Just found this post over at Transparent Grid. Excellent site… definitely check them out!

Should John Kerry Just Shut Up?

It is a rarity when a politician is able to successfully tell a joke (only Reagan could truly do it well). Biting comments directed at the opposition in front of a loyal audience don-t matter, because seals clap at anything. Kerry’s verbal attempt at humor at Bush’s expense was very different from his prepared text - which underscores to not adlib unless you-re Bill Clinton - which ended with “you get us stuck in Iraq” rather than “you will be stuck in Iraq.” As said, one could reasonably and politically interpret the inartful phraseology as denigrating the troops when the context of what was said and who was talking completely belies that claim.

Despite Media Matters best efforts, the truth doesn-t matter. It takes too long to explain and at least part of the debate has already been framed with a general media consensus that Kerry messed up. Fine, get over it Democrats and move on. Here is how:
#1 Stop talking about it. Remember Cheney’s water dunking comment last week? Right - it is barely registering. What about the liberal outrage at Bush’s press club skit of looking for WMD under his sofa cushion? The point is that Republicans don-t talk about their screwups. Nothing is helped by either engaging in this debate on left-leaning blogs, like this one, or on progressive radio. We are not the voters which will be swayed by this ibroglio anyway. A snippy, “John Kerry’s record speaks for itself, now let’s talk about the important issues,” will do. Media Matters, for example, is wasting gobs of time by pointing out how this MSM member and that is mischaracterizing Kerry. Stop it, David Brock! Focus on the George Allen’s goon squad or something.
#2 Conversely, this is not the time to equivocate. Even if one thinks Kerry botched this in a massive way, it doesn-t help to be all intellectually fair about it and say so in public. Stay on message unless you-re in a district where you need to toss him overboard , but then do so quietly.
#3 Flip, flip, flip. Remember the Karl Rove tactic - attack them at their perceived strenght and make it their biggest weakness. Kerry handled himself ably yesterday when he turned on the GOP message machine (their strength) and questioned the President’s honor by trying to drag Kerry through the mud. By flipping, I mean to turn the argument against the GOP, for example, “To think that Kerry was denigrating the troops is ludicrous, he was talking about a president who didn-t know that there were both Shi-ites and Sunnis living in Iraq before the invasion, let alone did he understand the difference.” Or - “Look, this administration is either grossly callous or completely incompetent - after 9/11 they said, A-no one imagined that terrorists would fly planes into the World Trade Center- (wrong); after the invasion of Iraq we find out they didn-t plan for an insurgency, didn-t see it coming; after Katrina, A-no imagined that the levies would be breached.- I can-t imagine anyone being that uncaring about what happens to other Americans, including our soldiers, so the administration must be ignorant and incompetent.” Final example, “While the GOP’s media army marches in lock’step, the voters want to know when our troops are coming home and if they-ll be properly fed, protected and cared for before they do.”

I-m bored with this “topic,” so let’s get back to what matters, winning the election.

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