Posted on 10/01/2004 7:19:34 PM PDT by wagglebee
Last night in the debate, John Kerry had a Kitty Dukakis moment. Does anybody...? I know there's so much, I-don't-know-what, based on my e-mail and even chat with friends, there's so much negativism out there today that you may not be looking at this in the right frame of mind, which is something I aim to change today, ladies and gentlemen. I'll be honest with you about what I thought about it at the same time, but there was a Kitty Dukakis moment. Now, the Kitty Dukakis moment. By that I mean, Michael Dukakis was asked a question by Bernard Shaw, "If your wife were raped and murdered, would you support the death penalty?" and Dukakis wandered off on some stupid answer that doomed him. I'm not saying Kerry's answer doomed him -- last night, anyway -- but by the time the days and weeks pass from last night, he's going to regret saying this.
Do you know what it is? [talking to staff] No, it's not the nuclear weapons question, Mr. Snerdley. That's not the Kitty Dukakis moment. No, that's not it. It's not the troops "dying for a mistake." Nobody knows. This is good. Nobody knows what it is. I've got three members of my staff who have taken a wild guess here and nobody knows what the Kitty Dukakis moment was last night, so I'm going to tell you pretty soon here. I'll show you what it was. It may be the most important sound bite of the night for continuing to define John Kerry as he really is. Now, I want to talk about my reaction to the debate last night. Just to get that on the table and get it then off the table. You can tell me what you thought, of course, when we go to phones and we will do that today as well.
Last night in the debate, John Kerry had a Kitty Dukakis moment. Does anybody...? I know there's so much, I-don't-know-what, based on my e-mail and even chat with friends, there's so much negativism out there today that you may not be looking at this in the right frame of mind, which is something I aim to change today, ladies and gentlemen. I'll be honest with you about what I thought about it at the same time, but there was a Kitty Dukakis moment. Now, the Kitty Dukakis moment. By that I mean, Michael Dukakis was asked a question by Bernard Shaw, "If your wife were raped and murdered, would you support the death penalty?" and Dukakis wandered off on some stupid answer that doomed him. I'm not saying Kerry's answer doomed him -- last night, anyway -- but by the time the days and weeks pass from last night, he's going to regret saying this.
Do you know what it is? [talking to staff] No, it's not the nuclear weapons question, Mr. Snerdley. That's not the Kitty Dukakis moment. No, that's not it. It's not the troops "dying for a mistake." Nobody knows. This is good. Nobody knows what it is. I've got three members of my staff who have taken a wild guess here and nobody knows what the Kitty Dukakis moment was last night, so I'm going to tell you pretty soon here. I'll show you what it was. It may be the most important sound bite of the night for continuing to define John Kerry as he really is. Now, I want to talk about my reaction to the debate last night. Just to get that on the table and get it then off the table. You can tell me what you thought, of course, when we go to phones and we will do that today as well.
The conventional wisdom in the big media is exactly what I told you it would be: "The race is tightening." They have set it up so that Kerry didn't have to do much in order to be said to have won or to have improved or whatever. Bush had the most to lose. Kerry had the most to gain. That was the parameter and that was the template that was set up beforehand. The mainstream press is falling right in line. Very predictable what they would say. The thing that distresses me is that, you know, we do have our own partisan media out there. We do. Let's be honest: we've got ours. They've got theirs. I've been a little disappointed at some of the squeamishness and some of the jellyfish-spined reaction to some of those on our side. This is a serious point in American history. It's no time to start seeking the approval of the elite in D.C. by showing how open-minded you can be. John Kerry lied through his teeth last night. John Kerry was the exact John Kerry he's always been. He just didn't flip-flop within the -- well, he did flip-flop within the context of the debate.
Here's the best way to measure this. A good way to measure this: the Democratic National Committee has already put together a video of the debate last night. It's on their website and they're touting it, and their spinmeisters are all over the place bragging about it. You know what their video is of? Bush facial expressions. They've got a video of Bush smirking, of Bush looking sour. Bush facial expressions! Because to them, what matters is style over substance, because they can't rely on substance because Kerry had none. When the Republicans get finished putting their ad about this debate together, you know what it's going to feature? John Kerry's words. Which is going to have more impact on voters? John Kerry's words thrown back at him with corrections or a video of George Bush's facial expressions? There is nothing memorable. I mean, if you sit back and think of the memorable things you heard in the debate last night, and then assign them to whoever you think said them. How many of you remember anything Kerry said that's memorable?
How many of you are worried how Bush looked? How many of you are worried that Bush ran out of fire, ran out of energy or what have you? You go to the first half of this debate and you look at what Bush said -- and we're going to show you -- and you look at what Kerry said, and you look at the various films or videos that both camps could put together. If I'm the Democrats, I don't like the fact that all I can do is put together a sound bite of Bush not saying anything. They can put all kinds of video of Bush smirking together all they want, which is typical. Here's the bottom line of this from last night for those of you who are deathly worried. Some of you didn't sleep last night and I know why. You thought last night was going to be put away. You thought last night this election was going to be over. You thought that last night that Bush was going to nail Kerry; Kerry couldn't come back from it.
I have consistently said that there's too much time to go. I didn't want to predict what was going to happen last night because I didn't know. I don't know what's going to happen with the election because it's still a month away. But the bottom line is that the election was not going to end last night, despite the conventional wisdom. There's still too much that can happen, and so since it didn't end last night there's all this negativity or disappointment, panic in some quarters. The bottom line is this: Not a single vote was probably changed last night. Not enough to matter in the polls. I fully expect, however, there to be polls from various places that show Kerry with a little bounce. You can almost predict that. This is not a dynamic changing debate last night. What is going to change, the Kerry camp was defeated going into last night to the point that they had written it all off. They had run out of energy to be mad. They had shot their wad on that.
They'd done all their movies, all of their books, all of their ads. They just didn't have the ability to be angry, because you can't maintain that kind of emotion for as long as they've been trying to. They didn't have any faith in their candidate. It never has been a pro-for-Kerry element of the Democratic electorate. It's always been "anybody but Bush." What happened last night, because they think Kerry mopped up and won, what's going to happen is that Kerry supporters are going to get re-energized. That's all that's going to happen here. Kerry's supporters are going to get re-energized, the undecideds, the swing voters, the five or six people out there that we're all aiming at are still up for grabs, still too much to happen. This is going to be forgotten by the time the next debate comes around, except on this program. We're not going to forget what John Kerry says, because we haven't forgotten and we're going to continue to remind you of what he says. We're going to play it from last night, put it in proper perspective, tell you all the lies he told, that he wasn't called on. I don't know why that wasn't the case, doesn't matter.
RUSH: I erred, ladies and gentlemen, there's two papers in Las Vegas. It's the Las Vegas Review Journal is the conservative paper. It's Las Vegas Sun that's run by one of Clinton's buddies. That's the leftist paper out there. The leftist paper has not editorialized in favor of Bush last night so I need to correct that. Telephone number is 800-282-2882. All right. Here's John Kerry last night defending his positions on Iraq.
KERRY: I wasn't misleading when I said he was a threat. Nor because I misleading on the day that the president decided to go to war when I said that he had made a mistake in not building strong alliances and that I would have preferred that he did more diplomacy. I've had one position, one consistent position.
RUSH: Okay. John Kerry said one position, one consistent position. We have put together a montage of John Kerry's different positions on Iraq.
KERRY: Left to his own devices, Saddam Hussein will provoke, misjudge, or stumble into a future of more dangerous confrontation with the civilized world.
KERRY: Yes, I would have voted for the authority.
KERRY: It's the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time.
KERRY: I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein.
KERRY: We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure.
KERRY: I'm glad Saddam Hussein is gone and I supported the notion of removing him.
KERRY: Those who believe today that we are not safer with his capture don't have the judgment to be president or the credibility to be elected President of the United States.
KERRY: To abandon our troops and recklessly leave Iraq, that's irresponsible.
DAVID LETTERMAN: If you had been elected to President in 2000, November of 2000, would we be in Iraq now.
KERRY: No.
RUSH: That's John Kerry. If you can detect a consistent position out of any of that, then you're a better person than I, because there isn't a consistent position. He's all over the place, all over Iraq. As he is on so many other things. He really stepped in a number of things last night.
The market abhors change, it rocketed today because the big money managers know that this election is going to Bush all the way and they know that there will be a lot more tax cut money for people to invest.
It's good to have Rush on our side. He is a calm voice in a sea of worry. He has helped to even the playing field by offering an alternative to the MSM. I also believe that Karl Rove is going to be a difference maker also. Keep the faith!
Did Rush ever get around to the ''Kitty Dukakis moment''?
Well, it's nice to know why Kerry confuses me so. He has more positions than...
The Kitty D moment was when Kerry talked about having to pass a "global test" in order to protect America.
yeah, it was "Global Test."
What I would like to know is what questions are included in the 'global test?' Will any reporter ask John that question?
So, what was the Kitty Dukakis moment for Kerry?
Rush was very good today. I think the live thread hit around 500 posts. I trust his instincts more than I trust the punditry. The MSM hates when he doesn't follow their lead, as too many conservatives seem prone to do.
Kerry had a global test and FAILED..it was called Gulf War 1...how much more global can you get, and he voted AGAINST it
When they saw President Bush hesitating and not going for the kill, and they heard Kerry go into his smooth-talking attack mode, their guts sank.
Not all of them, but most.
I couldn't wait to hear Rush today. He always has the very best analysis, and he is RIGHT!!!
Not quite sure what the "Kitty Dukakis" moment was. I had a meeting and didn't get to hear all of the show.
Here are my thoughts on this debate:
1. I don't think Bush can loose any support on the foreign policy debate, his base is firmly behind him in the war on terror.
2. I don't think any of the leftist peaceniks could ever be convinced to vote for Bush, they don't want us to defeat terrorism. However, they could begin to see Kerry as too militant and move more toward Nader.
3. Bush was wise to have the foreign policy debate first. In two weeks none of the undecideds will remember any of it. The undecided vote will make up their minds based on how homeland security and Iraq look right before the election.
4. The leftist media has done too good a job convincing people that Iraq is a quagmire, nothing Bush can say will change that. So it's better to deal with this issue now and let it fade.
The "Kitty Dukakis Moment" was when Kerry said that the United States had to pass a "global test" to get permission to launch a pre-emptive strike. In other words, Kerry would rather we subordinate ourselves to the U.N.
See my post #15
He punched at Kerry...
softening him up...
exposing his graceless discombobulated inability to articulate what it is and
why he wants to be our president.
Heck, Kerry can't even decide which position he wants to adhere to
because he hasn't any faith in his own convictions.
Rush is very right...again the democrats
present a candidate with lots of sophisticated high glossy fashion style..
but underneath all that hairspray, tan, botox, is a
slippery conscious combined with loads of arrogance and pompous tomfoolery.
President Bush is a solid...man of infinite dedication to the traditions and ideals
that befit a our President and our most vital and critical times.
My friends and I were absolutely stunned and shocked to here the media rant that Kerry won...
Won what!
Bush KO'd Kerry
but, he's so full of botox he would be the last to know.
We must go to the UN "What do you need", We must go to other countries "What do you need?", We must pass a "global test"
I thought Bush KO'ed Kerry as well. I also agree with Rush that those who were polled after the debate missed the first half hour or so of the debate, when Bush was absolutely ripping into Kerry. Like Rush, I noticed the momentum shift toward the last half hour of the debate, this I think is where when most of the voting population realized that the debate was on and tuned in. All the media soundbytes today from Kerry came from that moment when he shifted the momentum in the debate, and not in the first half hour of the debate when Bush was softening Kerry up with blow-after-blow.
Thanks
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