Problem: Cheney's "Vote or Die" speech the other day has been the Republican message all along. This is the Republican platform, until now disguised as "Bush will make us safer."
Chris Matthews was right tonight: if the Republicans can get away with actually saying what Cheney said, they will win. Toast.
Why it works:
A. This is a tough assertion to attack, because it can't be disproven.
B. Bush is currently President, and we haven't been attacked for a while, and we're blowing lots of shit up, so people can buy it.
C. Soldiers dying in Iraq just reinforce the "bloody war we're fighting" tenet.
D. Bush never talks about actual progress in Iraq, because he has got Saddam in jail and that's all that matters. People can look at that as a positive outcome, and unless you want to defend Saddam, playing the "how many soldiers is it worth to capture the world dictator" line doesn't win any points.
Solutions:
A: Announce shadow cabinet. This can refute the "safer" part, if some truly awesome military and foreign policy people come on board now. Kerry can really talk about building international coalitions, if he can scrape together a few experienced Dems who've done it before.
B. Quit talking about Iraq. Kerry can't do a damn thing about it until elected, he's failed for 2 years to articulate his position clearly, and he can't articulate what exactly he would do differently anyway. What about this:
"Senator Kerry, what is your position on Iraq?"
"I'd like us to leave Iraq in as good and stable a condition as possible. By the way, I'm not sure I've heard it from the president, but how's it going over there? I know we got Saddam last year, but are we any closer to Mission Accomplished? Someone should really ask him that..."