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Politics : The TRUTH About John Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tonto who wrote (1428)	5/17/2004 9:23:15 AM
From: JakeStraw	Respond to of 1483

May 17, 2004, 8:00 a.m. Kerry, Kerry, Quite Contrary The lifelong contortions of the Democratic nominee. By Rich Lowry A Massachusetts state representative named William Reinstein approached John Kerry at a political event in early 1996 and introduced himself with the fictional name "Butchy Cataldo," just to test Kerry. The senator merrily slapped "Butchy" on the back and told him how good it was to see him again. The story was quickly passed around in Massachusetts political circles as a sign of Kerry's embarrassing lack of a common touch. This incident is recounted in the new Boston Globe biography of John Kerry (John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography by the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best). Together with Douglas Brinkley's book, Tour of Duty, it provides a ready guide to the Democratic nominee, who is the kind of guy who would feign delight in being reunited with his good friend Butchy Cataldo. Kerry has many virtues. He has physical courage, whether on his swift boat in Vietnam or in one of his outdoor activities. He is prodigiously talented. The excerpts from his Vietnam journals in Douglas Brinkley's book are impressively written. He wanted to write an autobiographical novel about Vietnam — it might not have been a terrible one. He is fiercely competitive and doesn't lose easily. These qualities will be on display during the campaign this year. So will his foibles. Character tends to be enduring. If you were familiar with Bill Clinton's first two years as Arkansas governor, you had a pretty good idea of how his first couple of years as president would play out. So too with Kerry there are themes that have been apparent right from the beginning: the air of phoniness, and the exaggerations and minutely fine-tuned positions that come with it; the blatant-to-the-point-of-rank ambition; the wealthy wives funding his political career; the exploitation of his Vietnam service and his demagogic indignation at any questioning of his activities during or after the war; his belief that nearly any U.S. intervention is mistaken and driven by "pride." Kerry has Al Gore's aloofness and his talent. Like Gore, it's possible to imagine Kerry a professor somewhere. Unlike Gore, Kerry has always unabashedly wanted to run for office. Gore had to force himself to be a campaigner. Kerry has been doing it more or less — debating, speechifying, etc. — since prep school. The awkwardness (some might say weirdness) of Gore seemed to come from the tension between what he truly desired, i.e., being off somewhere writing books on global warming, and the political career he foisted on himself. Kerry has no such tension. But there's the same sense of him trying too hard, of compensating for something missing. nationalreview.com

To: tonto who wrote (1428)	6/2/2004 1:04:20 PM
From: JakeStraw	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1483

Raines on Kerry : 'Lurch Gone to Choate' By E&P Staff Published: June 02, 2004 NEW YORK Former New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines, on the hot seat again as controversy over the newspaper's Iraq coverage during his tenure continues to swirl, has written a column for the The Guardian in London today on John Kerry that concludes that he "has to get better as a candidate." One problem, according to Raines: Kerry is "pompous" and "ponderous." He also declared that Kerry has an "Addams Family" face--"as if Lurch had gone to Choate." Where Bill Clinton's most famous campaign message was, "It's the economy stupid," Kerry's seems to be, according to Raines, "It's the war, sort of, and it's the economy, maybe." Raines believes Kerry can win "in a campaign that's going to become the political equivalent of a street fight" but every time he talks to "a reporter who has covered him, new doubts creep in about his ability to connect with voters. "I personally find him easier to talk to than Al Gore, but there's no denying that he's ponderous," Raines continued. "And he's pompous in a way that Gore is not. With Gore, you feel that if he could choose, he would have been born poor and cool. Kerry radiates the feeling that he is entitled to his sense of entitlement. Probably that comes from spending too much time with Teddy Kennedy, but it's a problem. The TV camera is an x-ray for picking up attitudinal truths, and Kerry's lantern jaw and Addams Family face somehow reinforce the message that this guy has passed from ponderous to pompous and is so accustomed to privilege that he doesn't have to worry about looking goofy. It's as if Lurch had gone to Choate. "Recently, a lot of campaign reporters were writing that Kerry is altering his 'populist' message and moving to the centre. If John Kerry was ever a populist, George W Bush is a Rhodes scholar. Here's what Kerry has to face up to and build upon. The difference between him and Bush is that Kerry represents the liberal, charitable wing of the Privilege party and George W represents the conservative, greedy wing of the Privilege party...." "Surely someone in Kerry's campaign can figure out a way for him to say, 'Here's my plan for getting us out of Iraq and defeating terrorism,' and 'Here's my plan for making sure you're not sick and poor in your old age.' And then make him say it over and over again, no matter what question is asked of him. "Kerry has to face the fact that even though the incumbent looks like Goofy when he smirks, he's going to win unless Kerry comes up with something to say. To stay 'on message' you have to have one." editorandpublisher.com