The two Johns

TownHall.com ^ | Friday, July 16, 2004 | Helle Dale

[JohnHuang2]

For all the firepower the Democratic candidates directed at President Bush for the war in Iraq during the primary campaign, you would think that the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign would be just brimming with foreign-policy prescriptions. You would especially think so at a time when the United States is engaged militarily in two theaters, Afghanistan and Iraq. And of course in a war against terror that reaches into the American homeland.

But if you expected a lot of specifics from "the two Johns," you would be wrong. The foreign-policy recommendations that have come out of the campaigns of the two senators have been skimpy and sometimes in contrast to the candidates' well-documented voting records in the Senate.

Now, this shortcoming may not be so strange in the case of Mr. Edwards, who after all is a one-term senator and who previously made his living as a malpractice lawyer. It should be considered significant, though. The criticism implied in President Bush's comment that "Dick Cheney can be president" is certainly not beyond the bounds of debate as it regards Mr. Edwards' experience and qualifications. In fact, Mr. Kerry thought so himself, stating during the Democratic primaries that the presidency is not a place for "on-the-job training."

In the case of candidate John Kerry, we should be able to form a picture. Mr. Kerry likes to cite his Vietnam military service (controversial though his later activism is with many voters). He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, and he sits on the Committee on Foreign Relations. In Mr. Kerry's case, the difficulty is abounding inconsistency.