George Will: Some Questions For J.F. Kerry

The Sacramento Bee ^ | August 5, 2004 - 2:15am | George F. Will

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Thorazine just kicked in...

WASHINGTON — Mr. Kerry, in your convention speech you threw caution to the wind and endorsed what you called "one of the oldest Commandments: 'Honor thy father and thy mother'." Oldest? Were they not all published together? Here are some other questions:

You invoke the Commandment to explain why you "will not cut" Social Security benefits. Does that include raising the retirement age, which Congress set at 65 in 1935, when the life expectancy of an American male was 62?

Regarding military action, your platform says "we will never wait for a green light from abroad when our safety is at stake." But the platform's preceding paragraph denounces President Bush's "doctrine of unilateral pre-emption." If unilateralism is wrong, are you not committed to some sort of "green light from abroad"?

Are you glad that in 1981 Israel set back Iraq's nuclear weapons program with a unilateral pre-emptive attack on the reactor near Baghdad?

[O.C. - Old Cracker]

Just when I had written off ol' Georgey Boy as another milquetoast conservative, he comes out with something like this and redeems himself.

[nuffsenuff]

Awesome piece.

Too bad most liberals are too blinded by love to realize Kerry can't answer these questions to ANYONE'S satisfaction. So they, the liberals, won't ask.

[dirtboy]

Throwing caution to the wind, your platform insists that "small towns are at the heart of America." Your sense of America's small-town heartbeat comes from where — Sun Valley?

That one's gonna leave a mark...

[goldstategop]

A list of very specific questions John F*ckin' won't answer. A specific answer would destroy him since he has built of a career on trying to offend as few people as possible. And he's not about to become a profile in courage in an election year.

[InterceptPoint]

Just when I had written off ol' Georgey Boy as another milquetoast conservative, he comes out with something like this and redeems himself.

Nope.

Too little and Way Too Late. Freepers don't like Flip-Floppers. George Will has given us every indication that he is a loyal Disney/ABC employee without a backbone or a guiding philosophy.

I declare George Will written off for good. I don't read his stuff anynore or pay any attention to what his views are. You will learn nothing from listening to this guy except, perhaps, the direction of the wind.

[new cruelty]

BTTT

[over3Owithabrain]

Agreed - Will is just trying to maintain some conservative cred so he can keep being ABCs token. He pretty much endorsed Kerry a couple of weeks ago, this screed is just to show he is "balanced". Sorry George, go find a baseball game to write about.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

I like George Will and have not written him off. As you speak for all Freepers apparently, how am I to handle this?

As you know, diverse and disagreeable ideas are not tolerated on the left. Do you find that model the example that the right should follow? If so, where is your kool-aid line so I can drink, and can you add me to your talking points every morning so I do not deviate from them.

[MinuteGal]

I also wrote Will off years ago. He keeps his rear end covered with Krazy Glue so that a more dynamic, effective conservative won't usurp his seat on the TV panel.

God knows we need more conservative professors. George should hook up with a university so he can teach basic principles and correct history to young skulls full of mush. I'm sure he'd be tolerant of any snoozing or snoring in his classroom.

Leni

[InterceptPoint]

I like George Will and have not written him off. As you speak for all Freepers apparently, how am I to handle this?

That's fine. And I don't speak for all Freepers vis a vis George Will. I simply stated that Freepers don't like Flip Floppers.

The problem with George Will is that he wants to be viewed as a conservative and, at the same time, to be loved by his media compatriots at ABC. This is just a non-starter for me. If I want to read Liberal-Think I go straigt to Chomsky or Michael Moore. At least they are consistent in their wrong-headed views and you can get a sense of the current Liberal Party Line by reading them. With George Will these days it just depends on which side of the bed he got up from. Or a coin flip. There is just no consistency in his viewpoint and therefore I conclude there is no guiding philosophy. Or no backbone.

[NonValueAdded]

Kerry will simply disavow the platform just as he disavows, Sandy Burglar, How-weird Dean, his speechwriters, his first wife (for better or worse), his Country (1971) ...

[Akira]

He pretty much endorsed Kerry a couple of weeks ago

Where? There is a snowball's chance in hell that he will endorse Kerry. Is it his occasional critique of the Bush administration that leads you to say this?

[over3Owithabrain]

Where? There is a snowball's chance in hell that he will endorse Kerry. Is it his occasional critique of the Bush administration that leads you to say this?

It was discussed at length here recentlky - do a search, I don't have the specifics in front of me. Will was saying on the Stephie Show there is no real difference between Bush/Kerry, and even implied that Kerry might be more conservative in many ways. You tell me what that means.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Have you read the transcript? At the convention, Kerry did sound more hawkish than Bush on Terrorism saying he would do "more" to fight terror. He said he was for tax cuts, a stronger military, and built up intelligence. He said he would not wait for an international green light to defend America. In fact, Kerry sounded very much like Bush if you just listened to his convention speech.

Now those facts don't mean that there is no difference, but it makes it sound as if there is no difference.

Maybe that is what it means. The lack of reading, or listening, comprehension is not the sole property of liberals.

[Akira]

Fair enough. But I am sure much of that is Will's understandable frustration with Bush's big government/entitlement policies, which I have heard him often express. George Will remains considerable to the right of Bush, and way to the right of Kerry.

[over3Owithabrain]

Have you read the transcript? At the convention, Kerry did sound more hawkish than Bush on Terrorism saying he would do "more" to fight terror. He said he was for tax cuts, a stronger military, and built up intelligence. He said he would not wait for an international green light to defend America. In fact, Kerry sounded very much like Bush if you just listened to his convention speech. Now those facts don't mean that there is no difference, but it makes it sound as if there is no difference. Maybe that is what it means. The lack of reading, or listening, comprehension is not the sole property of liberals.

I would expect someone in Will's position to not confuse the Kerry rhetoric with the Kerry record.

[BunnySlippers]

Good points.

[loveliberty2]

This is excellent and the kind of intense questioning that individuals should be making of Kerry and Edwards.

Will asks Kerry the following tough questions:

"The Clinton years were, you say, glorious because "we were not at war and young Americans were not deployed." Did not the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, followed by the attacks on the Khobar Towers, the USS Cole and the East African embassies mean we were at war but were uncomprehending? Have not scores of thousands of young Americans been deployed, ashore and on ships, since 1942?

"You supported humanitarian military interventions in Somalia, the Balkans and Haiti. Would you intervene militarily to stop the accelerating genocide in Sudan?

"You say, "I stood up and fought against Richard Nixon's war in Vietnam." NIXON's war? Did it start after John Kennedy put U.S. combat troops there, and after Lyndon Johnson increased the number to 500,000?

"The easily distressed abortion rights groups were distressed when you said that your faith teaches you what elementary biology teaches everyone: life begins at conception. But you say personhood does not. Fine. When does it? What are its defining attributes? Does, say, an elderly person with dementia have it, and hence a right to life?

"You oppose, on federalism grounds, a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. You say marriage law is traditionally a state responsibility. But so was abortion law for the Republic's first 197 years, until 1973. What is the difference?

"When the Pope said Catholic legislators have a duty to oppose gay marriage, you said he had "crossed the line" because "it is important not to have the Church instructing politicians." Have you felt that way even when the Church has instructed politicians take liberal positions regarding economic justice, race and other matters?"

This is the kind of challenging of Kerry/Edwards positions which must be undertaken to expose their shallow rhetoric, which is based on deception.

[Question_Assumptions]

The questiont that must get asked of Kerry in the debates is, "Do you believe that the Constitution guarantees an individual right to own guns?" No matter how he answers that, he loses. If he says, "Yes," then he loses his anti-gun base. If he says, "No," then he will lose all of those swing states like WV, PA, and Ohio that he needs.

[Intolerant in NJ]

You invoke the Commandment to explain why you "will not cut" Social Security benefits...all these 'rats like Kerry pontificating about how they're fighting to save Social Security still haven't explained why they voted to almost double the income tax levied on SS a few years back - they are not the friends of the elderly......