A Charlatan? (Thomas Sowell on John F. Kerry)

Townhall.com ^ | November 1, 2004 | Thomas Sowell

[The Great Yazoo]

Kerry's campaign and record look "an awful lot like what a charlatan and a fraud would do."

How can a man with Kerry's readily apparent effete elitism, record of non-achievement in the Senate, and questionable (at best) war record, garner more than 20 percent of the American people's vote? I fear for our country absent an overwhelming landslide for the President.

[martin_fierro]

Senator Kerry's spinmeisters turned any criticism of his many votes to cut military spending and cut spending on the intelligence agencies into "an attack on his patriotism" -- for which critics should be ashamed, they said, since he was a combat hero wounded in Vietnam.

And it went from there to not being able to challenge Kerry on anything, including his lackluster Senate record.

[FormerACLUmember]

Kerry is a major charlatan, true enough. He is an absolute menace to this nation.

But what does this say about the USA that just shy of 50% of the population will vote for this lunatic?

MY opinion? The MSM still is extremely powerful in lying and distorting, powerful enough to repackage a steaming mess of of month-old fish and feces, and convince enough brain-dead Americans they are buying sirloin steak.

[The Great Yazoo]

One would hope this election cycle will trigger some soul-searching among the MSM. But don't expect it.

[The Great Yazoo]

a steaming mess of of month-old fish and feces

I love it!

[swilhelm73]

Mr. Sowell says it about as well as it can be said in this article.

[FormerACLUmember]

"Why do penumbras not emanate from the Tenth Amendment as promiscuously as they do from the First?"

Correct my ignorance. I forget what the 10th Amendment is.

[swilhelm73]

MY opinion? The MSM still is extremely powerful in lying and distorting, powerful enough to repackage a steaming mess of of month-old fish and feces, and convince enough brain-dead Americans they are buying sirloin steak.

I think what we are seeing in this election is the end of one of the MSM's two primary weapons, and the use of the other to the hilt.

Specifically, the MSM's ability to falsely scandal monger a politician to death is gone. As we saw with Rathergate, the MSM can demand all it wants that Bush respond to false charges. The public isn't going to buy it.

However, the press still has the ability to shield Kerry from his record. People won't believe Rather's insipid claims about Bush, but they also won't believe something they see, if they do see it at all, solely on the internet talking about Kerry's war record or treasonous post war activities.

The sentiment seems to be, "Well, if this was true it would be on the news and in the papers."

[The Great Yazoo]

Powers not ennumerated are reserved to the states or to the people. My question isn't so much focused on the Tenth Amendment as it is that the judges find penumbras wildly emanating from the First Amendment, but not so much from the others. It would seem logical that if penumbras emanate from the First Amendment, they ought to emanate at roughly the same rate from other amendments (the Second, for instance). If I have a right of privacy courtesy of a penumbra emanating from the First Amendment, why aren't there rights respecting freedoms of all sorts to possess weapons of all sorts emanating from the Second? For that matter, if I have a constitutional right of privacy, why must I tell the IRS how much money I make or how much property I have when I die.

If, on the other hand, the judges just made up the concept of emanating penumbras, I'd have to report to the IRS, the government could limit weapon ownership, and penumbras would emanate only from those sources the judges wanted them to.

[FormerACLUmember]

However, the press still has the ability to shield Kerry from his record. People won't believe Rather's insipid claims about Bush, but they also won't believe something they see, if they do see it at all, solely on the internet talking about Kerry's war record or treasonous post war activities.

You make excellent points.

The sad reality is that the Internet and (to a lesser degree) Fox News are part of a tiny group of honest news reporting in this nation. And these still reach only a small fraction of people who watch/read the news.

The rest of the media seems to distort, deceive, and (as you point out) completely shield corrupt politicians like Kerry and Edwards from their records.

[FormerACLUmember]

Thanks!

[The Great Yazoo]

Whether it's the Internet, the MSM, or any other source, it makes good sense to be skeptical. Blind reliance on any source of news and information is unwise. That has probably always been the case, but it is more true today than before. At least now there are means to cross check almost any claim.

[FormerACLUmember]

The Internet allows multiple sources of the news. See-BS and the NY Slimes have big Internet presences, but there is plenty of pajama blogs to carefully dissect their lies.

[Luke21]

You have said it all. The media is incredibly powerful. They spawned and feted this candidate and carried his water at every opportunity. They can tell one half the country the most brazen lie and have it believed. Repetition, and their ruthless technique of unity of message, which puts it everywhere uniformly is the main propaganda technique. They take up all the figurative air in the communications room..They are still as dangerous as a pit full of rattlesnakes and their power isn't receding in the least. If it was, Dan Rather would be out and apologies would be made for their many brazen attempts to lie and influence the election for Kerry.

We now have an impact on their power because of blogs, talk radio, and this site, but don't let our small amount of influence fool you. The leftist media remains the most dangerous and subversive force in this country. They have unity of voice, a shrill, loud, communist voice.

[driftless]

I asked that same question. In a world governed by reality, facts, and sanity, Kerry shouldn't get more than the far-left nut vote and a few Dem kool-aid drinkers. But the fact that he has a chance shows how far this country has swung to the left and how ignorant we've become. The sad fact is that there is far more ignorati than there are intelligent adults. We just have to hope that most of the ignorati can't find their way to the polls...or know how to operate the voting machine.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution reads as follows:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Consitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

This was an amendment that was supposed to limit the power of the federal government by saying, in effect, it is the federal government which is to have LIMITED power, not the states or the people.

Wicked men, with the help of tyrant judges, have turned this on its head. They have made the federal government a MONSTER fulfilling the fears of our nations founders.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

nations = nation's

[FormerACLUmember]

They take up all the figurative air in the communications room.They are still as dangerous as a pit full of rattlesnakes... We now have an impact on their power because of blogs, talk radio, and this site, but don't let our small amount of influence fool you. The leftist media remains the most dangerous and subversive force in this country.

You nailed it perfectly.

[FormerACLUmember]

Thanks.

[ThirstyMan]

On the very day when Gardner was saying this, Senator Kerry was saying that none of the members of his crew was among the critics denouncing him. No one in the mainstream media even questioned Kerry about the obvious falseness of that statement.

That about sums up the press' role in this campaign, cheerleader for Kerry. The MSM has turned into "Whores for Kerry" and I can't figure out what we should do about it. If they declared themselves as 527's that'd be accurate since their bias is undeniable, by any standard.

The "free press" is now owned by a handful of rabid ideologues with particular agendas they feel are right for America. We need gay rights, gay marriage, hate crimes (as opposed to love crimes?) stem cell research, abortion on demand, environmental extremism, a legislating judicial branch and cowardice in world leadership. Now I see that CBS and the NYT are collaborating on their partisan attacks on Bush and shameless promotion of Kerry.

We have entered the all spin zone and it sucks!