Ross Mackenzie: Changing the Moniker: If Kerry's Name Were Teddy Kennedy – or George Bush

The Richmond [VA] Times-Dispatch ^ | October 17, 2004 | Ross Mackenzie

[quidnunc]

To an undiscerning and/or unsuspecting segment of the electorate, John Kerry emerged from the debates with his facade of moderation intact.

Partly that is a consequence of a practiced politician who shuns the liberal label the way a cat rejects a branding. And partly it is a consequence of protection by a mainline press broadly sympathetic to Kerry as "one of us."

To see the shamelessness of it all regarding the operative double standards applied to Kerry's statements, votes, and behavior, imagine if he went by another name.

If John Kerry's name were, for instance, Teddy Kennedy… .

Beyond Massachusetts, he would be dismissed as the Massachusetts leftie he truly is. Attention would be given to his unremitting votes for higher taxes and against crucial weapons systems. His lifetime voting record, marking him as the Senate's most liberal member (more liberal than Kennedy himself), would be seen as utterly in character.

His early-1970s lobbing of peacenik rhetorical bombs from the ramparts with Jane Fonda would have marked him as a siren of defeatism doing the work of the enemy.

The electorate would see the disconnect between Kerry deploring the absence of a "global test" prior to the current war in Iraq (which he voted for), and his vote against war in 1991 when precisely the "global test" he now demands had been easily passed.

When he was termed "unfit" to be Commander-in-Chief, the electorate would understand clearly how and why. And when his Senate colleague from Massachusetts was his principal campaign surrogate, the voters would not wonder at his brazenness in parading the liberalism he otherwise so diligently sought to conceal.

Indeed, if Kerry's name were Kennedy:

-snip-

[Gondring]

Ain't it the truth...

[Tolik]

A brilliant article by Ross Mackenzie exposing the media bias - they refuse to hold Kerry accountable and scrutinize him, and they are letting him get away with positions and blunders that no other politician was able to get away with lately.

This ping list is not author-specific for articles I'd like to share. Some for perfect moral clarity, some for provocative thoughts; or simply interesting articles I'd hate to miss myself. (I don't have to agree with the author 100% to feel the need to share an article.) I will try not to abuse the ping list and not to annoy you too much, but on some days there is more of good stuff that is worthy attention. I keep separate PING lists for my favorite authors Victor Davis Hanson, Lee Harris, David Warren, Orson Scott Card. You are welcome in or out, just freepmail me (and note which PING list you are talking about).

[spodefly]

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[lainde]

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