John Kerry gets to specifics in his plan to help get the job market flowing again. At least he has a plan. One that you can point to and argue the merits. The Bush platform comes down to the same broken record, “cut taxes for the rich and they will create jobs for the poor.” It doesn’t work that way. And the proof just keeps on coming (Yahoo!).

Jeff Jarvis knocks the Democrats for running a race against George Bush and not for John Kerry. The distinction is important and I’m glad that Jeff Jarvis highlighted it. He lists a few observations that lead him to think that this is the case and uses a Google search as additional proof. I respectfully disagree.

While it is true that negative messages get more press, and that webloggers are focusing on the misdeeds of the current administration far more than John Kerry’s stances on the issues, this has more to do with the nature of weblogging and the news cycle than it does with any coordinated DNC activity.

A simple glance at his official advertisements vs. George Bush’s (where the vast majority of communication money is spent) and you will see who the true negative campaigner is vs. the one with a message of optimism and faith in the future of America.

In short: the Bush campaign is selling fear and division. And it’s fear that is Bush’s most potent weapon. Their campaign knows it and is using it like baseball bat across the head. Again and again and again.

Deep in the Buzzmachine comments thread, Jeff Jarvis posts some important advice that left leaning weloggers better take heed: “The best thing a supporter can do is push the guy you’re supporting to do better. So look at that from two perspectives: First, pushing Kerry to get out there more and excite voters with his stands. Second, pushing fellow liberals not to fall into the trap of extremism as Moore et al copy the tactics of Coulter et al.”

The fact that some people still don’t know John Kerry’s stands on the issues is a problem. The question: is it a problem of willful ignorance or not? Or is it that we are hard wired share negativity?

As Nicholas Kristof says in the NYTimes:

“the rush to sling mud is gaining momentum, and “Fahrenheit 9/11” marks the polarization of yet another form of media. One medium after another has found it profitable to turn from information to entertainment, from nuance to table-thumping.

Talk radio pioneered this strategy, then cable television. Political books have lately become as subtle as professional wrestling, and the Internet is adding to the polarization. Now, with the economic success of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” look for more documentaries that shriek rather than explain….

Mr. Bush got us into a mess by overdosing on moral clarity and self-righteousness, and embracing conspiracy theories of like-minded zealots. How sad that many liberals now seem intent on making the same mistakes.”

He’s right, but one thing is for sure: people vote for candidates who exemplify optimism and belief in America. So I hope the Bush campaign keeps going in the revealing direction it is in and the Kerry campaign not only stays the course, but pushes it harder. Kerry’s grassroots supporters (webloggers and those hitting the streets) need to get this straight and fast.

There have been plenty of positive changes occurring in Iraq this week.

But of course, we couldn’t leave it that way.

We now plan to send an unprecedented number of aircraft carrier strike groups off of China’s shores, in a massive display of force, that is bound to do wonders for our relationship with them.

China, a country moving towards capitalism slowly, but surely, is about to get a black eye from us. This, after their efforts to help broker communication between us and North Korea just doesn?t make sense.

Ya know, I think I know why: it’s because it was the Chinese who attacked us on 9/11.

We use easier to digest phrases to hide the horror. But it’s happening again, and has been going on for some time: between 10,000 and 30,000 Sudanese have been killed in fighting between Arab militias backed by the government and the black African population.

Will you hear about this in the mainstream news? It might pop up for a week or two and disappear. Just like Haiti.

“I would not have voted for [President Bush’s] tax cut, based on what I know. . . . There is no doubt that the people at the top who need a tax break the least will get the most benefit. . . . Too often presidents do things that don’t end up helping the people they should be helping, and their staffs won’t tell them their actions stink on ice.”: Former senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), in a recent interview with Business North Carolina magazine (WashingtonPost).

Maybe Jeff Jarvis has started a discussion from the center. I hope so.

Yesterday he posted a quote from a far left extremist. Yes, the far left has them too. And it’s important to recognize that their motivations are ultimately as bad as the far right’s. He attacks the media for its role in helping encourage the divide in America.

I’ll add another to the list of “dupes or coconspirators” as he puts them: marketers. Their need to send messages as directly as possible to potential customers creates smaller and smaller pockets of shared experience. It takes something amazingly huge to break across demographics any more. Look at the number of big news stories that would have brought down earlier Presidents and now they come, they are talked about for a few minutes, the stories don’t take hold, and they fade from consciousness. Jeff Jarvis would blame technology and say that is due to the freedom that the remote control and cable gives us. But I would say that they are just tools. Powerful enabling tools. Tools that marketers have used to segment and divide audiences into sellable slices of population.

OK… off my soap box now.

Olliver Willis joins in the conversation with a defensive post, decrying those that would call him an Extremist for wanting Bush out of office or being against the Iraq war.

Of course you’re an extremist Oliver. You?re walking down the center of the road:

“Frank: I’ve walked a white line my entire life, I’m not about to screw that up.
Nada: White line’s in the middle of the road, that’s the worst place to walk. “: From the cult classic: They Live.

We are encouraged not to walk that line. We are encouraged to join with our fellow lefties and righties one either side to take up the cause.

Both Oliver Willis and Jeff Jarvis are walking the line. I’m walking that line right with them. Millions of Americans are there too and will show themselves on election day.

America thought it was getting a President, in Mr. Bush, who would unite and not divide. We were wrong.

Elect a President who will attempt to run the country from the center. Help Elect John Kerry.