The Lies, foibles and misrepresentations of John Kerry

revel
Does it matter whether Clinton lied or not? How many people died because of Clinton's "lies"? Dubya on the other hand has on his hands the blood of thousands.

"For over 30 years, Kerry's primary occupation has been stalking lonely heiresses. Not to get back to his combat experience, but Kerry sees a room full of wealthy widows as "a target-rich environment." This is a guy whose experience dealing with tax problems is based on spending his entire adult life being supported by rich women. What does a kept man know about taxes?"

Finally - I really do think Frank Apisa just took me for a Republican there, didnt he! Hehheh ... that must be the first time in over 3,500 posts here that anyone mistook me for a Republican! Dutch leftist, hello! :grins:

Ugh.

I'm still undecided, but I haven't gotten the same sense you have regarding Kerry's electability. Didja see the "Non-AABB's Only!" thread I started? Some really interesting responses.

Kerry," he snaps. "They're the only ass.hole snake campaign that would do it." He sighs. "Every frickin' day now, I'm reminded of why I got out of this in the first place."

Odd that you think Kerry is less electable than Edwards, Clark and Gephardt nimh.

To be honest this is the first time I'd say you sounded completely clueless about America.

the Kerry botox story is not a frivolous bit of gossip but a perfectly legitimate synecdoche for this type of Kerry behavior. There is a phony, clean facade, and the reality behind the phony facade. ...

[..] This character problem is not "aloofness." Aloofness is what people who don't want to acknowledge Kerry's character problem say is Kerry's character problem.

How, we wondered aloud driving home, could a man in public life for decades, running for President for more than a year, not do better than this? [..] Why, above all, is he still running on his résumé? We know he's qualified to be President; his job as a candidate is to make us want

I'd be the first to concede that Kerry is not the [ideal] candidate [..] the man himself remains an enigma. He is reserved and formal, which is another way of saying that he's aloof. His lugubrious, rococo speaking style is, at best, an acquired taste. He doesn't suck up to reporters, which means that many of them hate him. And he has a long record in the Senate of voting for liberal causes, a record that Karl Rove and company are already putting to good use. [..] if Kerry has acquired The Touch, it remains intermittent. [..] The man has a tin ear, and I doubt that's going to change.

[..] Of course, defeating an incumbent president is an entirely different proposition from defending a Senate seat. In the weeks and months ahead, Kerry's going to be put through the meat-grinder, as he's asked questions about everything from his seemingly contradictory votes on the Gulf war (against) and the war in Iraq (for) to the Great Cheez Whiz Scandal of 2003 (while campaigning in Philadelphia, he asked for--gasp!--Swiss cheese on his hoagie rather than the locally acceptable Cheez Whiz). But [..] if George Bush gives him an opening, he'll take it.

[Y]es, the party could do a lot worse. Al Sharpton is still available, isn't he?

But if this is truly the best the Democrats can do to challenge a wildly overspending, special-interest-pandering, inarticulate saber-rattler, then it's a pathetic comment on the party's isolation and shallowness. [..]

Last summer, in separate interviews I asked three of Kerry's peers--Congressmen Ed Markey, Marty Meehan, and Mike Capuano--to name three specific things Kerry had done for Massachusetts. None of them could do it. Just today I asked the same question of a Massachusetts state representative who is Kerry's biggest legislative supporter. He drew a blank too. [..]

Of course, this election isn't about nominating a new Captain Kangaroo. Dan, you argue that while Kerry may well be an aloof jerk, an entitled swell who lacks the manners to eat a campaign cheese steak the way his host makes it, he is "centered." So is a man straddling a fence, but what good does he do anybody? TNR has already documented some of Kerry's more spectacular waffles: the 1991 questioning of affirmative action dogma, followed immediately by hasty retreat in the face of liberal censure; the 1998 education-reform broadsides, quickly abandoned in the face of teacher-union heat. [..]

The point is John Kerry's political career has often evoked some of his generation's less-inspirational traits, such as ambivalence, expedience, and narcissism, facts Democrats should ponder before giving him the keys to the car. And it's his public, political behavior that ought to be under scrutiny right now, not silly sideshows like his alleged Botox use. [..] the real question about Kerry for Democrats and, if his roll continues, for those independents and Republicans who are also dismayed by the incumbent's glaring weaknesses is this: Does he have what it takes to make tough calls on the domestic and foreign-policy issues that really matter? [..] And the overwhelming preponderance of evidence shows that John Kerry is a reflexive dissembler.