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Kerryism (Victor Davis Hanson comments brilliantly on Kerry flap)
Corner ^ | 11/1/2006 | Victor Davis Hanson

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


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bds; democrats; johnkerry; johnkerrytroops; kerry; kerrydumbiraqgaffe; kerryism; kerrythink; vdh; victordavishanson; votegop
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To: Rummyfan
I for one will luxuriate in schadenfreude!

So will I. But hold your breath. Tomorrow and Friday nights are the news days that the Old Media has been saving up another BIG SCANDAL for. Something big will break that is anti-republican. Remember W drunken driving, Rathergate, and Al Ka Ka?

OTOH, the hilarious picture from Iraq of the soldiers holding up a sign to John Kerry telling him they are too dumb to go to "skool" so they are "stuk" in Iraq is circulating by email. I have already received two copies so it is already widespread.

But what we can do when you get one is to forward it to all of your Independent and R friends. Stuff like this can explode exponentially when they send it to their friends and so on. Don't editorialize. Send it as a ha ha because its funny.

It will keep the Kerry statement fresh for a few more days and it makes the dems look ridiculous.

161 posted on 11/01/2006 11:13:00 PM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: Rummyfan
I for one will luxuriate in schadenfreude!

So will I. But hold your breath. Tomorrow and Friday nights are the news days that the Old Media has been saving up another BIG SCANDAL for. Something big will break that is anti-republican. Remember W drunken driving, Rathergate, and Al Ka Ka?

OTOH, the hilarious picture from Iraq of the soldiers holding up a sign to John Kerry telling him they are too dumb to go to "skool" so they are "stuk" in Iraq is circulating by email. I have already received two copies so it is already widespread.

But what we can do when you get one is to forward it to all of your Independent and R friends. Stuff like this can explode exponentially when they send it to their friends and so on. Don't editorialize. Send it as a ha ha because its funny.

It will keep the Kerry statement fresh for a few more days and it makes the dems look ridiculous.

I think I'm going to start a fresh thread on this.

162 posted on 11/01/2006 11:21:04 PM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: YdontUleaveLibs

It is hard to accept that I left Howard Dean off my list. :)

(I use his candidacy-killing scream for my cell phone's ringtone. It is an attention getter.)


163 posted on 11/01/2006 11:28:24 PM PST by Triggerhippie (Always use a silencer in a crowd. Loud noises offend people.)
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To: nutmeg

bookmark


164 posted on 11/01/2006 11:28:58 PM PST by nutmeg (National security trumps everything else.)
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To: Valin
For years now I've trying to get my arms around "we support the troops but not the war" that the left keeps spouting...so far, no joy. This joke (and a darn funny one it is) really shows just what the left thinks of those who have gone or are now in the military....that we're stupid boobs.

Notice how they talk about supporting y'all, but say nothing about respecting you. Military, parents, taxpayers, you name it, if you don't think like they do, they think they're more qualified to do the thinking. They want you to let them be your mommy.

165 posted on 11/02/2006 12:02:30 AM PST by GoLightly
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To: 3AngelaD

But when I see His face I can not help but think about HOWDY DOODY


166 posted on 11/02/2006 3:11:49 AM PST by wolfey1
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To: samanella

A Male Whore is what he is. This former Grunt would love to kick his punk A$$.


167 posted on 11/02/2006 3:25:47 AM PST by wolfey1
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To: Uncledave
(8) And why is the supposedly lame Bush so careful in speech...

Is he talking about Bush? The guy who still can't say nuclear?

168 posted on 11/02/2006 3:53:10 AM PST by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote.)
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To: kellynch
"..Normally, I live for Schadenfreude, but I cannot bring myself to visit the DUmmies. However, if anyone else has had the courage to do so, please share their reactions with the rest of us..."

I haven't gone there either, but one doesn't have to be psychic to correctly guess the gist of their response. If my guess is correct it probably goes something like this:

-- "Leave it to the Republicans to be so blind that they can't understand subtle humor when it is staring them in the face. The irony here is that not only are the troops to dumb to get the joke, so are the rest of the Red Staters. No surprise considering their uneducated stance on so many issues" --

The real irony in this would be that their post would not be nearly as articulate, would contain many run on sentences, foul language, and the overall point would be lost as the poster drifted off into a crazed rant.
169 posted on 11/02/2006 4:18:08 AM PST by contemplator (Capitalism gets no Rock Concerts)
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To: Running On Empty

Marking


170 posted on 11/02/2006 4:27:35 AM PST by Running On Empty
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To: contemplator

Kerry and the Dems love to paint W as a drooling idiot yet, as both Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade point out, W's grades at Yale were better than Kerry's.


171 posted on 11/02/2006 5:56:09 AM PST by kellynch ("Our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves." -- Bernard Baruch)
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