Posted on 04/23/2004 12:18:33 PM PDT by Jacob Kell
The most recent polls produced by CNN-Gallup and ABC-Washington Post had the pundits scratching their heads. How could President Bush be opening his biggest lead on Sen. John Kerry when his primetime press conference had been in their eyes "a dismal failure," and the issues in Iraq had raged on?
We voters were told Bush had "bumbled his way across our TV screens." We were told Iraq had become "a bogged down disaster." Michael Moore even wrote on his website that the contractors doing the rebuilding in Iraq were "mercenaries," and the terrorist insurgents killing our kids weren't terrorists, but "The REVOLUTION," "that their numbers were growing" and that "they would win."
So what gives?
My observation is simple: As the American people are getting to know John Kerry, they just don't like him. And as Kerry who Peggy Noonan referred to this week "a sad, hollow tree" runs headlong through his campaign schedule, I believe he hits on all the wrong buttons. The American people aren't stupid, yet we feel John Kerry treats us as though we are.
Some examples ...
Early on in his campaign, John Kerry granted an interview to Rolling Stone magazine. Using the "F" word with all the grace and dignity the American listener can stomach, Kerry repeatedly cursed the very policy of holding Iraq accountable that he had voted for. This flip-floppery continues to this day as is so well captured by Bush campaign commercials.
But the nation was patient and generous. Perhaps after we got to see his "softer side," we would be able to like him personally.
Then he went on his ski vacation and so memorably cursed out the Secret Service agent who was there to take a bullet on his behalf. The reason? Simply because the senator ran into him and got a bit of snow on himself. OK ... scratch personal likeability off the list.
This was followed by his invention of a group of international leaders who looked him in the imaginary eye and told him in his imaginary ear that he "must win this thing." An easily provable false claim that he continues to repeat even as recently as this past Sunday.
But add to that list the fact he told members of a labor union (when he believed his microphone to be off) that this administration was the biggest bunch of crooks and liars he'd ever seen.
Sen. Kerry the "sad, hollow tree" of honesty also questioned President Bush's well documented time in the National Guard and demanded the 30-year-old service records of the president be made public. However, when he was asked if his service records would be madepublic, first he claimed they already were, and now his campaign says that only portions of them can be released.
But this last week on NBC's "Meet the Press" might have taken the cake for why people don't care for John Kerry. He's arrogant.
Tim Russert pulled out a video clip of John Kerry admitting he had committed atrocities in Vietnam. He claimed in the clip he had burned villages to the ground, conducted search and destroy missions, and using his 50-caliber machine gun killed innocents in the process.
It astounds me that someone who can even admit doing such things can make a serious run for president. Though Kerry says in the clip that "thousands of other Vietnam veterans did the same exact things." (Thousands committed atrocities?)
The answer to Tim Russert's question should have given insight into a serious and reflective and compassionate man. Russert asked, "YOU ... committed atrocities?"
Kerry's response was a knee-slapping joke, "Where did all of that dark hair go, Tim, that's the important question for me ... (laughter trails off)." With behavior like this, it's easy to understand why people might see Kerry as more arrogant than President Bush.
And according to this week's ABC News-Washington Post poll, they do.
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Im glad I didn't see this, i think my TV would have suffered the most...next to my bloodied and glass ridden fist.
Hold on: this isn't exactly correct, is it? IIRC, it was McAuliffe that questioned Bush's record, not Kerry.
Kerry's response was a knee-slapping joke, "Where did all of that dark hair go, Tim, that's the important question for me ... (laughter trails off)."
wow
It astounds me that someone who can even admit doing such things can make a serious run for president. Though Kerry says in the clip that "thousands of other Vietnam veterans did the same exact things." (Thousands committed atrocities?)
The answer to Tim Russert's question should have given insight into a serious and reflective and compassionate man. Russert asked, "YOU ... committed atrocities?"
Kerry's response was a knee-slapping joke, "Where did all of that dark hair go, Tim, that's the important question for me ... (laughter trails off)." With behavior like this, it's easy to understand why people might see Kerry as more arrogant than President Bush.
Is this true?? Did our hero really respond to the question this way? Unbelievable!
Will he really be chosen as Dem candidate?
Please don't do this.
PLEASE tell me this is not real. My God...joking about his hair color instead of answering a very serious question about VERY serious allegations (that he made against HIMSELF)! I guess supposedly slaughtering unarmed women and children really isn't that important, is it? Hell, he probably did no such thing, and I'm even willing to bet he never saw such "atrocities"--his well-documented political ambitions probably kicked into high gear when he saw the power of the anti-war movement when he got back to the States.
This man would be laughable if he weren't such a danger to this country's survival.
McAwful started it, but Kerry picked up the theme.
I am thankful that I didn't see that. My feelings have got from disgust to hate to loathe. Six months is an awfully long time if I am at loathe already.
A debate is scheduled here (Phoenix) for the fall. Hopefully, between now and then another shark who does not offer professional courtesy takes a bite out of this clown. I, personally, don't want to spend a night in jail for tossing eggs and tomatoes at him.
Well, believe it. That's exactly what he did.
Incredibly, you'd think that even Russert (D-NBC) would have to follow up on that but he just seemed to blow it off as no biggie.
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