In the Mood
John Kerry in New Hampshire.
LACONIA, N.H. — There was something immediately noticeable in the air at the John Kerry town-hall meeting in Laconia, N.H. yesterday — laughter. Kerry opened by saying something about it being so cold that it's "almost enough to want to hug Dick Cheney to get warm." People laughed. Later, he pointed to a girl holding a windsurfing magazine in the front row, and asked where she had got it, noting how he missed being able to go windsurfing. People smiled and tittered. Answering an agriculture question, Kerry said, "I just came from a great agriculture state . . . and now it's even greater in my esteem." More laughs.
I'm not saying that a spark of comic genius has descended on Kerry (in fact, all these bits very much fall into the "you had to be there" category). It's just that he's more relaxed and his supporters are more upbeat and inclined to be amused than before. The campaign feels good for the candidate and interested voters. Moods like this pass, but not usually in a matter of five days, and by then Kerry may have won Iowa and New Hampshire to take a huge step toward the nomination.
So the task for Kerry is so much easier than for any of the other candidates — he doesn't need to come back (like the rest of the candidates who are trailing him); he doesn't need to explain away any shrieks (Dean); he doesn't need to introduce himself to New Hampshire voters in less than a week (Edwards); he doesn't need to find new momentum and constantly answer questions about whether he's a Democrat (Clark); he doesn't need to convince most of the Democratic party that it's wrong and he's right (Lieberman). He just needs to keep doing what he's doing, to stay in the mood.
Nonetheless, the atmospherics of his campaign have been crucially influenced by Dean. There is an emphasis on fighting and fervor, all in the cause of taking back the country. "All my political life," Kerry says, "I have known that you have to fight. You have to fight every moment. And that the voters are going to test how you'll fight for them. That is what campaigns are about. And they want to look inside your gut. And they want to look inside your character, and your eyes, and your heart, and find out if you'll really be there for people. I intend to campaign best as the underdog everyday of this campaign." He spits out a long litany to prove his "fervor" for fighting, pledging on this day to work to reform the tax code "with the same fervor that I stood up to Richard Nixon and his war in Vietnam, with the same fervor that I stood up to Ronald Reagan and his illegal war in Central America, with the same fervor that I took on Oliver North and his illegal activities," and on like this through several other fervent episodes (note the leftist anachronistic Reagan reference).
Kerry is certainly fervently anti-Bush. Bush presides over the greatest say-one-thing-do-another administration ever; has tilted the playing field against working people in the worst way ever; has made a mockery of the phrase "no child left behind"; has a foreign policy that is inept, reckless, arrogant, and some other really bad things besides; is to blame for the North Korean crisis and the continuance of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; has an attorney general with no interest in the law; and disdains veterans. I'm probably leaving some Bush outrages out. Dean long ago established that Democratic voters want to hear these kinds of things. Kerry has now gotten quite good at telling Democratic voters them.
At the end of his Laconia event, an aide told Kerry a couple of times that he just had time for one more question. He initially ignored him (as politicians are wont to do when they are trying to impress upon people that they want to give them more time than had been scheduled). When the aide piped up again, Kerry finally asked for one more question, and noticed a boy and a man in a military uniform with their arms up simultaneously. He decided to take both their questions. The last time I had seen Kerry in New Hampshire — right before he abandoned the state for Iowa — he didn't even want to take audience questions. Yesterday was quite a contrast. When he cut off the questions, there were still hands up all over the room. Neither the candidate nor the audience seemed in much of a rush to leave. And why not? They were in the mood.
URL:http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200401230830.asp
— Rich Lowry is author of Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years. |
