for weeks -- do not augur well for
their prospects, leading Democrats said."
We all just saw that, despite Edwards
riding a massive wave of positive media in and finishing second in
Iowa, Clark still finished at least tied with Edwards in New
Hampshire - despite the media drubbing. Clark should be
getting praise for keeping up with Edwards, who rode into town on
the rise. Again, clearly there is no excuse for articles like
this to be written, except what we explained to you.
And just to show the second part
occurring as well, the tearing down of Kerry and building up of
Dean, again to that same article:
"The danger for Kerry," Carrick said,
"is that Dean could wage a war of attrition and get to Wisconsin,"
which occupies the spotlight alone on Feb. 17. If successful in
that liberal-leaning state, Carrick said, Dean might pivot into
the delegate-rich contests still to come in New York and
California."
Now remember, we told you to a few days
back to, "Remember... a week or two from now
how unlikely Dean winning seems to you at the moment - because by
then it will be back to Dean the inevitable one, the Iowa screech
written off." (see
article)
At that time it seemed unthinkable.
But it already now is the case again - or at least the case the
media has successfully started to make again.
And so many of our readers are shocked,
at last have their eyes opened to exactly what is going on.
And even more so, feel frustrated and angry. We have been
asked what they can or should do.
There are two sides to this.
One, by getting informed and informing
those around you, by reading M/I and spreading the word about us,
and by responding to the action alerts we will be putting up, you
are doing your part.
Writing to editors or authors when they
pull their scams, calling or faxing stations, those are all helpful
and absolutely - when done in coordination with large numbers of
people - will have a real effect BUT they are not enough, as you
probably sense and realize.
The reality is simply that there is a
role for all of us to play, but the main role must be played by our
chosen leaders.
In other words, think of how it felt
this past week as you saw a Bush/Limbaughian hit coming and watched
it get carried out, witnessing it step by step, powerless to do
anything about it. Well, this was just a primary. Think
of how much worse it will be when it is actually President Bush out
there with the entire bought-and-sold army of media puppets behind
him and $200 million to use as he sees fit.
The most important thing in the primary
season is to be sure to choose the candidate who can successfully
defeat this army. That, in fact, is what each of them is
trying to convince us they are the most qualified to do.
General Wesley Clark this past week ran
an abysmal campaign. We had picked him to win in New
Hampshire, but that was all hinged on the caveat we told you
here:
"There is, of course, one additional
X-factor, and that is the all out media assault on Clark, and, of
course, that anything can happen in tonight’s debate. To
this point, the Clark camp is taking their obvious, all-out
drubbing by the media in silence. They need to point out the
pattern and remind people that it shows the right-wing is most
afraid of a Clark candidacy. In addition, Clark made a
slight error earlier in the week when he responded to an attack by
heavily partisan ex-Senator Bob Dole (R-KS). If Clark has
learned that, when presented with an attack, as he will be
tonight, he should simply point out that it is a partisan attack,
as he has in the past, and shows that they are worried about him,
he can use these attacks to push himself ahead even further."
We figured Clark was on his game enough
to deal with this. He wasn't, and instead suffered and took it
silently all week - except for one comment - as the media rode him
into the ground.
Politics is no place for whiners - it is
a place for winners.
As a good moderate independent, the main
thing you know you need in a candidate is someone who will stand up
and be able to carry the fight for you. We are not like
Democrats who see the right-wing media abusing us and sit and whine.
And we are not like the Republicans who give up and go along with
the amoral scam simply because it is better than sitting and whining
with eunuchs.
As moderate independents, we are honest
and on top of things enough to see the problem, moral enough to not
go along with it, but also bold enough to demand leadership who will
do something about it. People who supported Wesley Clark or
even Howard Dean this week, as they each took their drubbings,
suffered - and those supporters need to reassess if they have the
right choice of candidate. It is one thing to have a bad week
early in primary season, but think of what it would be like to be
stuck with a candidate through the entire election who tortured you
like this by not taking on the obvious.
John Edwards this past week, during the
FOX News-hosted debate, nailed it. Despite his lack of other
credentials, he should be considered now, as he has shown above and
beyond all the others he is capable of handling this sort of battle.
And as we made very clear in this
article, a candidate who does not come up with a strategy for
taking on the media bashing that will come is not one - regardless
of all else - who can win.
This is not to say General Clark should
be written off by any stretch of the imagination. But a
General would be the first to tell you that there is no room for
excuses in a war. This past week, he let himself and his
troops suffer barrage after barrage and never came up with a
counterattack plan. He now has one week to mount an all out
assault or he and his troops will be done.
The idea at this point is not to write
anyone in or out but to seriously step back and take a look.
Will General Clark be able to handle the media assault - now and
during the election? Does he have a plan to combat it and can
he successfully execute that plan?
Or is there another candidate who might
fare better?
We have never been very high on John
Edwards because he doesn't have the experience with foreign policy
we would want from a leader at this time. But throughout this
election, he has shown himself to be the most polished, accomplished
politician, in the debates in particular.
As we wrote back on
September 5, in reviewing the debate that had just taken place
that day:
"Were there any big surprises
yesterday, stand out performances that might lift a candidate
unexpectedly?
"John Edwards. Senator Edwards pulled
himself off of the fire, even off of the frying pan, and back to
the kitchen floor with the pan's handle in his hand.
"Mr. Edwards showed something he
hadn't before and that the other candidates didn't - the ability
to weave the human element into his comments, and to widen and
interconnect issues into one big picture, not a separated
criticism of foreign and domestic, taxes and health. He put them
all together and added a human face to it, weaving from taxes to
standing up to corporations, from immigration to education - even
if education never was a topic that was asked about."
This is not to say Edwards is wonderful
and General Clark is done, or that Edwards is more qualified.
On the whole, General Clark is far more qualified and far more ready
to lead the nation. But none of that will matter if he can not
take on the right-wing domination of the media.
Previously, we would have said Clark is
far more electable than Edwards as well, but Clark now has to show
that.
In a sense, it now turns out -
unwittingly for certain - that the eunuch party's, the DNC's, choice
to subject their own candidates to three FOX News-hosted debates
turned out to be, in a sense, brilliant. They could have
arranged nice, polite forums that they hosted themselves and allowed
their candidates to show how well they can present themselves in
safe, closed environments.
But DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe put his
troops on the firing line during training. It was idiotic in
one sense, leaving his boys to be battered publicly, but it was also
a great test. The election will not be fought in safe, closed
environments. It will be fought out in a world dominated by
FOX News, its President of choice, and a campaign war chest unlike
any that has been seen before.
Yes, last Thursday the Democrats could
have participated in a nice, polite forum, General Clark could have
shined and then very possibly rode that wave to victory. But
thank God that didn't happen.
The General and the others have to show
they can perform the mission for which we are seeking a soldier,
that they can take on the enemy at hand: the exact bastards
who took him out this past week. Edwards was up to the game -
of course, he was not under fire. Kerry was not under fire.
Dean was at first but then they helped to bring him back up.
The hit is still on for General Clark.
And it is time for him to show us that he is truly the man who can -
as he says - stand toe to toe with the Bush/Limbaugh stranglehold on
power.
Kerry will start to come under fire as
well, so we will get to see what he is made of.
Unfortunately Edwards and Dean will
still be getting propped up, Edwards for this week, Dean more and
more so until the end. So we won't get to see what they are
truly made of.
But if General Clark can rise, wounded
by this fire, and come out of this next week having turned the tide
of battle and put the enemy on the run, then he will have showed
himself truly the worthy warrior we suspected he was. By
finishing tied with Edwards in New Hampshire, despite the assault he
took while Edwards was being favored heavily, General Clark showed
he can survive even under the most brutal of fire. The result
of his worst week was as good as Edwards' best and easiest week.
Edwards rode a wave in from Iowa, got handled kindly, and still, the
General was there with him in the end.
That is a very good sign.
However, the General truly let his
supporters down this week. And if he doesn't show he is up for
the fight over the coming days, his supporters will have to
reconsider whether he truly is the one who can dethrone Bush and
succeed in an election cycle.
This, in fact, is why we have the actual
elections. It is a wide-open race at this point, and well it
should be, because no one has proven themselves truly to be the
warrior we can trust the battle to save our nation to - and we all
know this is the most important battle our nation has ever faced.
This coming week the candidates will each
have to show us what they are made of. It is a new chapter in
the election. The right-wing is going to try and finish off
Clark, start bringing down Kerry, temporarily push Edwards in South
Carolina, and try to resurrect Dean everywhere else. That is
their plan. We are telling you this ahead of time just as we
did last week. And as we watched (and suffered through) this
past week, that is what we will be able to clearly see occurring
this week.
If the candidates choose to let this
unfold.
We said it
last week,
and we'll say it again:
"Yes, our readers realize how serious
this issue is, and by reading M/I they are taking steps to combat
it. They bring this information out into the world and begin to
change the national conversation.
"However, it is up to the Democratic
candidates and party to do the same... The best strategy is to
anticipate the obvious and make it an moral issue.
"President Bush has a lot in store for
the upcoming election, but it will be like his version of the War on
Terror – covert, and on offense. He will not simply present himself
and try to win support. There will be interference at every turn,
every tactic used to make sure the Democrats don’t get heard,
complete use of their media machine to personally attack and smear
while the President seems to have nothing to do with it.
"If the media is not dealt with, every
argument on every subject will be twisted and, indeed, become
irrelevant, and personal characterizations, like the ones being
insinuated now about Clark, are what will determine the election.
"This is the strategy. The good news is
that, if you realize the predominance of this issue, it is a
straightforward one to combat...
"For General Clark in particular, the hit
is on. He has to go in there knowing it is a setup, a planned
character assassination attempt.
"Of course, as a four-star General, he
might be well aware and have strategized as any good planner should.
If he is prepared to make fun of the FOX News channel if any absurd
or loaded questions are asked, asserting he is the candidate who
won't let FOX News and the right-wing media steer this election, he
might just pull another perfect act of jujitsu and leave his
would-be assassins the injured party."
He hadn't and he didn't. If he
doesn't this week, don't complain, don't get frustrated, just
consider choosing a candidate who will.
But... don't write the General off just
yet. Anyone can get burned once. The best never get
burned twice.
And as a note: let us say that we
obviously thought some things were going to play out that simply
didn't. We knew that Kerry had plans to run anti-Clark adds as
well as do a Clark-smearing mailing - which he in fact did - which,
if it were the Clark/Kerry race we expected, should have
backfired.
Second, we knew Dean was holding dirt on
Edwards and was going to go after him for running a dirty campaign
in Iowa - the flyers Dean mentioned - as well as attack Kerry for
some nasty tactics (such as he did.)
And frankly we thought simply that
Edwards making the case for himself as a Southerner would translate
to Clark's advantage. In all three cases, none of it panned
out. Despite the fact that what we explained above was in
large part responsible for these things not playing out, we still
take our share of crow to eat. Yes, the General was not the
only one who had a less than perfect week. But I think both of
us have come through having performed pretty darn well.
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