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[JK]

Media helping Kerry, Kerry deflecting military service, while no help to Bush...

Politics - USATODAY.com
USA TODAY
'Daily Show' puts Kerry 'out there'

Wed Aug 25, 6:34 AM ET

By Mark Memmott, USA TODAY

The political strategy behind Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites)'s appearance Tuesday on Comedy Central network's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was threefold, political and communications experts say. Kerry wanted to come off as a regular guy reaching out to young voters without having to answer tough questions, they said.

• "He's trying to put a more human face on John Kerry," said Paul Gronke, chairman of the political science department at Reed College in Portland, Ore.

• "It's a way to get at the voters who feel disenfranchised and out of touch with the typical news programs," said Zachary White, assistant professor of communications at the University of San Francisco. "Those are the younger, more independent-minded people who haven't made up their minds."

• "There's a very careful strategy here," said Steve Schier, political professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. "He's 'out there' but also avoids serious questions."

Kerry's banter Tuesday night with Stewart was typical of candidates' appearances on the late-night comedy talk shows. He mixed in some humor about the charge that he has embellished his military record. "I understand that apparently you were never in Vietnam," Stewart asked.

"That's what I understand, too," a playful Kerry said. "But I - I'm trying to find out what happened."

That exchange gave Kerry a chance later to say, "I think most Americans would like to have a much more intelligent conversation about where the country's going"

The gold standard for candidate appearances on late-night shows was set in 1992, when then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton (news - web sites) played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show.

It will take a day or two for any effect of Kerry's Daily Show appearance to be fully felt. But White suspects Kerry accomplished much of what he set out to do. "If you share a laugh with someone, you're seeing things from their perspective, and I have to think you're more likely to vote for them," White said.

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[Chuck54]

Blah Blah bunk.

No talk shows are going to get Kerry out of this mess. It just gives more publicity and keeps the story going.

And, the worst is yet to come for Kerry...just wait and see.
_________________
"And no pair has been more wrong, more loudly, more often, than the two Senators from Massachusetts, Ted Kennedy and John Kerry"

Zell Miller

[7rrfs]

My take is that this entire tact will blow up in Kerry's face.

We need to get the word, "Hypocrite" back in the lexicon.
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"I served admirably in Vietnam" John Kerry
"Yes, I committed atrocities in Vietnam" John Kerry

[neverforget]

According to many, including leftists, he bombed on the show.

[Ogre]

[Lee Gauge]

It is amazing to me that someone actually puts the "Daily Show" and "strategy" in the same sentence. I mean think about it... it is a sketch comedy show on comedy central. Does this really influence voters? Hard to believe, but maybe it does...

Unfortunately, I do know that the Daily Show used to be entertaining, but Jon Stewart isn't playing it down the middle anymore. He doesn't have the juice to make an agenda funny... If they want to keep the show on the left, they should hand it over to someone like Lewis Black. He could belittle Barbra Bush and I'd proably laugh at it.
_________________
Prophets have honour all over the Earth,
Except in the village where they were born,
Where such as knew them from birth
Nature-ally hold 'em in scorn.