Posted on 11/01/2006 6:13:24 AM PST by Uncledave
Kerryism [Victor Davis Hanson]
Kerry surely must be one of the saddest Democratic liabilities around. Some afterthoughts about his latest gaffe, which is one of those rare glimpses into an entire troubled ideology:
(1) How could John Kerry, born into privilege, and then marrying and divorcing and marrying out of and back into greater inherited wealth, lecture anyone at a city college about the ingredients for success in America? If he were to give personal advice about making it, it would have to be to marry rich women. Nothing he has accomplished as a senator or candidate reveals either much natural intelligence or singular education. Today, Democrats must be wondering why they have embraced an overrated empty suit, and ostracized a real talent like Joe Lieberman.
(2) How could Kerry possibly claim that he was thinking of the uneducated in the context of George Bush, who, after all, went to Harvard and Yale?
(3) Some of the brightest and most educated Americans are not only in the military, but veterans of Iraq. Two of the best educated minds I have met-Col. Bill Hix and Lt. Col. Chris Gibson, both Hoover Security Fellows-were both Iraqi veterans. What is striking about visiting Iraq is the wealth of talent there, from privates to generals. Without being gratuitously cruel, the problem of mediocrity is not in the ranks of the military, but on our university campuses, where half-educated professors and non-serious students killing time are ubiquitous. Personally, I'd wager the intelligence of a Marine Corps private any day over the average D.C. journalist. Every naval officer I met at the USNA, without exception, seemed brighter than John Kerry, whose "brilliance", after all, has managed to offend millions of voters on the eve of a pivotal election. If the Democrats lose, it will be almost painful to watch the recriminations against Kerry fly.
(4) This is not the first, but third, time he has denigrated soldiers in the middle of a war-and there is a systematic theme: John Kerry's assumed superior morality allows him to pass judgment from on high about supposedly lesser folk who become tools of a suspect military: thus we go from limb-loppers and Genghis' hordes to terrorists to dead-beats. The only constant is that the haughtiness is always delivered in the same sanctimonious, self-righteous, and patronizing tone.
(5) The mea culpa that Democrats are blaming the war and not the warriors is laughable after Sens. Durbin, Kennedy, and Kerry have collectively compared American soldiers to Nazis, Pol Pot's killers, Stalinists, terrorists, and Baathists.
(6) The problem is that Kerry is not just a senator, but the most recent presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, and thus in some sense, especially given the diminution of Howard Dean, the megaphone of the entire party.
(7) His pathetic clarification, as he blamed everyone from Tony Snow to Rush Limbaugh, displayed the same Al Gore derangement syndrome, and thus raises a larger question: what is it about George Bush that seems to reduce once sober and experienced liberal pros to infantile ranting?
(8) And why is the supposedly lame Bush so careful in speech, and the self-acclaimed geniuses like a Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, or Howard Dean serially spouting ever more stupidities? For all the Democrats' criticism of George Bush, I can't think of a modern President who has so infrequently put his foot in his public mouth, and, by the same token, can't think of any opposition that on the eve of elections seems to have an almost pathological death wish.
The Democrats should use this occasion to have an autopsy of Kerryism, or this strange new tony liberalism, that has turned noblisse oblige on its head. It used to be that millionaire FDRs and JFKs felt sympathy for those of the lower classes and wished to ensure that the hoi polloi had some shot at the American dream. But today's elite liberals-a Howard Dean, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, George Soros, Ted Turner-love the high life and playact at being leftists simply because they are already insulated from the effects of their own nostrums that always come at someone poorer's expense while providing them some sort of psychological relief from guilt. Poor Harry Truman must be turning over in his grave-from bourbon, cigars, and poker to wind-surfing and L.L. Bean costume of the day says it all. Posted at 8:35 AM
It has been desirable for a politician of populist aspirations to be seen as a "man of the people" since Pericles and probably before. But only fairly recently has that been expanded to "man of the kids" in addition. The difficulty is that there is an inherent loss of dignity in attempting to do so - the kids sense it and so do the adults. There's nothing sadder than an aging rocker hanging on to hip long after hip has discarded him, examples of which abound. Real dignity is respected; assumed dignity makes one look like a stuffed shirt and is just as pathetic.
The middle course isn't hard to find, but in order to find it you have to stop wanting to be a kid. Kerry in particular has never ceased to wish to be that long-haired rebel that got the coeds gushing over him in the 70's and launched his political career. That's a problem a lot of men and women of my generation seem to have. Let it go. Give it up. Arrested adolescence is hell. IMHO.
"He DID go to Iraq at some point. "
I stand corrected.
Apparently twice in 2005 and again in January 2006.
Not to mention that he admitted on 9/11 after the first plane hit the WTC, he and some other senators sat and couldn't think - for 40 minutes. Truly a leader to be reckoned with.
They all will. The evil republicans made him say it dog gonnit!
If you watched Tony Snow's presser this morning - the entire WH press corpse was either insisting the joke was obvious or asking why GWB had not demanded that Rush apologize to Michael Fox and that the VP apologize for citing a different weekly intel brief than the one they liked.
That is all they have....
Kerry surely must be one of the saddest Democratic liabilities around.
I couldn't have said it better.
Narcissistic, arrogant snobs can't hide who they really are. Hence, the vomit out of Kerry's mouth yesterday.
Kerry stepped on his own weenie with this one. :^D
Let us pray........
Please God, keep Kerry's foot in his mouth so that others may see his "true" self.
Amen
Nana
Well said.
For all we know John Kerry probably helped a few of those veterans to get into that photo.
It might be the correct thing for Harold Ford to do, but make no mistake, he wouldn't be doing it if he weren't falling behind Corker in the Polls.
Believe me, that (expletive deleted) did NOT make my husband feel bad!
He has WAAAAY more backbone than that. As do all of our military!!!
When you consider where Kerry's head is at, you'd think it'd be difficult to keep putting that foot in his mouth, too. That almost makes me come to admit that he must have talent beyond being a gigalo. ;)
Interesting.
As my Mama always used to say, "People don't change, they just grow more so...."
My older Brother Jim is in the middle
This post is dedicated to my brother Jim, who after serving four years in the military, (including language training at DLI in Monterey), an LDS Mission to Brazil, four years at BYU, three years to get his Law Degree, and now as an attorney in the JAG corp of the Army, left his wife and three young sons for a year to serve in Iraq at the beginning of the war.
He was one of the "kids" the Democrats are always talking about bringing home....
John Kerry has not changed, he has just grown MORE SO.
"It’s the gift that keeps on giving, even after an botched ‘apology’ for a botched joke: “”Of course, now Senator Kerry says he was just making a joke, and he botched it up. I guess we didn’t get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it.” — Dick Cheney
President Bush on Rush Limbaugh today: “Anybody who is in a position to serve this country ought to understand the consequences of words, and our troops deserve the full support of people in government.”
As I have said before at the Free Republic Web Site - if our soldiers can face down the terrorists, I guess we can street demonstrate against a few moonbats at the anti war rallies...
And as the Moonbattiest of them all...
....why don't we collectively "demonstrate" against John Kerry and his party values when we vote next tuesday???
Back in 1966, I served with a several unique pvt.s in the U.S. Marine Corps. One was a phycist,one and attorney, one a former FBI agent (which also requires a degree). All of them were more intelligent than the reporters I've read, or seen on television.
I believe that Jimmie (worst president of my lifetime) Carter got rid of sKerry's bad paper. This happened in the 1977-1981 time frame and had already been done well before Webb was appointed in the Reagan administration.
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