Kerry's Campaign: Sinking Faster Than the Titanic?
by Dustin Hawkins
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Democratic strategists and liberal pundits are jumping at the opportunity to declare the Kerry campaign a national disaster. The party faithful thinks that the whole Vietnam discussion has backfired and that his message is both ambiguous and full of flip-flopping contradictions.
In a recent radio interview Kerry simultaneously claimed that there was absolutely and positively no reason to invade Iraq. None, zilch, zip, nada. He followed this by saying that he was proud of his vote to authorize war with Iraq. It was one thing when his positions changed a few weeks apart, but now they are changing a few sentences apart.
So to recount, despite having no reasons for war, he voted for war. And after telling us that the war is wrong, he says he is proud of his vote for war. And after saying that Bush deceived us about Weapons of Mass Destruction, he says he would have voted for war even if he knew no weapons would be found. And despite Hussein being no apparent threat, he is glad we took out the dictator.
Kerry has declared himself both the anti-war candidate and the pro-war candidate, and I think he is back to the anti-war candidate. But I won’t say for sure, because he won’t say for sure. He has stated he would both remove troops from Iraq within 6 months, and that he would increase troop presence immediately. It is no wonder his party is giving up on him.
In attempting to limit the damage to the national party, the elites are preparing their constituency for an absolute blowout. This way, if Bush is limited to fewer than, say, 350 electoral votes, the Democrats can claim victory. And in a bold new strategy liberals have begun to call Bush ''intelligent'' and ''smart.'' They even say he is a ''great debater'' and that we should expect him to possibly beat Kerry in the debates.
After five years of writing columns and books calling Bush a dyslexic moron, giving speeches questioning his IQ scores and brainwave patterns, and snidely remarking that he is an illiterate dolt, the strategists have finally realized that approach is not very successful. They dropped ''Bush is stupid'' in exchange for ''Bush is evil.'' They have four weeks to make this one stick.
With his general big-name liberal support fading, John Kerry's fan base has seemingly boiled downed to CBS, a station that has become such a laughing stock over the past two weeks that even its fellow mainstream media brethren has begun to tear the network apart. What passes for journalistic ethics over at CBS includes releasing false documents, and after noting that the documents are possibly fake claim that what is in them is accurate and demand that President Bush answer the questions raised. Then, invite an anti-Bush former secretary, bordering on the edge of senility and needing a permission slip to leave the nursing home, to verify that what is in the documents is true. Ask extremely leading questions to the world's third oldest living person because she, a ''credible source,'' can hardly answer beyond a yes or no. Then demand Bush answer the questions raised.
Ignore the other 50+ problems about the validity of the documents and their contents, and refuse to interview the scores of family members and witnesses countering the charges. Admit to having been fully duped, but still maintain that the documents' contents could be accurate and demand Bush answer the questions. After all, someone’s great-great-grandmother thinks they are true. John Kerry is clueless as to where he was on the most life-altering day of his life (Christmas? January? March? I give up), but this whippersnapper sure can nail down the accuracy of 30-year-old non-existent documents. This is all coming from the network that refused to cover 250 swift boat veterans who were deemed pathological conspiratorial liars (despite not having to retract anything said, unlike CBS). And liberals call Matt Drudge the most irresponsible journalist in America.
The only person who Rather may have more credibility than right now is authoress Kitty Kelley, who gets paid millions of dollars to libel and slander Republicans. All of her sources for her toilet-room gossip are unsurprisingly anonymous, which leads to such outrageous claims as George W. Bush is a cokehead, Laura was a dope-dealer, Ronald Reagan also used drugs in the White House, and Nancy was having an affair with Frank Sinatra. And that was some of the timid stuff. Mysteriously, everyone was unwilling to go on the record. So, no sources. Check. Highly questionable material? Check. Biased media personality trying to swing an election with fantasies? Check. I think we have found Dan Rather a co-anchor.
But those who have not resulted to hysterical lying have merely meandered into a mid-state of political depression. The exasperated sighs of the Democratic faithful, from Democratic strategists such as Pat Cadell and the ever-shrieking Susan Estrich, to liberal Bush-backers like former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and Hollywood darling Ron Silver, combine to exemplify the mess that the Kerry campaign is in.
They all either think Kerry will lose or hope that he will. He changes advisers almost as often as he changes his views on Iraq, recycling in and out any former Clinton and Gore strategist he can grab. His campaign is sinking faster than the Titanic, but he is the only one trying to stay on the ship. |
