Hey, John Kerry finally said something that wasn't nuanced! After a speech in Chicago, Kerry said this to a supporter: "Let me tell you, we've just begun to fight. We're going to keep pounding. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen. It's scary."
Oh yeah? Well at least they're not haughty and French-looking!
We're actually not sure it was Kerry, rather than his interlocutor, who said "It's scary," but in either case it plays right into the stereotypes of liberals as wimps. You can almost imagine tough-guy Kerry installing night lights in the presidential bedroom to ward off the right-wing monsters.
Blogger John Ellis contrasts Kerry's comments with Bill Clinton's 1996 acceptance speech:
First, let us consider how to proceed. Again I say the question is no longer who's to blame, but what to do.
I believe that Bob Dole and Jack Kemp and Ross Perot love our country, and they have worked hard to serve it. It is legitimate, even necessary, to compare our record with theirs, our proposals for the future with theirs. And I expect them to make a vigorous effort to do the same.
But I will not attack. I will not attack them personally or permit others to do it in this party if I can prevent it.
My fellow Americans, this must be--this must be a campaign of ideas, not a campaign of insults. The American people deserve it.
We cite this not to praise Clinton, who proved quite capable of fighting dirty when the need arose. But it's telling that Kerry is running such a grubby little campaign whereas Clinton took the high road eight years ago. In 1996 Clinton was running from a position of strength; the tenor of Kerry's campaign tells us he's in a position of weakness, this week's polls notwithstanding. James Lileks puts the Kerry outburst in perspective:
People say all sorts of things in elections. The underlings and infantry fire the cheap shots, and let the big dogs lope along the high road. But when the top officials of the party start slinging the slander, we've entered a different era. And no one seems to notice, because the story becomes the charge, not the nature of the accusation.
Accusing one's opponent of treason is a personal attack. Al Gore accused Bush of "betraying this country." Reasonable people could say he misled the country, or misruled the country, and make the argument to support the assertion, but "betrayed" is a word that has a special quality when talking about the President of the United States. I've heard General Wesley Clark question the President's patriotism, and insist that his religious beliefs were misguided, because the Democratic Party is the party that truly hews to Christian doctrines. . . . And of course we heard Governor Dean insert the "Bush was warned" meme into the body politic.
There's nothing comparable on the other side. Nothing. I mean, the Bush team runs an ad that has a second of 9/11 footage, and his opponents pitch a carefully staged fit--because that's all they have.
Indeed. Kerry can't very well wage a "campaign of ideas" when he has no ideas other than to raise taxes (the topic of the speech that preceded his "crooked, lying" remark). Actually, let's amend that: Kerry can't campaign on ideas because he's on every side of just about every issue. It calls to mind Groucho Marx: "Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others."
It appears that Kerry, like Howard Dean, is all hate and no cattle. This was fine during the primary campaign, when candidates could assume, not without reason, that they were facing an electorate blinded by its loathing for the president. But this stuff is going to get very tiresome over the next eight months. |
