Midnight Meltdown: Conduct Unbecoming a (Wanna Be) President

UPDATE: Not on Same Page? Sources tell CBS News that Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards was apparently taken aback by the hot Kerry rhetoric. (Scroll to last story.) We've said it before and we say it again this morning: simply being mad at George W. Bush is not a new campaign strategy. John Kerry's new departure shows signs it is more inept that his previous campaign strategy. He is flailing. And he looks less presidential by the moment.

Kerry's press conference/rally/tirade was ill-conceived from the beginning. It tells voters, "I react to events," "I can only make news when George Bush does," "Hey, I'm running too, you know!"

We at crushkerry.com thought it would have been clever if President George W. Bush, in his acceptance speech last night, had said something like this:

"And let me give one bit of advice to my friend Senator John Kerry, whom I respect very much. President of the United States of America is a hard job. It's the hardest job I've ever had … way tougher than owner of a Major League Baseball team (chuckle, chuckle.) And I can assure you, Senator, you will long for the relative tranquility of those frightening days you admirably served in Vietnam if you ascend to this high office. You cannot lose your composure when things don't go your way. If you ever do become president, people will say awful things about you. They will question your competence. Your sincerity. Even your intelligence. And if those things force you into a hypersensitive, knee-jerk reaction at all hours of the night, then you are still not ready for this job."

Perhaps he could say it at one of the debates, instead. It might become one of those "there he goes again" moments.

Anywho … back to Kerry. He wigged out last night. That's the only way to describe it. It was the kind of hissy fit that is unbecoming of a wartime president, let alone any president at all. And besides, it was none of it truthful. Let's look at what he said, and clear up some of Kerry's frantic misstatements.

"I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned …"

No one affiliated with the Bush-Cheney campaign has ever questioned Kerry's commitment to defend this country. Not once. We have, to be sure. Other conservatives certainly have. But not the Bush-Cheney campaign. The Bush folks have, however, taken a scalpel to John Kerry's abysmal record on defense and intelligence in the United States Senate. And rightfully so. John Kerry has voted to cut defense spending twelve times. He's voted to gut intelligence spending by a cumulative $6 billion. We would not be able to defend ourselves against terrorist enemies in John Kerry's America. And it is entirely proper for the Bush campaign to raise these issues.

"… by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq."

First, let's look at the grammar. "Those who?" Is there more than one Dick Cheney who "refused to serve?" Is there more than one George W. Bush who "misled us into war?" Or was he talking about someone else? The clumsy construction of this attack shows it was frantically constructed, probably in anger.

Now, let us look at the facts. Dick Cheney did not serve in the Armed Forces. But neither has John Edwards. Does that make Edwards unfit to be Vice President? Moreover, Bill Clinton dodged the draft altogether, and yet Kerry promises to take America back to Clinton's glorious Golden Age. But under Kerry's logic, Clinton should never have been eligible to serve as president in the first place.

And about this "misled us into war" nonsense. We suppose it needs repeating that John Kerry voted for that war … as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee who had access to all or nearly all the same information our president had. Indeed, if Kerry actually had less information than our president and still voted for war, than it was he who took a greater leap of faith.

"I'm going to leave it up to the voters whether five deferments makes someone more qualified than two tours of duty."

Again, he's talking about Cheney here. But my word … this is a rookie blunder, to be certain. History tells us folks don't vote for Vice President. They don't even vote for tickets. They vote for presidents. And here Kerry fell into the trap of reacting to the Vice President's obvious taunt. Kerry diminishes himself by going after the VP. But then, we ought not be surprised. We hate to use the cliché "oldest trick in the book," but …

"Let me tell you what I think makes someone unfit for duty … Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting 45 million Americans go without health care makes you unfit to lead this nation."

Wow! "Unfit." Kerry has been reduced to using the very words from the condemnatory book about his dishonorable escapades in Vietnam and after. You know you're behind in the public debate when you need to use the other side's lingo. But aside from that, one can hardly call the most generous tax cuts in a generation for all working American families "doing nothing." Moreover, there are only 42 million American without insurance, not 45 million.

"It's time to stop rewarding companies for shipping jobs overseas!"

Um … ahem … Senator? Remember all that stuff about your overzealous speechwriter? Let us remind you that not only do you routinely accept contributions from those companies, but you own significant amounts of stock in many of them, as well.

Then finally, Kerry's spokesthing Stephanie Cutter added a little spin about their new strategy for good measure, "We're going to be very aggressive throughout the fall in painting the real picture of George Bush." What is the real picture of George W. Bush? Again, the Kerry campaign has been trapped in a rhetorical box by their own surrogates who have called Bush Hitler and likened him to Saddam Hussein himself. What new information can Stephanie Cutter tell us that will top that?

In a less partisan media environment, John Kerry's midnight tirade would go down as Dukakis in the tank, Muskey crying in the rain, Bush's no new taxes, Dole's quit lying about my record, Clinton's I did not have sex with that woman all rolled into one big whinny, unbecoming screech of nails across a chalkboard.

The 2004 campaign still lacks its "defining moments." But Kerry's strategic blunder last night was one.