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05/06/2004: "Prevent Defenses never work"
John Kerry seems to have given up on presenting any sort of game plan. Instead, he's fallen back upon the worst possible strategy for teams who have built a lead: the prevent defense.
Rather than continuing with what got you there, teams revert to a time-killing, slow motion offense. In football, coaches run it up the middle three times and punt. In basketball, all motion stops, and players loll about the perimeter. Soccer has a version as does hockey and it never frickin works.
It never frickin' works. (see Freddie Mitchell catching a ball on a 4th and 26 play to vault the Eagles into the NFC Championship game.)
As soon as you see your football team fade into a two-deep zone, abandoning the blitz, you know that you've got a good chance of losing the game.
Attack, goddamit, attack. Go with what got you there.
Much more is at stake, now, with Senator Kerry. The democrats cannot afford to let the Bush administration define Kerry's positions. They cannot assume that the continued revelations about the failure in Iraq and the political ineptitude within the White House will be enough to convince voters.