Debate advice for W. - Howie Carr

I know Ace likes these articles  There are also some good points here:

Hit the girly-man where it hurts, W
By Howie Carr
Boston Herald
Friday, October 8, 2004

About tonight\'s debate, Mr. President, can I throw in my two cents\' worth of advice?

My credentials? Forget Botox, I knew your opponent before the chin job. I bought him a beer at the Red Hat when he was the poorest, not the richest, member of the U.S. Senate. I was there when his main squeeze, I mean law partner, Roanne Sragow, was approved for a judgeship. Despite what you may have read elsewhere, it wasn\'t Bob Dole or Billy Bulger who first hung the tag ``Liveshot\'\' on him. It was me.

Look, you know and I know that he\'s a phony and a gigolo. So do almost all of the people currently planning to vote for you. Actually, so do most of the voters who are planning to vote for him. They just hate you worse than him, mostly because you\'re a born-again Christian and a Republican.

Maybe 3 percent of the electorate is up for grabs tonight, and that is what this debate is all about.

My first tip for you is, take a nap today. You can\'t look as tired tonight as you did last week in Florida.

No matter how dreary it gets, don\'t look at your watch. Ask Poppy about that one.

If some questioner asks you to say something positive about John Kerry [related, bio], turn to Kerry and tell him, ``Nice cufflinks!\'\'

Try to poke fun at him. He has no sense of humor. You give him the needle and he could get, if not overtly nasty, at least even more haughty. Let the TV audience see the John Kerry we know back here in Massachusetts, the guy who says, ``Do you know who I am?\'\'

No more whining about the presidency being ``hard work.\'\' To quote an old Hollywood mogul, ``Self-pity is not good box office.\'\'

Charles Gibson is not your friend. He\'s a Dan Rather\'s Dan Rather.

Any ``undecided\'\' male questioner with a ponytail is not really undecided. Neither are women with short hair and sensible shoes.

Go on the offensive on taxes. Point out that as a resident of Massachusetts, Kerry has the option of paying his state income taxes at a higher rate, 5.85 percent, rather than at the standard 5.3 percent, and he refuses to pay at the higher rate.

In other words, folks, he wants to raise your taxes, but not his own.

I know the higher-rate option may not be the simplest thing to explain, but it\'s a lot easier than the subsection S $591,000 Medicare tax dodge Cheney pinned on the Breck Girl in Cleveland.

Mention how you and Laura have released your tax returns, and his wife won\'t do the same. Then say that according to what few records of Teresa\'s that have been released, in 2003 she prepaid $750,000 on an income of $5.1 million (a mere fraction of her real income), an effective rate of 15 percent.

Folks, you should say, if you\'re making $40,000 a year, you\'re paying a higher percentage of your income in taxes than Mama T, and she\'s a billionaire on the Forbes 400 list.

The most liberal member of the U.S. Senate. Hammer that fact home. Quote the National Journal, the ``nonpartisan National Journal.\'\'

Kerry is not a sports fan. Manny Ortiz, Lambert Field, touting the Ohio State Buckeyes in Michigan - you know the screwups. Tonight he\'ll be well-briefed on the major, i.e., Red Sox stuff, so ask him what team Roger Clemens pitches for now. I guarantee you he doesn\'t have a clue. Ask him who the quarterback of the Raiders is, or the Jets, or the Eagles. Ditto.

http://news.bostonherald.com/columnists/view.bg?articleid=48049