Posted on 09/25/2004 8:29:30 PM PDT by FairOpinion
As the polls suggest John Kerry is losing ground against President Bush, he and his new campaign handlers (most of whom are re-treads from the Clinton presidency) have reportedly decided on a novel strategy: Staking out just one position on the war in Iraq. After months of embracing every position from damn-the-torpedoes and no-price-too-high-for-victory to parroting Howard Dean's wrong-war, wrong-place, wrong-time formulation, the emerging party line is, as senior Kerry advisor Richard Holbrooke's put it, "Iraq is worse than Vietnam."
In other words, the Democratic candidate has evidently decided to run against the conflict in Iraq by arguing it is even more screwed up than the last war that became hugely unpopular, Vietnam. He is betting (not unreasonably) that the situation on the ground there will get uglier in the next six weeks. His latest incarnation will position him to draw support from swing voters who decide, in the end, they would rather cut-and-run from the "worse than Vietnam" quagmire than stand and fight. And, evidently, John Kerry wants them to know that he is the man to do it — and with good reason.
To be sure, the man who "report[ed] for duty" at the Democratic Convention in Boston was determined to harken back to a different phase of his formative Vietnam experience. Then, it was all about medal-winning combat service and turning the boat into an attack. He and his surrogates insisted that his service as a Vietnam War hero better equipped him than President Bush to win the war on terror, including in Iraq.
In remarks on Monday, moreover, the Senator continued to hedge his bets a bit. He still talks euphemistically of "supporting the troops" and making "the right choices" in Iraq. And he blithely promises to "internationalize" the conflict, as though the key to doing so is not our success in restoring order and stability, but rather a new president's diplomatic savoir faire.
Still, the Democratic candidate now sounds eerily like that other Vietnam-era Kerry — the angry young man who, after leaving the theater, launched his public career less on having fought the war than his role in swiftly ending it. In New York on Monday, he declared: "Invading Iraq has created a crisis of historic proportions and, if we do not change course, there is the prospect of a war with no end in sight."
Of his earlier anti-war persona, Sen. Kerry has lately said he regrets causing pain to comrades by sweepingly accusing them of war crimes. To date, though, Sen. Kerry has expressed no remorse whatsoever for the cumulative effect of his testifying, demonstrating, medal-throwing, book-writing and other anti-war agitation: the United States' abandonment of the people of South Vietnam to brutal enslavement by their Communist enemies to the North. Not only is he unapologetic about his contributions to the cutting-and-running that produced that tragic result; now he appears to hope it will be the credential that will put him in the White House.
There is, of course, a profound difference between the Vietnam War that John Kerry helped the United States to lose and the ongoing conflict in Iraq. The United States could — and did — walk away from many of its friends and allies in Southeast Asia. The result was pretty awful for them, but of no grave strategic consequence for us.
It is the height of irresponsibility to think that a similar prospect awaits us if the United States once again follows John Kerry and abandons Iraq to its fate. Turning the Iraqi people over to the tender mercies of Saddam Hussein's loyalists, Saudi- or Iranian-backed Islamists and/or foreign fighters of other stripes will not simply ensure their country remains a festering sore in the Middle East. It will guarantee that we are subjected to a vastly intensified war wrought by emboldened terrorist enemies with global reach.
Senator Kerry has accused President Bush of getting everything wrong about the war with Iraq. More objective observers and even Mr. Bush's admirers can discern aspects of the conflict with which to find fault. And yet, on the single most important decision — whether or not to go to war in the first place — the President made a tough call, one with which Mr. Kerry at the time (and for years before) ostensibly agreed.
The United States and the world could not safely allow Saddam Hussein to wriggle out of sanctions, secure fresh infusions of funds from around the world, end the no-fly zones, expand his sponsorship of terror, return to his ambitions to have and to wield weapons of mass destruction and, quite possibly, act on his stated desire for revenge against America for Operation Desert Storm.
Given the diplomatic trends at the time — notably, the insistence of France, Germany, Russia and China (the countries Senator Kerry implies he will be able to get more help from on Iraq) that Saddam be let out of his "box" — the only way to prevent such a dangerous outcome was to act preemptively, together with such allies as would join us. It took vision and guts for President Bush to do so. It will take nothing less to make sure the resulting liberation of Iraq comes out right.
While Senator Kerry would have us believe otherwise, it does not take particular vision or guts to respond when the going gets rough to the popular sentiment to cut and run. It did not during Vietnam. It will not now. God help us if we fall prey once again to the "leadership" of someone who made that mistake before and who would have us make an infinitely bigger one now.
But do we really need a President who is going to cut and run, instead of fight the terrorists? I think any rational American will see that trying to run away from terrorists is NOT the answer.
But, there are a whole lot of Americans who are not rational...
Ah, yes. Where would Dims be, without longing for some sort of misery upon which to capitalize?
Let's hope there are more who do have at least some sense.
But I agree with you -- that's why Kerry is polling as well as he is.
If most people were rational, Kerry could barely get teresa's vote, certainly couldn't get anyone else's.
Ah, yes! Kerry is reaching out for his last chance...the cowards vote.
Anyone see Beltway Boys tonight? They have Bush at 313 EV's. This includes FL, WI, and IA. I'm not sure what other Gore stats they think will go to Bush this time. There must be several since GWB's 278 from last time, plus 17 from IA and WI, do not equal 313. I can't find an electoral map on the Fox/Beltway Boys page. Anyone know what other states they think Bush will take?
It really is sad. I had an email group with some friends, half conservative and half lib. We had some great heated debates, but their arguments always boiled down to "I heard" or "I feel" or things to that effect. Never any real arguments or convictions. The last lib dropped out last week, none of the conservatives ever left. They just can't take it , because deep down on some level, they know that they are just plain wrong.
I don't know where is the EV map the Beltway Boy's are using, but here is another one:
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
and
http://www.electionprojection.com/
I have no doubt in my mind that the Dims are going to gin up another fake fiasco, as they did in 2000.
What's going on?
That's why Bush needs to win decisively, with decisive margins, to pre-empt any of the Dems recount efforts.
It is critical that ALL Bush voters actually get out and VOTE, instead of think, that they don't need to, because he will win without their votes.
In this day and age, where people can easily vote absentee, there is no excuse for not voting.
I think on one hand Dems trying to -energize their base, so they don't stay home, and on the other hand, the Republicans don't want to get overconfident too early, and have their voters stay home, figuring that Bush doesn't need their vote.
TURNOUT will be critical.
I would also like to add that protest-voting for Johnny Nobody because W does not think 100% like they do is no good either.
I would not be surprised if Soros was supplying guns and money to the terrorists.
**Where would Dims be, without longing for some sort of misery upon which to capitalize?**
They are already propagating the rumor that Bush caused the hurricanes - global warming. Talk about desperate!
The really Only Stand John Kerry has made on anything , so far...is he will raise your taxes.
Sure, Bush created the hurricanes to keep Kerry from campaigning in Florida. ;)
Dowd, the NYTimes, WashPost, Hollywood, and the leading Oozers are spending more time in hazy, weed induced flashbacks of their salad days in the ‘60s and ‘70s than dealing with reality as it currently exists. They hear each other's fevered praise, and see the social-climbing snufflers around them echoing their tripe and imagine they once again are in the forefront of a “movement”. It probably is; more likely alimentary than political.
The herd of sheep they used to lead is not so stupid as to ignore the guys with hammers they've seen coming for them, and the Judas Goats haven't noticed the lack of hoof beats behind them. Imagine their surprise if they found out that if the butchers can't get sheep, they'll gladly take goats.
They probably won't, the butchers have a little Wolf problem of their own to deal with. And wasn't that the growl of an angry Bear I just heard? /literary illusions off
GWB is going to win. Maybe big. Maybe Real Big.
We'll see ...
We are literally going to be deciding whether to turn the country over to a bunch of psychopaths.
It's still a long way to 11/2, but the way it looks right now, the Dims would have to be contending for California chads to get the EVs they'll need to win.
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