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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tonto who wrote (20369)	5/4/2004 10:23:23 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

John Kerry's ad campaign: squeezing the purple heart dry Tuesday, 4th May 2004 lnreview.co.uk John Kerry is opening his wallet in his battle against Bush. According to a story in the New York Times, media experts are claiming that Kerry's campaign has: "committed to spend up to $27 million for more than three weeks. Mr. Kerry's aides would not comment on the exact size of the buy, except to say it would most likely set records." What's curious about this story is that the only thing of interest about the campaign is the record-breaking size of the expenditure. Nothing that Kerry is saying is new or interesting. He's just spending a cool $27 million saying it. Apparently, the thrust of the campaign is to be the mouldy old chestnut of Kerry's Vietnam heroics. According to the NY Times report, the advertisements "will highlight his biography and service in Vietnam, which his advisers have always viewed as his strong suits." How fresh and forward-looking. Give me strength. Kerry is still selling himself on a 35-year-old war record. Hasn't the warranty expired on that thing yet? Or does the American public have an infinite appetite for grainy photographs of a big-jawed man lolling on a patrol boat? Kerry had better hope so. Then again, you can understand why they're going back through the old photo albums when the new snaps are as dynamic as this: 35 years ago he was a war hero. Now he's just an old man in a yellow jersey falling off his bicycle and scuffing his elbow on the gravel. 35 years ago his massive jaw looked purposeful and strong. Now he looks like Mr Punch. The tragedy of John Kerry is this: the longer his campaign drags on, the more clearly we can see what was so exciting about Kerry in the first place.... Howard Dean. Remember him? Howard Dean was fun. He was ebullient. Articulate. He was a brilliant, fiery opening act for a pointless headliner. It's Jimi Hendrix opening for The Monkees all over again. We just didn't realize how dull Kerry was because our applause for Dean (and Dean's own yells) were ringing in our ears. And now we're left with a ghastly silence, which Kerry is trying to fill with the rat-a-tat-tat of his old tugboat gun. Really, it's starting to smell like madness, this obsession with the past. It's the kind of thing you expect of your lunatic uncle who 'saw too much' and now sits rocking on the porch with a thousand-yard stare and slightly too much drool collecting at the corner of his mouth. Come here boy, and I'll tell you what I did in the war... Not now uncle. Isn't it time for your nap...? God help us. Suddenly $27 million doesn't seem like very much after all.