The campaign begins the final 60 days

[Linnea]

The start of the race
by kos
Thu Sep 2nd, 2004 at 21:27:46 GMT

Kerry will essentially kick off the REAL race this midnight, as he takes the stage in Ohio immediately following Bush's speech. Tom Vilsack, speaking to reporters this morning, promised that this would mark Kerry's turning of his swift boat into the VC ambush.

We'll see. Whatever the overall communications strategy might be (which hopefully includes chipping away at Bush's perceived strengths), the Kerry campaign needs to work within the narrative that "Republicans are negative" -- which reporters and the pundit class are clearly adopting.

I was at the DNC's rapid response press briefing this morning, and the questions betrayed this new media narrative.

One question, to McAuliffe: "Given how negative the Republicans have been at their convention, do you wish you would've had a harder edge at yours?"

Another question: "How do you plan on combating the negative attacks coming from Republicans at the convention and from ads like the Swift Boat Veterans?"

We need to help feed that narrative. The Bush campaign has run the most negative campaign in modern history, and they have been trying to get away with it. We can't let them do that.

[Linnea]

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