This Is A Start

Kerry Asserts Bush Has Misled Voters

I've been wondering how to encapsulate (or sloganize) some of the "character issues" Bush has which make his presidency so poor. While I haven't tossed it around enough to get to the nub and reduce it to a pithy phrase, I think the big issue is that he omits very important issues when trying to sell policies. He did it with WMD and Iraq (professing certainty when we see the Intel was much more caveated, he did it with the Medicaire "reform" bill, by withholding from the Congress the true cost of the plan until after the vote. To stretch back in time, he even is doing it with his National Guard records.

Good that Kerry is seeing that.

"Once again, this administration hides the truth from the American people," Kerry said at the St. Ann Center here.

Aides say Tuesday's message speaks to a larger point Kerry believes he has to make to win, which is that Bush has misled the public on issues from war to health costs. "You know how to tell the truth and see the truth and understand it and make a choice about it," Kerry told the seniors.

I'd like a good catchphrase ("W stands for withholding important information" doesn't quite do it). But, with enough examples and a decent distillation, I think the concept could sink in.

Maybe I'll work on it here for a while.