By all accounts, Kerry was a skilled manager, running the office for an old-line district attorney and swiftly transforming a sleepy, nepotistic organization of part-time prosecutors into one of the most high-powered and innovative in the northeast.
"I saw for the first time John's ability to take in huge amounts of information, reach out to experts, set a course and lead," said J. William Codinha,...
Kerry brought the same voracious appetite for information to his presidential campaign. He has three dozen domestic policy councils, two dozen foreign policy groups, an expanding corps of consultants, and many informal advisers he calls -- about 15 per night -- before going to bed.
But rather than "set a course and lead," as Codinha described, Kerry has lurched from course to course, periodically switching drivers and road maps -- and messages -- as he reacts to more and more information and advice. "His strength is that he listens," said a regular recipient of Kerry's late-night phone calls. "The problem is he's listening to too many people."
[snip]Whatever the price in efficiency and discipline, the Democrat's aides insist that a President Kerry would not have been dependent on a few deputies, as was Bush, for information -- which turned out to be faulty -- on Iraq's weapons or the military force needed during and after the war. Nor, they say, would he have been as passive as Bush in response to a briefing memo on Aug. 6, 2001, titled, "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." WP
Nah, passive isn't in the Kerry genes, his response would have shaken the world! Kerry must have known through numerous phone calls, summits and listening to too many people that this undercover investigation of Logan Airport was nothing but a FAA prank. He ignored it like a pro!
Former FAA security officials say the Massachusetts senator had the power to prevent at least the Boston hijackings and save the World Trade Center and thousands of lives, yet he failed to take effective action after they gave him a prophetic warning that his state's main airport was vulnerable to multiple hijackings.
"He just did the Pontius Pilate thing and passed the buck" on back through the federal bureaucracy, said Brian Sullivan, a retired FAA special agent from the Boston area who in May 2001 personally warned Kerry that Logan was ripe for a "jihad" suicide operation possibly involving "a coordinated attack." A mere nuisance
He has three dozen domestic policy councils, two dozen foreign policy groups, an expanding corps of consultants, and many informal advisers he calls -- about 15 per night -- before going to bed.
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No wonder he can't articulate "the plan."