If John Kerry keeps losing his cool like this, the next eight weeks may be prove to be the longest of his life.
nypost.com
KERRY LOSES HIS COOL
September 5, 2004 -- Like the ghost of campaigns pres ent, John Kerry bestirred himself from his convention-week breather at the stroke of midnight Friday morning to simultaneously defend his own patriotism and besmirch that of the vice president.
And then he called George W. Bush "unfit" for the presidency.
"For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as commander-in-chief," Kerry told a hastily scheduled rally in Ohio.
"Well, here's my answer: I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq."
He added: "I guess I'll leave it up to the voters whether five deferments make someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of duty."
Vice President Dick Cheney — like Kerry's running-mate, Sen. John Edwards — used legal deferments to avoid service.
So much for Kerry's warning against "reopening the wounds" of Vietnam and his earnest plea that "we do not need to divide America over who served and how."
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Of course, that was back in 1992 — when he was defending Bill Clinton's use of personal connections to avoid the draft, and when Kerry was hoping to be picked as vice president.
Earlier this year, in fact, he claimed that "I have never made an issue, in the course of my entire career, out of what choices anybody made about where they served or didn't serve."
Except that it wasn't true, of course. During his 1996 Senate re-election battle, for example, he pointedly referred, during one debate, to his opponent's lack of service in Vietnam.
Now he finds himself trailing Bush and Cheney by 11 points (in a new, post-convention Time poll). So, once again, dividing America "over who served and how" becomes fair game.
As for questioning Kerry's patriotism, the Republicans have done no such thing — as the Massachusetts senator surely knows.
In fact, GOP keynoter Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) quite pointedly said of the Democratic Party's leaders: "It is not their patriotism — it is their judgment that has been so sorely lacking."
No one, least of all President Bush and Vice President Cheney, has questioned John Kerry's patriotism or his commitment to defend America. What they do — and have every right to — question is the way in which he says he would carry that out as president.
Bush and Cheney question whether Kerry's 20-year record of voting against strengthening and upgrading America's armed forces shows any understanding of what's needed to defend this nation from external threats.
But Kerry doesn't want to address such questions. (There's a reason he spent all of 15 seconds on his Senate record during his acceptance speech.)
So instead he starts whining about how "they're attacking my patriotism."
If John Kerry keeps losing his cool like this, the next eight weeks may be prove to be the longest of his life. |
