Thursday, March 18, 2004
 

Kerry and defense

Read this The American Prospect piece by Matthew Yglesias and this Political Animal entry by Kevin Drum, and then wonder why John Kerry has yet to answer Josh Marshall's call to come out strong on defense.

There's absolutely no sign that the economy is planning on getting better any time soon, so Bush is not going to be running very much on that record. Instead, he's clearly going to be the "War President", that's how he's positioning himself.

In any other year, with your typical Democratic candidate whose national security credentials can be cartooned as somewhat suspect, such a move would be difficult if not impossible to counter, but this year, with a candidate who is a decorated veteran, we have the opportunity to successfully undermine that branding, by actively taking up the defense issue and hitting back hard.

And even more than that, really. In actuality, Kerry would be best advised to run as far to Bush's right on defense as it's possible for him to do with a clear conscience. Obviously, that doesn't mean that Kerry should go around announcing his plan to invade every country on the face of the earth, nor does it mean that he has to buy into the "Bush Doctrine" of preventitive war (which is not the same things as pre-emptive war -- every nation on earth has the right under the U.N. charter to move pre-emptively against an imminent enemy attack, no doctrine requires that any nation has to sit still and wait to be invaded before it does anything to protect itself), but it does mean that Kerry should be announcing a strong, active program of policies designed to protect us from terrorism and other threats.

He's done this to a certain extent, by announcing his plan to increase the size of the standing military, so that we don't have to rely so much on the reserves and the National Guard, as we do now, but he needs to do more, and he needs to do it soon.

And if and when he does make that move and tries to out-maneuver every anti-war liberal in America would be advised to suck it up and let it pass, and remember there's a hundred or more damn good reasons we say "Anybody But Bush Again." In the circumstances were in, frankly, almost anything that will serve to stop Bush from returning to the White House is legitimate and necessary, in my opinion. Morality should be maintained and ethical standards upheld, but anything else is fair game.

This time around, I'd rather win than be right, because winning and dumping Bush would be the rightest thing of all.

Update: On re-reading this, I see that I failed to make an important point, that this is to a large extent a battle waged on rhetoric grounds. Bush's policies and actions are objectively weak against terrorism, but he's been somewhat effectively branded as strong because that's how he presents himself. Kerry needs to undercut this position by branding himself as stronger and more effective against terrorism than Bush, and he can do this without compromising his beliefs.

For better or worse, we have John Kerry, decorated Vietnam veteran as our candidate, not Howard Dean or John Edwards, and we need to take advantage of the opportunity that presents to overwhelm Bush from behind.

Update: Jeff Alworth weighs in on this subject on The American Street:

To win the presidency, Kerry may not have to get a majority of Americans thinking he's better on terror than Bush, but he's going to have to close the gap. From where I sit, he's got three choices. He can follow the Bush prescription and try to out-scare the public; he can make logical arguments about the actual state of security in America and point out Bush's failures therein; or he can offer specific plans that will convince voters that his alternative terrorism plan is adequate.

The first two choices are losers. He can't play the fear game because he won't convert the truly terrified, and everyone else will see it as desperate. So far, he's pursued the second course -- seemingly baffled by the fact that a lying president who hasn't done much on the terrorism front is whooping him. But this one's a loser, too. People are scared, and fear is irrational; he can't provide logic and hope to combat it.

That leaves the third option, which is his only real hope. The good news is that he has a plan. The bad news is that no one knows what it is.

[...]

Focusing on what he will do--and what Americans can do--is the only shot he's got. I don't think he'll ever fully overcome the Bush advantage here, but he doesn't need to. The war on terror is Bush's only winning issue; if Kerry can cut into it significantly, issues like jobs and the economy will decide the election.[Links in original -- Ed]

Ed Fitzgerald | 3/18/2004 09:29:00 PM | | | del.icio.us | GO: TOP OF HOME PAGE







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