DELAYED ACCEPTANCE. . . . . . . .
05/24 09:02 AM
Kerry's bad idea will be in good company.
During a long campaign, a lot of good and bad ideas get tossed around, and some of them are destined to regrettable. Putting Mike Dukakis in a tank. Walter Mondale promising to raise taxes.
The plan for John Kerry's non-nomination nomination may someday be remembered on that list of infamy.
For now, Democrats are publicly saying it's a great idea — to delay the acceptance of his nomination as the Democratic party's man for the White House. Robert Tuke, a Nashville attorney and Democratic delegate, called it "a hoot." In Saturday's papers, the only discouraging word came from Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign Manager Ken Mehlman, who said that "Only John Kerry could be for a nominating convention, but be against the nomination. This is just the latest example of John Kerry's belief that the rules are for other people, not for him."
More Kerry ... 5/24/04
ELECTION OF THE FITTEST: They should race on bikes. [Graham]
OUT OF GAS BY NOV.: Kerry can't ride gas prices much longer. [Geraghty]
NAM VETS AGAINST KERRY: The other band of brothers. [York]
And the candidate himself felt the need to emphasize that this was a technicality, a mere tweak of party rules, that would only affect financing and have little effect on the Boston convention itself.
"No decision has been made, but nothing we do will reduce in any way the energy and intensity of the convention in Boston," Kerry told reporters Saturday.
Bostonians are livid. The Globe reported, "Behind the scenes, however, aides close to Mayor Thomas M. Menino said city leaders were upset by the timing of the news, released one day after the transportation plan for the convention drew widespread criticism. One Boston city councilor, meanwhile, said he couldn't believe Kerry would consider postponing the nomination."
"It's going to make a mockery out of the nomination process for the Democratic Party," Boston City Councilor James M. Kelly told the Globe. "People come from across the country, and the purpose of them being here is to nominate a candidate for the party."
He predicted "frustration and anger" among city residents and convention delegates who find, on top of traffic jams, that their part in history has been taken from them.
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino advised Kerry to "Do what everybody else has done in the past. Just do it. Just get it done."
But Boston officials and convention organizers were nice compared to the reaction from the mainstream media.
The Washington Post's David Broder — not known for his instinct for trashing Democrats — put it in devastating terms on Sunday's Meet the Press: "What's going on is money, money, money," Broder said. "I have to say that we used to blame Republicans as being the party where money really drove everything. It's the Democrats that are allowing money to drive everything. They moved up the primary campaign dates so that they could have more time in the spring to raise money. Now, they want to move back the nomination time so they can raise more money in the fall. It is ridiculous. They are destroying institution after institution of political significance by this preoccupation with chasing money."
His panelmate, William Safire, called the plan "the stupidest move that John Kerry could possibly make."
"After 200 years of conventions and all, every speechwriter has always written an acceptance speech, and the key moment of an acceptance speech, right at the beginning, where the candidate stands up in front of the convention and says, 'I accept your nomination,' and the place goes wild and everybody has a spontaneous demonstration," Safire said. "Can you imagine John Kerry getting up and saying, 'Thank you for that nomination. I'll accept it in a month'? It's going to ring hollow."
The Washington Post, in an editorial labeled "Convention As Farce," mocked the concept with dry humor: "We do look forward to his non-acceptance speech."
The television networks are now asking serious questions about just why the networks should even bother to cover the convention, if it's just a four-day party.
"As a rule, we don't like hearing about another piece of news that won't be happening at the convention," Mark Lukasiewicz, the executive producer of election coverage for NBC News, told newspapers.
Monday morning, the editors of the Wall Street Journal write that the Kerry plan exposes two truths that the political class hates to admit: that the party conventions are now little more than free advertising vehicles, and campaign-finance limits are a monumental farce.
The press has spoken. What will it be, Senator, the media or the money?
nationalreview.com |
