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Politics : High Tolerance Plasticity -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: chowder who wrote (21325)	8/31/2004 4:56:11 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 23153

Kerry's inconsistencies are costing him at this point. Confusion seems to be Kerry's flag to rally around. Nothing is cut and dry about him. Everything is clouded with confusion and inconsistency. Yes, that's his problem to overcome and he's not doing well with it. Of course we might all have the same problem if we had a 2+ decade of recorded words, debate, and votes on seemingly related issues and someone was spending hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of man hours to go through that record and examine it and publicize it for real or out-of-context reported inconsistencies. The clearest example for how well this works is the Swift Boat "revelations." That was clearly in the back pocket of the Republican machine and it was used at the right time. Even though virtually every serious reporter has concluded that the "lies" reportedly told by Kerry were not lies at all and that his medals were earned, the vets and others trust him less. Wrong, nasty, but effective. If it weren't for such tactics we might be discussing the McCain reelection campaign. Do you remember when we were thinking that McCain had cracked under pressure in Hanoi, that he had "turned" and that he was unstable and unfit? I wonder where that all came from? I wonder if that was true? I wonder who was behind it? And no-I doubt that Bush was the mind behind it anymore than I believe he is the mind behind the Iraqi war. I have a bigger issue with your post, however. You write: Are you aware that consistency is an important leadership trait? Of course, fairness must accompany that trait to maximize it's impact to the positive side. For a true pragmatist, it's almost inexcusable that you missed the big factor of "consistency" to talk about the moral one. The most important thing about "consistency" is that you have the judgement to be "right" in your policies. If you're right then consistency is the right pattern to follow. If you're wrong, then being consistent simply compounds the initial damage. (Think inadequate troop strength in post war Iraq or, alternatively, unrealistic goals of "remaking" Iraq.) The "gang that couldn't shoot straight" had big ideas and knew what they needed to do, they simply lacked the sense to do it. The Bush gang has a record of stating sound major goals and then finding ways to screw things up over and over again by adopting poor policies and poorly implementing the ones they do adopt. Incompetency trumps good intentions and "consistency" EVERY time.