Mark Steyn: Wallowing in nuance, Dems lack resolve

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | April 25 2004 | Mark Steyn

[MEG33]

I agree..

[maica]

If I had to name the definitive Kerry campaign headline it would be this, from Britain's (left-wing, Kerry-backing) Guardian last week: ''Kerry Says His 'Family' Owns SUV, Not He.'' That Chevy Suburban in the yard has nothing to do with him. Who you gonna believe? A respected senator or your lying eyes?

His statement is true in the sense that his ''family'' (i.e., Teresa) also owns the house and the grounds, and indeed a big chunk of his presidential campaign.

But it's hard to claim that your powers of diplomatic persuasion would have won over the French and Germans when you can't even win over your ''family.'' And do Americans want to hand over responsibility for Iraq to someone who won't even take responsibility for the car in his driveway?

PING!

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thus, the president's numbers aren't affected by the sob sisters of CNN's Baghdad bureau filing their heartrending reports on how thousands of Baathist apparatchiks haven't been paid since they were made redundant from Saddam's Department of Genital Mutilation and Electrode Clamping last April.

LOL, I would say they are affected, but not as much as they would want to.

[Victoria Delsoul]

And do Americans want to hand over responsibility for Iraq to someone who won't even take responsibility for the car in his driveway?

Someone will jump on this as a tagline, as well they should.

LOL, well, I just made a new tagline, hehehe.

[Beckwith]

Yo, Travis,

In my family and most whole families the man is the the symbolic and actual head of the family. Therefore, if the vehicle belongs to "my family", then it belongs to me.

This statement by John Kerry only validates the fact that someone other than John Kerry is the "head of the family".

Remember the "Golden Rule", she who hath the money, rule.

I don't want a whipped man running the United States of America.

[Neophyte]

The left is foundering because they don't understand how most of the American people think.

That's true. Unfortunately, the most of that other, softer 50 per cent of Americans leaning to the left don't think at all.

[Aeronaut]

LOL, well, I just made a new tagline, hehehe.

I like it. ;-)

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks. :-D

[Helms]

If Rush has talent on loan from G-d, Steyn has a 99-year lease on his. Magnificent!"

Ditto that. He and Rush compliment each other. Part of the Attack Machine No Doubt. Young ad so bright.

[jokar]

Thanks knighthawk,
you are our overseas watchman on the wall.

[Kay]

This is so good. How come I can't think like this when contronted with all the inane news media? Thanks for the post!

[mrustow]

If Rush has talent on loan from G-d, Steyn has a 99-year lease on his.

Magnificent!

Ditto, if you'll pardon the pun.

If I had read this column knowing who wrote it, I'd say that the author is a great American. And so he is spirit, if not in fact. Even without getting into his moral clarity and courage (though they are central to the other issues), Steyn is like a soldier who has picked up his much larger, heavier buddy, and carried the badly wounded man on his back across the battlefield, amidst exploding mortars and screaming shells to safety.

That wounded buddy is the English language.

[Lurking in Kansas]

He is always brilliant.

DITTO!

But it's hard to claim that your powers of diplomatic persuasion would have won over the French and Germans when you can't even win over your ''family.'' And do Americans want to hand over responsibility for Iraq to someone who won't even take responsibility for the car in his driveway?

Brillant, Steyn bump!

[knighthawk]

At your service!

[knighthawk]

Forgot to include you all, so thanks all!

[alnick]

Killer closing: "And do Americans want to hand over responsibility for Iraq to someone who won't even take responsibility for the car in his driveway?"

[irv]

It's a good rule of thumb that so-called moderate opinion is several degrees to the left of popular opinion.

For much of the media "moderate" opinion, is slightly to the right of their own. Thus, they may actually believe it is moderate. Sad, isn't it?

[arasina]

I have to disagree with you on one point out of a well-written post: The majority of Republicans would support the Hildebeast in continuing the effort against the war on terror if she were (ack! Heaven help us!) to be elected POTUS. Most are at least principled enough to do what's right in something that important. Just my opinion.

As to Steyn's brilliance, I loved this: The 9/11 Commission? Nobody cares. You can't drive the car when you're staring in the rear-view mirror. And, as those polls showed, if Americans are forcibly plonked in front of that rear-view mirror, they lay more blame on eight years of Clinton administration policy than eight months of Bush administration policy.

[Common Tator]

The majority of Republicans would support the Hildebeast in continuing the effort against the war on terror if she were (ack! Heaven help us!) to be elected POTUS

I did not mean to say what a majority of Republican citizens would do. I meant to say what the members of Congress would do. I doubt seriously that a majority of Democrats would support staying the course. And I doubt that Republicans would buck public opionion to stay.

With the way Daschle has used politics to subvert the public good for partisan reasons, it is very unlikely that the Republicans in the house and senate would do anything to help Hillary govern. She would have to look to Democrats for support. As I said in my last post, the Demorats in congress have burnt the bipartisan bridges behind them. They would get little or no support from elected Republicans.

Every republican on capital hill knows that if they supported Hillary and it went wrong, she and the media would blame them.

Few democrats and evern fewer republicans would but their career in jeapoardy for Hillary. She would have to resign first.

[Ruth A.]

Such a brilliant summation. Bump, bump, bump.