Posted on 07/29/2004 6:05:21 PM PDT by LibWhacker
'The embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round the world," declared Ted Kennedy in a moment of Revolutionary War nostalgia. Or he would have done, if he'd managed to stick to his text. But, in a strikingly erratic performance even by his standards, what actually emerged from the Senator's lips was: they "fired the shirt round the world".
That sums up better than anything what the Democratic Party's been trying to do this week for its Presidential candidate: fire the stuffed shirt round the world, put a rocket up a guy who seems weighed down by his own self-importance and project him into the stratosphere. All the star speakers through the week were the equivalents of those bits of the rocket that boost you up into space and then fall away, leaving just the little capsule up there. And, who knows, if they boosted him up high enough, maybe nobody would notice just how little there is to John Kerry's little capsule.
What was the message of John Kerry's Democratic Party this week? According to vice-presidential pin-up John Edwards, they want to bring an end to "the tired, old, hateful, negative politics of the past". That was bad news for rank-and-file Democrats, but the party bosses meant it.
That's why you weren't allowed to wear your BUCK FUSH T-shirt up at the podium. The trick for those on stage was to imply Bush was a liar and a draft-dodger and a war criminal but not to claim outright that he was the new Hitler and enjoyed drinking the blood of Iraqi babies.
In the normal course of events, you avoid saying unpleasant stuff about the other guy by saying nice things about your guy. But, aside from a few by now over-familiar references to his four months in Vietnam, nobody seemed to know anything nice about John Kerry.
Including his wife, who steered well clear of anything warm and personal and instead gave one of those speeches only the truly mega-loaded can give - when you've been rolling in it so long nobody's able to tell you you're a flaky windbag no matter how long you go on or nutty you get. Floundering for a cause with which to rally the citizenry, the Democrats eventually found one: themselves.
"Our greatness is also measured by our goodness," declared Howard Dean.
"I've seen it in the people I've met and their desire to take our country back for the American people. I saw it in a college student in Pennsylvania who sold her bicycle and sent us a cheque for $100 with a note that said, 'I sold my bicycle for democracy'."
Really? John F Kerry's bicycle cost $8,000. Why doesn't he sell his for democracy? If you throw in the designer French T-shirt buttock-hugging lemon-hued lycra shorts, you'd probably be up around an even 10 grand. When Howard Dean and John Kerry and John Edwards talk about "change", what they mean is you send these bazillionaire grandees the 100-dollar bill and they'll keep the change.
What did that co-ed cutie get for her 100 bucks? Presumably she sent it to Governor Dean because he was anti-war. He lost to Senator Kerry, who at that time was for-and-against the war, in the same way that he's for-and-against abortion and for-and-against gay marriage. But he seems to have come down, Iraq-wise, on the "for" side of the ledger.
He'll be spending a little more time ineffectually chit-chatting with Kofi and Jacques and Gerhard, but other than that his Iraq policy is sounding more like Bush's every day. That college kid ponied up her $100 and isn't getting a lot of "change".
There's a narcissism about the tone of this convention which cuts to the heart of the Democratic Party's problem: they don't believe in anything except their monopoly of goodness.
That's why poor boy-turned-trial lawyer John Edwards's supposedly "appealing biography" is appealing only next to John Kerry's. Instead of marrying his money, he sued his way into it.
But his message doesn't resonate because it boils down to: if I can do it, you can't. But here's some government programmes instead. Edwards's very condescension to the downtrodden masses confirms middle-class liberals in their sense of their own virtue.
That's the essence of this convention: a condescending media congratulating a condescending leadership for effectively communicating to a condescending governing class their plans for everyone else. John F Kerry should enjoy it while he can. Electorally speaking, he'll lose his shirt.
Ted Kennedy -- Senator
John Kerry -- Senator
That's why they call their state -- Massatwoshits..
Semper Fi
Didn't he have to resign from the Senate to run for the Presidency? If not, why not?
Mark Steyn came to my mind as well. This article was very good and had some good zingers in it, but it's hard to beat Steyn.
I imagine Massachusetts state law doesn't require it. LBJ ran for VP in '60, and kept his Senate job just in case. There have been several others.
I can't remember ever reading anything by him. I'll keep an eye out for him from now on, that's for sure! Alec Russell. Wow, a smart Alec! :-)
Lieberman ran concurrently for the Senate and vice president in 2000. Frist should tell these two (Kerry and Edwards) to resign their seats but he won't. In Mass, they are trying to change the law so that the governor, Republican Mitt Romney, would not be allowed to appoint Kerry's replacement should he win.
Dontcha love how when the President stumbles over the occasional word, he's (according to some of the leftists) too stupid to hold his office; yet when Kennedy commits more egregious abuses of the English language, no one seems to care? :)
They don't believe in anything except their monopoly of goodness.
That's it. That's the line that sums up the democrats of today. Chisel it in stone, somebody. When your believe you own the copyright on goodness, any misbehavior on your part is purely incidental. What the hell! You're trying to save the world! Adultery, bribe-taking, abuse of power, etc. should be overlooked.
That's because there is nothing nice to know
It's so simple.
It's a little late. She was such when John Heinz III was around. But, by herself, and she is by herself now, she lacks what she would be in a support role for. She speaks well but that type of delivery would be more appropriate in a university setting.
ATTN: USA TODAY....
This is whom you should have signed for a convention column instead of Ann Coulter. He nails it like only a limey can.
Great column.
bookmark bump
"If Ted Kennedy had been around during the Revolutionary War, he would have been at Benedict Arnold's side, betraying his brethren to the hated Redcoats. Probably would have been overjoyed at being given the honor of licking the boots of General Cornwallis," sneered FierceDraka in a moment of Revolutionary War speculation.
PING
It sounds like Steyn because it is Steyn. I don’t know who Alec Russell is, but when I follow the link the Telegraph has this story bylined Mark Steyn. Not bustin' on LW here. Just keepin' folks informed.
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