Posted on 01/27/2004 10:44:48 PM PST by Utah Girl
HAMPTON, N.H.—Tonight, John Kerry heads south and west from New Hampshire, widely acclaimed as the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee. "Dated Dean, Married Kerry," goes the slogan of the hour. But before this rebound relationship drifts to the altar, maybe Democrats should ask what they're getting in Kerry. After watching him for a year and seeing him work New Hampshire, here's my warning: You're getting a guy who has plenty of selling points but can't make the sale himself.
Like my colleague Chris Suellentrop, I've watched the Kerry surge with amazement. I've asked myself how Kerry is persuading previously skeptical voters to change their minds about him. The answer is, he isn't. Other people are doing the persuasion. Other people are doing the testimonial ads, as first lady Christie Vilsack did for Kerry in Iowa. Other people are firing up his crowds. Other people are telling his story. Other people are touting his virtues at rallies because he doesn't reliably display those virtues himself. The man who stood up to serve his country as a soldier is being propped up as a candidate.
Two days ago I went to a Kerry rally in Nashua, an hour west of here. Kerry had the biggest and best of everything. I had just come from a John Edwards rally in a beaten-up, slightly cramped school gym a few miles away. The gym hosting Kerry's rally was gorgeous, capacious, and brand new. Edwards' event was at the local junior high; Kerry's was at the high school. Behind Kerry hung an American flag 30 feet tall and 50 feet wide, the hugest I've seen on the campaign trail. The opening act was New Hampshire's most beloved Democrat, former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen.
At Edwards' rally, the candidate was introduced for maybe three minutes and spent the rest of the event making the pitch himself. A Kerry rally is nothing like that. It's more like a roast. First Shaheen sang Kerry's praises. Then a former state senator sang Kerry's praises. Then Ted Kennedy sang Kerry's praises. Then Kennedy's son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., sang Kerry's praises. Then Kerry spoke for a bit and handed the mike to his stepson and wife, who sang Kerry's praises. It's like going to a concert and sitting through a bunch of speeches in which the musician's friends attest, "This guy can sing."
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.msn.com ...
A certified extremist. Far from "the mainstream." His record is deep, long and inescapable. He's better for us than Dean.
For the record: Kerry did not serve 2 tours in Vietnam. He seved aboard a Navy ship in the South China Sea. Then, later, he went to Vietnam for 3 1/2 months where he commanded a Mekong Delta river patrol "fast boat." He asked to leave VN, citing the fact that he had (already!) been awarded 3 purple hearts for wounds, the nature of which he has refused to disclose to the public.
Minor shrapnel wounds....
Not to disparage what he did for his Bronze Star and Silver Star but his Purple Hearts sound like the old MASH episode where Frank Burns put in for a Purple Heart for "shell fragment injury" after he got an egg-shell fragment in his eye while making an omlette.
It's strange that a man who charged into enemy fire should prove so physically inferior, as a politician, to a man whose greatest athletic feat during the Vietnam era was swimming ashore at Chappaquiddick.
Same here! That's what prompted me to ping my list to the article. Rush read that line on the air at least two times, chuckling as if he couldn't believe what he was reading. LOL
Bill Maher made a gret observation when he said that Kerry looked like "one of the talking trees from The Wizard of Oz".
Yeah, but celebrity has its own allure. Think of any number of cultural fads.
It's worth a try. :-)
And to think I could have gotten out of the bush three months earlier!
Lol, I've been hunting for this one. Anything that hides one inch of Teddys face is a blessing!!
Wow, psychedelic!! Peter Max could have designed that!!
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