Ok, so now that I've had night's sleep and time to get out all my gushing, here is what I think was going on last night, strategy wise. ... [ Tina, Good work keeping us up to date on the convention... it's appreciated. I can add only very little, but here goes... The main reason you're not hearing about education is that it's not on people's radar. The polls (and yes, i know, you can't go with polls all the time) indicate that the top three issues are the Economy, Iraq and Terrorism, in that order, and that these three overshadow the rest. I may agree that education should be a HUGE priority in this country, but most people aren't thinking about that. I think Kerry needs to remind people how bad his opponent has done, not always directly, and not angrily, but enough to keep it present in the mindshare. The rest of the time, he needs to give people reasons to think he'll help them financially, and put the economy in order, and he needs to highlight ways in which he can deliver on the homeland security promises yet unfulfilled. As we keep hearing, re-election battles are always a referendum on the incumbent, so in some sense, you're always trying to sell the "I'm *not* the incumbent" more than the "I am, X, Y, Z." It sucks, but i don't think there's much alternative. Incidentally, I still hope for KE04 ads which play the "I'm a uniter not a divider" speech over a scrolling list of highly divisive actions we've seen over the past 4 years. Anyway, i look forward to more discussions... it's gonna be a hell of a few months coming up! -k] DNC analysis |
