Lawyer that I am, I was a bit more verbose. Kerry played it safe. He did not try to reach beyond his own personal and emotional limitations. I'm VERY glad that he is not Clinton.
But lots of targets of opportuinity to compare Kerrys "soaring rhetoric" tonight with his votes in the senate.
I have that evil grin on my mug that I get when I sense something is going to happen to make things right with the world.
The Swift Boat guys have written a new book, I think its already #2 at Amazon. If you get a chance read it and judge for yourself who is telling the truth.
By positioning himself as a moderate hawk on defense, he has essentially given up on the "Peace at any cost" crowd and may have handed Nader an additional 2 or 3 percent.
When given the choice between 1000 moderate votes and 10 extremist votes, it's always better to try to get the moderates. But since a sizable portion of Kerry's base supported Howard Dean because of his total opposition to the Iraq War, he may have lost quite a few of them without appreciably expanding his moderate appeal.
Overall a decent speech, better than expected. But it may have hurt more than he realizes right now. Let's see how Nader uses this opening.
You have that right. A politician with Clinton's charm, or Lieberman's moderate record could run long and far on Kerry's theme. The truth is there is uncertainty in this country, the recession, September 11, Iraq, etc., but Kerry isn't the right guy to capture the imagination and faith of voters. He has also completely over-played the Viet Nam card.
As an aside, I'm watching Bush's 2000 acceptance speech. The contrast to Kerry is amazing, Bush looked relaxed and mixed in humor and hope, he offered a sense of himself and a specific vision. Kerry failed on all of these counts.