Morris offers Campaign Strategy for Bush

Morris: Campaign Strategy for Bush

It will be very interesting to watch how this unfolds and see if Dick Morris has it right. I wonder how closely Karl Rove and pals will listen to the strategy in this article. Or, assuming that Karl is equally adept at politics as Dick is, how closely Morris is reading the mind of Rove.

As I have said before, love him or hate him, Mr. Morris is an incredibly astute political monster.

HOW 'FLIP-FLOP' KILLS KERRY

The obvious goal of the Bush attack is to discredit Kerry and make it hard for anyone to believe in him or anything he says. But this round of flip-flop attacks is just the precursor of the main Bush offensive. Attacking Kerry for reversing himself on many key issues will weaken the Democrat, but the real point is to soften him up for two more deadly attacks likely to follow. . . .

The flip-flop attack is also designed to prevent Kerry from responding to the other key line of Bush attack - that Kerry is too liberal for mainstream America. . . .

Now, when Bush moves in for the kill and accuses Kerry of opposing the Defense of Marriage Act or appropriations to fund the Iraq War, the Democratic candidate will find it harder to spin his positions and to move to the middle on these issues. When he tries, voters will repeat to themselves the Ronald Reagan criticism of Jimmy Carter: "There you go again."

By showing Kerry to flip-flop, Bush sets him up for the real charges - that he is too weak and too liberal to be president.