Kerry's showing he just can't take the heat

Chicago Sun Times ^ | 9/04/2004 | Mark Steyn

[RepublicanPizza]

Both candidates gave speeches late on Thursday night. George W. Bush was more or less expected to. John Kerry didn't have to, but reported for duty even though nobody wanted him to. Unnerved by sagging numbers, he decided to start the post-Labor Day phase of the campaign three days before Labor Day. The way things are going, Democrats seem likely to be launching the post-election catastrophic-defeat vicious-recriminations phase of the campaign round about Sept. 12.

At any rate, less than 60 minutes after President Bush gave a sober, graceful, droll and moving address, Kerry decided to hit back. In the midnight hour, he climbed out of his political coffin, and before his thousands of aides could grab the garlic from Teresa's kitchen and start waving it at him, he found himself in front of an audience and started giving a speech. As in Vietnam, he was in no mood to take prisoners: ''I have five words for Americans,'' he thundered. ''This is your wake up call!''

Is that five words? Or is it six? Well, it's all very nuanced, according to whether you hyphenate the ''wake-up.'' Maybe he should have said, ''I have four words plus a common hyphenated expression for Americans.'' I'd suggest the rewrite to him personally, but I don't want him to stare huffily at me and drone, "How dare you attack my patriotism."

[ken5050]

Somebody on Fox this morning said that the best way NOT to get the press on your good side is to hold midnight rallies..

[starfish923]

When you can't take the heat....

you get outta the kitchen.

This will be very ugly for Kerry in the next 2 months.
Acrimony, U.S.A.

[AmericanCheeseFood]

RepublicanPizza of free republic meets tragic end in the gaping foul smelling mouth of Michael Moore.

John Kerry must be having an onset of Alzheimer's, poor old guy, probably caused by his dislike of Reagan. Only problem is that he's not going to step down an out of public life like Reagan, Theresa the pimp won't let him.

[Congressman Billybob]

Can this guy write, or what? Another home run over the leftfield fence and deep into the night.

John / Billybob

[fortheDeclaration]

Great article.
Thanks for posting it.

[Verginius Rufus]

Perot's running mate in 1992 was Admiral James Stockdale, a former POW and a true American hero...Stockdale was originally chosen as a stopgap candidate for filing purposes. Then Perot dropped out of the race and when he re-entered it, it may have been too late to select anyone else for his running mate. Stockdale simply wasn't prepared to answer the kinds of political questions thrown at him during the debate and recognized that fact himself.

[The Sons of Liberty]

Just waiting for Ter-ez-a to pitch another fit!

[NutCrackerBoy]

The candlelight vigils were a cop-out: the issue wasn't whether you were sad about the dead people but whether you wanted to do something about it. Three years on, the two conventions drew the same distinction. If you want passivity and wallowing in victim culture, the Dems will do. If you want to win this thing, Bush is the only guy running. -Mark Steyn

The antiwar current we've had since Vietnam has raised passivity to a virtue. How else to explain how liberating Iraq is seen certainly not only as a bad idea, but positively evil? The only explanation is that it is considered a virtue to remain passive.

[BenLurkin]

There was an old joke back in the Cold War:

Proud American to Russian guy: ''In my country every one of us has the right to criticize our president.''

Russian guy: ''Same here. In my country every one of us has the right to criticize your president.''

That seems to be the way John Kerry likes it. Americans should be free to call Bush a moron, a liar, a fraud, a deserter, an agent of the House of Saud, a mass murderer, a mass rapist (according to the speaker at a National Organization for Women rally last week) and the new Hitler (according to just about everyone).

But how dare anyone be so impertinent as to insult John Kerry!

[freddiedavis]

bump... http://swift3.he.net/~swift3/medals.mov

[68skylark]

I think Steyn wrote an article for OpinionJournal.com about Kerry about a year ago -- he said Kerry was a terrible candidate who would surely get his clock cleaned. He said something like, "This is such a bad idea, let's get on with it."

I wish I could find a link to that article now. His prediction of the future was just uncanny.

[RepublicanPizza]

Mark Steyn: always on subject and hilarious.

[austingirl]

he is running for President because he thinks he should be President

So true about Kerry.

[Tom D.]

Exactly correct.

First, Steyn's ridicule cuts his subject to shreds:

"No one has the right to insult Kerry, except possibly Teresa, and only on the day she gives him his allowance. . . . "

And then he wraps those shreds in a blanket of contempt:

"If you want passivity and wallowing in victim culture, the Dems will do. If you want to win this thing, Bush is the only guy running."

[dano1]

"So we have one ... candidate running on the platform that no one has the right to say anything mean about him."

LOL

[68skylark]

I remember a couple of days after Sept. 11 writing that weepy candlelight vigils were a cop-out: the issue wasn't whether you were sad about the dead people but whether you wanted to do something about it.

Wow. This is a great line.

[Gator113]

Well, in kerry's defense, it was late and instead of a word count, he might have been thinking about his medals (5,6,7, and so on.....). OR, maybe he was thinking of all the times he has had to repackage himself.

Wait, I know, he was thinking of the total of bills he has sponsored during his 20 years in the Senate........ LOL