The Trouble With Kerry (from a Democrat!)

MSN Slate ^ | March 1, 2004 | Kausfiles

[FairOpinion]

The worry here isn't so much that Kerry is an untested executive--he's never run anything larger than his Senate office--but that the presidency requires more than mere executive competence.

No visible political courage: The great question for Kerry biographers is how a man who showed bravery on the battlefield could demonstrate so little of it in his political life.

I admit, I'm allergic to Kerry. Something in the vibration of that deep, pompous tone he adopts--the lugubrious, narcissistic fake gravity--grates on me.

[optimistically_conservative]

Well, they can try. What is the latest date that a candidate can put their name on the ballot in the November elections?

Wait, you're right, election law doesn't matter.

[FairOpinion]

"In John Kerry's life, his alleged Vietnam actions are the behavioral anomaly..."

===

Not if you know the whole truth.

Here is part of it:

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml
"Kerry initially hoped to continue his service at a relatively safe distance from most fighting, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper. While the 50-foot swift boats cruised the Vietnamese coast a little closer to the action than the Gridley had come, they were still considered relatively safe.

"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."


In Vietnam, he has done irresponsible things, for which people get courtmartialed (see comment by his superior officer), he just lucked out.

"Kerry was slightly wounded on his arm, earning his first Purple Heart on his first day of serious action."

"On Feb. 20, 1969, Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after sustaining a shrapnel wound in his left thigh. According to a previously unreported Navy report on the battle, a two-boat patrol spotted three men on a riverbank who were wearing black pajamas and running and engaged them in a firefight. While not criticizing this engagement, the Navy report did challenge the decision of unnamed skippers to fire at other "targets of opportunity" in the area. "

Instead of retreating, Kerry turned his boat directly toward hidden snipers, then beached the boat, and ordered an assault party onshore. This was not standard procedure. The swift boat crews weren't trained to fight on the muddy landscape; their shoes were closer to deck wear than combat boots.

Another occasion...

"Beach the boat, Kerry ordered, and the craft's bow was quickly rammed upon the shoreline. Out of the bush appeared a teenager in a loin cloth, clutching a grenade launcher."

When Kerry returned to his base, his commanding officer, George Elliott, raised an issue with Kerry: the fine line between whether the action merited a medal or a court-martial.

"When [Kerry] came back from the well-publicized action where he beached his boat in middle of ambush and chased a VC around a hootch and ended his life, when [Kerry] came back and I heard his debrief, I said, `John, I don't know whether you should be court-martialed or given a medal, court-martialed for leaving your ship, your post,"' Elliott recalled in an interview.

"But I ended up writing it up for a Silver Star, which is well deserved, and I have no regrets or second thoughts at all about that," Elliott said. A Silver Star, which the Navy said is its fifth-highest medal, commends distinctive gallantry in action.

Asked why he had raised the issue of a court-martial, Elliott said he did so "half tongue-in-cheek, because there was never any question I wanted him to realize I didn't want him to leave his boat unattended. That was in context of big-ship Navy -- my background. A C.O. [commanding officer] never leaves his ship in battle or anything else. I realize this, first of all, it was pretty courageous to turn into an ambush even though you usually find no more than two or three people there. On the other hand, on an operation some time later, down on the very tip of the peninsula, we had lost one boat and several men in a big operation, and they were hit by a lot more than two or three people."

[You Dirty Rats]

Jersey lost the Torch and who did they have as a backup? Lautencadaver!

Wellstone's backup was Mondull.

Let's not even discuss New Yawk.

The 'Rats are truly in awful shape.

[Triple Word Score]

Kerry is out for revenge on the military. His voting record proves it. His complete lack of constituent services to his state's military and military families proves it. (Kennedy has been far more helpful to Massachusetts military who need their Senator!) In the White House, he will be well-situated to make sure the World Court tries our soldiers for war crimes. He'll help them investigate us; he'll expose and destroy our intelligence apparatus. He believes that capitulating to terrorists will prevent more attacks. (That is a step beyond Clinton's approach of threaten-but-do-nothing.) He'll pack the Supreme Court nominees who will never get in the way of such a turnover of our self-rule.

[eeriegeno]

What? John F'ing Kerry has already told us what he's all about. First he was Audie Murphy, a war hero. Then he was a JFK from Mass. Then he was Elvis strumming the guitar. What he hasn't told us is 'who the hell is John Kerry????????'

Or maybe then again he has. Today he is the John Kerry who supports the Iraq war but yesterday he was the John Kerry who didn't. Today he is opposed to gay marriages but yesterday he wasn't. Today he is a war hero but yesterday he was a war protestor. And on, and on, and on....

I would like to ask some of the 48% who support Mr Kerry in recent polls, "just exactly which John Kerry do you support?" And, "Do you seriously believe that this guy will be better to guide this country for the next four years?"

And I thought that Clinton was a good chameleon! This guy is Clinton+.......

IMHO, John Kerry is nothing more in 2004 than the gigolo who married Tayrayzeh.................

[Triple Word Score]

Kerry is the one person who could make Nader look good enough to vote for a second time. :-)

Bwahaha.

[gitmo]

The hints in Kerry's senatorial resume aren't encouraging. Legislating is an almost pathologically collaborative effort, and Kerry has been a conspicuous non-performer in the legislation department. Time magazine found exactly "three substantive bills passed with Kerry's name on them" Two of these "had to do with marine research and protecting fisheries." (The other was "designed to provide grants for women starting small businesses.")

Kerry is a follower. Not a leader.

[Spotsy]

If anything, I see Kerry as the original dream candidate of the Bush team. Dean was just a head fake and the media and the Dems bought it.

I don't know if this is wishful thinking on my part, (perhaps those dems are influencing my thoughts, causing me to ascribe wondrous powers to Rove and company), but I too believe that the White House is relishing a race with Kerry.

I'm one of those who believe this White House is full of poker players - of course they have to pay lip service to the line "this election is going to be close . . . " - so as not to appear arrogant or risk having people stay home because they think it is a sure thing.

[Spotsy]

What? John F'ing Kerry has already told us what he's all about. First he was Audie Murphy, a war hero. Then he was a JFK from Mass. Then he was Elvis strumming the guitar. What he hasn't told us is 'who the hell is John Kerry????????'

That's the way of the dems - their candidates are whoever and whatever you want them to be. They are big mirrors that reflect each individual voter - and that is why they are totally useless.

Can't we build a "West Wing" style set on some deserted island and send all of these jokers there to pretend they are President while the grown ups govern the country?

[FairOpinion]

Of course if they do substitute Hillary, then Bush beats her by a landslide, it will destroy the Clinton hold on the Dem party.

[FairOpinion]

"Can't we build a "West Wing" style set on some deserted island and send all of these jokers there to pretend they are President while the grown ups govern the country?"

===

Gitmo? ;)

[SunkenCiv]

Michael what's his name, who founded Slate, was a rabid supporter of Dean, wrote anti-Clark stuff for the website, and while I don't like him or his opinions or (in particular) his arrogance -- which far surpasses that of Kerry -- I do find it amusing that the Democratic [sic] Party is shredding as we watch.

[optimistically_conservative]

By this summer Kerry will be down in the national polls by 10%.

By the fall, Bush's re-election will be compared to Reagan's and the media will make distorted historical references to how Bush beat the run of popular vote losing one termers.

[SunkenCiv]

Excellent!

The Trouble With Kerry
by Mickey Kaus

It doesn't help that Kerry is not well-liked in Massachusetts ("We're all trying to put our arms around him," said one beefy Irish pol at the Kerry victory party in Manchester, N.H.) or that he has broken his word when it's in his interest to do so--as when he broke a heralded spending-cap agreement with his GOP rival, William Weld, in the closing days of his 1996 race... Kerry protesting the Vietnam war by throwing someone else's medals away resonates uncomfortably. Kerry wasn't willing to take the risk of parting with his own medals. They might come in handy some day! Even in his moment of maximum political bravado he was cautious... It doesn't help that Kerry has a tendency to play the voters for fools--letting them think he's Irish (when he's not) or letting them think he's cleaner, in the campaign contribution department, than he really is.(e.g., saying he takes no PAC money but accepting unlimited "soft money" contributions to his Citizen Soldier Fund.) Or letting them think he gave up his own medals.

[185JHP]

Kaus has a word that nails Kerry's nastiness: "pandescender."

[hunter112]

One of the things I appreciate about Mickey Kaus is his coining of a word that will come in handy for the next seven months, to describe Kerry's behavior -- the word is panderflip.

[Mo1]

Even Dems are having a hard time voting for Kerry

I've been noticing those comments on a few left sites

[thoughtomator]

And then he resigns, then Hillary takes over, and at some point the dead are supposed to rise, right?

[Wild Irish Rogue]

Here's my rationale for thinking that Kerry will either physically or mentally collapse before the election.

#1. Kerry's mental imbalance:
Teresa Heinz Kerry has given interviews to the Washington Post and Boston Magazine,where she stated that Kerry, to this day, has nightmares where he "screams and flails at night" and "screams and bangs on the walls of his bedroom." These are not isolated,but,nightly occurences.
Teresa has also indicted to the Washington Post that Kerry has either been in counseling or is in need of counseling for his bizarre behavior.
Kerry made have fabricated or fantasized parts of his Vietnam service.

He told the Washington Post,that he was part of a covert CIA operation into Cambodia. He told the Washington Post that he has a secret compartment in his always present black attache case, where he keeps a mildewed camo hat, that was given to him , by a CIA agent, as a memento of their covert missions into Cambodia.
As part of his CIA reenactment for the WP reporter,he donned the mildewed hat and used his hands to form a gun and pointed it at the reporter and said " Pow."
( John Kerry :Hunter,Dreamer, Realist, WP, Jun 1,2003)

But, according to a 5 part series in the Boston Globe-(6/13/03) Kerry's Commanding Officer was angry that Kerry had violated US policy and had taken his crew into Cambodia.

" To top it off," Kerry said," he had gone several miles inside Cambodia, which theoretically was off limits, prompting Kerry to send a sarcastic message to his superiors that he was writing from the Navy's 'most inland' unit."

"Back at his base, a weary, disconsolate Kerry sat at his typewriter, as he often did, and poured out his grief. 'You hope that they'll courtmartial you or something because that would make sense,' Kerry typed that night."

So either Kerry was part of a CIA covert op, as he told the Washington Post or he had gone off on his own, disobeying orders and then hoped for a court martial, as his CO told the Boston Globe.
In just the space of a few paragraphs, Kerry was described as having "internal conflict," and being "haunted," "full of despair," "depressed," " disconsolate."

Kerry is either a liar in the tradition of Bill Clinton or he has lost touch with reality.
Kerry wanted everyone to believe that he had thrown his own medals and ribbons over the White House fence in 1971.

According to an interview he gave Joe Klein, for the New Yorker in 2002, Kerry claimed that he had thrown only ribbons and not medals but, not at the at the White House,but, onto the Capitol steps:
"Indeed, Kerry's every move—the fact that he tossed his combat ribbons, not his medals, onto the Capitol steps. "

However,according to a letter written by one of Kerry's friends ( Bill Willson) and VVAW comrades, Kerry issued yet another explanation ( in 1984 ) for his medal tossing. This angered those who believed for 13 years that Kerry had thrown his own medals. ( text here-counterpunch.org/willson 1015html )-
Bill Willson wrote angrily to Kerry:

"Your 1984 campaign response: You had returned the medals of a WWII acquaintance at his direction."

So,now Kerry has stated publically three different versions for his medal a/o ribbon tossing-they were a) his own ribbons,b) they were the ribbons and medals of other Vietnam vets and the 3rd version c) -they were the ribbons of a WWII vet.
Kerry's crewmates remember orders from the CO of their swiftboat,to open fire on suspicious old men,women and children on the shoreline.During the war,civilians posed as much danger as the VC. What is interesting,is that Kerry does not remember ordering his crew to open fire on the civilians.
His crewmates opened fire and killed old men,women and children,at Kerry's orders,but,Kerry has blocked all memory of this.
In addition:

"Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, has said that during his own command of US naval forces in Vietnam, just prior to his anointment as CNO, young Kerry had created great problems for him and the other top brass, by killing so many non-combatant civilians and going after other non-military targets."

"We had virtually to straight-jacket him to keep him under control," the admiral said.

By all acounts, Kerry had a very dysfunctional and isolated childhood. In many ways, he was as abandoned by his parents, as Clinton was. The only difference was that Clinton was left by his mother in a run down Arkansas shack and Kerry was abandoned by his parents to the care of various private schools,primarily in Europe.
Joe Klein:
" Kerry has never been the most sociable fellow. He grew up lonely: his father was a foreign-service officer who was rarely home; his mother was a member of the aristocratic Forbes family—they made their fortune in the China trade—but she was one of eleven siblings and the fortune had been subdivided into insignificance by the time John Kerry's generation came along."
" He was brought up among the wealthy, but his was a threadbare, erstwhile aristocracy. There were many houses, most of them other people's houses: in Brittany (a Forbes family estate, where his mother had spent much of her youth); on Naushon Island, just off Cape Cod (another Forbes retreat); in Washington; in Groton, Massachusetts. He had been sent to boarding school in Switzerland, and hated it (he speaks fluent French and some Italian)."
" He was then sent to boarding school in the United States, to St. Paul's, in Concord, New Hampshire. He was one of a handful of Catholic students; they were sent to Mass on Sunday in a taxi."


When Kerry ran for his first public office in 1972,his loss threw him for a loop. As did Clinton's first loss . Clinton became a recluse for a few years,unable to deal with the rejection and humiliation. Kerry reacted the same way.

From "The Long War of John Kerry by Joe Klein" :

Regarding Kerry's loss for a Massachusetts Congressional seat in 1972:
"By all accounts, the loss was devastating. It was the first deviation from the career trajectory he had imagined for himself in prep school.
"He came to my home in New Hampshire that weekend," his friend George Butler, a documentary filmmaker who was then a freelance photographer, recalls. "He wouldn't say a word to anyone."
"He sat there Friday night and built an entire model ship from scratch."
"On Saturday, he and I climbed a mountain together. He still wasn't talking. .. He was the most despondent-looking human being I had ever seen."

Klein and the friend do not indicate how long after the 3 day week end, Kerry's mute and withdrawal phase lasted. Could have been days to weeks, we don't know. Bet this odd behavior is just the tip of the iceberg.

Kerry's Physical Problems:

By all accounts,Kerry has been waited on, hand and foot by servants, his entire life.
He has never had to hustle or scrap for anything.
Running for a Senate seat in Mass every 6 years,is entirely different than running a harried,high pressure presidential campaign.
Kerry's advisers acknowledge that Kerry usually becomes lazy and unmotivated during his campaigns.He cannot maintain the motivation required for a long and arduous campaign and has been lucky,that he was a liberal running for a seat in Mass.
Kerry refuses to release his military and medical records.
We have no idea of the status of Kerry's physical health,other than observation and scant medical reporting.
To the most casual observer,Kerry appears gaunt,haggard,listless and low energy.
Kerry's father died of prostate cancer in 2000.
Kerry underwent a prostatectomy for prostate cancer in Feb,2003.
By media accounts,the surgery was successful, but, Kerry will not be given a cancer free, bill of health for 10 years.Kerry refuses to release his medical records,so we have no idea what his current PSA is or anything else,about his health status.

Kerry bears the physical similarities of someone suffering from Marfan's Syndrome.

"People with the Marfan syndrome are typically, but not always, very tall or taller than unaffected people in their family, slender and loose jointed."
"The Marfan syndrome affects the long bones of the skeleton. Therefore the arms, legs, fingers, and toes may be disproportionately long in relation to the rest of the body."
"A person with the Marfan syndrome often has a long, narrow face, and the roof of the mouth may be arched, causing the teeth to be crowded."

Kerry has admitted to cosmetic jaw surgery to correct a dental malocclusion.

In a Washington Post article, in 2002, Kerry's aide, David Wade, says Kerry's surgically enhanced jaw was not the result of a cosmetic chin-tuck but rather from "an operation to correct 'a malocclusion,' a bad bite that caused a clicking in his jaw."

Other skeletal abnormalities include a sternum (breastbone) that is either protruding or indented, curvature of the spine (scoliosis), and flat feet."
Kerry appears stoop shouldered,whether that is to hide a funnel chest, is unknown.
In addition,Marfan's Syndrome usually involves the heart-
"Most people with the Marfan syndrome have problems associated with the heart and blood vessels."
" Small leaks may not cause any symptoms, but larger ones may result in shortness of breath, fatigue and palpitations (a very fast or irregular heart rate)."
" Because of faulty connective tissue, the wall of the aorta (the large artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body) may be weakened and stretch, a process called aortic dilation."
" Aortic dilation increases the risk that the aorta will tear (dissect) or rupture, causing serious heart problems or sometimes sudden death."

Kerry is said by his family and French relatives to resemble Abraham Lincoln.Abraham Lincoln was thought to have had Marfan's Syndrome.
My primary concern about Marfans is the cardiac component and the risk for sudden death. Not a quality you want in a POTUS.
President Bush has always released the results of his yearly physical- John Kerry refuses to do the same.
President Bush has ordered all paperwork pertaining to his military service released.
John Kerry has refused to do the same. We have no idea whether John Kerry is in counseling for post traumatic stress syndrome or other psychological conditions or whether he has been treated for Marfan's or other cardiac conditions.
We have no idea of the present status of his prostate cancer or follow ups.
Kerry is a medical,psychological and military mystery.

[LibertarianInExile]

"Evidently, Massachusetts is a state with neither vision or imagination."

Well,

DUH!

8^)