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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: Uncledave

Points 1, 2 and 7 are magnificient. They're all good, but those three really hit center mass. VDH's withering analysis tears apart any of Kerry's weak defenses.


21 posted on 11/01/2006 6:25:21 AM PST by Steel Wolf (As Ibn Warraq said, "There are moderate Muslims but there is no moderate Islam.")
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To: Uncledave
Personally, I'd wager the intelligence of a Marine Corps private any day over the average D.C. journalist.

RIGHT ON! You can add "mainstream media journalist" to that comment also.

22 posted on 11/01/2006 6:25:41 AM PST by JoyjoyfromNJ (Psalm 121)
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To: mortal19440

Ooooohhh! And the car goes into the crowd!


23 posted on 11/01/2006 6:25:49 AM PST by Roccus (Dealing with Democrats IS the War on Terror. [Stolen from FReeper Stallone])
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To: Uncledave
an overrated empty suit

snicker!

24 posted on 11/01/2006 6:27:15 AM PST by bannie
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To: Uncledave

bttt


25 posted on 11/01/2006 6:27:32 AM PST by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: Unmarked Package

""Personally, I'd wager the intelligence of a Marine Corps private any day over the average D.C. journalist.""

Gee, one of the reservists I worked with in Iraq was a college professor. "Uneducated"?

Another was a Marine Master Gunnery Sargeant and just barely over 40. "Uneducated"?

A retired Marine colonel was a principal in a startup company developing "non lethal" defensive weapons for police and military use. "Uneducated"?

Kerry needs to go to Iraq and spend time with these allegedly uneducated troops and contractors. But of course he'd find no welcome, and probably not even an open cot in the whole of the theatre.


26 posted on 11/01/2006 6:28:57 AM PST by angkor
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To: Darkwolf377
KERRYTHINK:
To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again; and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself. That was the ultimate subtlety; consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become conscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word "Kerrythink" involved the use of Kerrythink.
27 posted on 11/01/2006 6:29:49 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: Uncledave; All
“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.”

This gets to the crux of the biscuit... well thought out too.

What Kerry actually did... has not registered yet with the DNC/DBM. They are like Gene Hackman in that final scene in 'The Quick & the Dead'. The Dem's are still standing... but they're soon gonna' notice that .45 caliber hole in the center of their chest.

28 posted on 11/01/2006 6:30:09 AM PST by johnny7 (“And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda... what's Fonzie like?!”)
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To: mortal19440

notice that what kerry is supposed to have said has now changed again..he was supposed to mention bush by name..IMHO the dems went into panic mode and looked at what he said, then inserted, after the fact, what he SHOULD have said..they've tried 2/3 variations now and are looking for one that will stick..then they blame reps for looking at what he said and by osmosis or divine intervention, NOT understanding what he really meant..however, the first time the reps try to say what they THINK he said can be shoved into their faces by the dems saying, "well, that's NOT what he actually said"..

dems are pathetic creatures incapable of rational thought..emotion rules the day with them..


29 posted on 11/01/2006 6:30:36 AM PST by GeorgiaDawg32 (At 53, I'm already thinkin about goin home before I get to where I'm goin...:-))
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To: seekthetruth

"He just can't help but express his hatred for our United States military, and it just came out of his mouth again."

It is clearly some kind of psychological disorder. Seriously.


30 posted on 11/01/2006 6:30:49 AM PST by angkor
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To: Uncledave


We go to war with what a leading Democrat said, NOT what he wished he had said and NOT what he wanted to say.

Al Jazeera prints only his actual words to rally those intent on killing our troops.


31 posted on 11/01/2006 6:31:19 AM PST by OESY
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To: GeorgiaDawg32

But, but, but....

It's was just a botched joke!!

I can tell you, my Naval Officer husband who is in possession of FOUR degrees was not amused!

GG


32 posted on 11/01/2006 6:31:23 AM PST by GatorGirl
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To: Rummyfan

John Kerry: The "charles emerson winchester" of vietnam.

Supporting the troops without supportign their mission is like supporting songwriters while hating music.


33 posted on 11/01/2006 6:31:53 AM PST by camle (keep your mind open and somebody will fill it full of something for you)
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To: Uncledave
How could John Kerry...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.

Love it!! What a great quote.

34 posted on 11/01/2006 6:31:56 AM PST by wbill
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To: Uncledave
what is it about George Bush that seems to reduce once sober and experienced liberal pros to infantile ranting?

Karl Rove's mind control machine.

35 posted on 11/01/2006 6:32:04 AM PST by HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath (Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.)
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To: angkor

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.


36 posted on 11/01/2006 6:32:42 AM PST by kellynch ("Our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves." -- Bernard Baruch)
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To: Uncledave
What Kerry should have said, based on his personal history:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you find a rich woman (or two) to marry.”

37 posted on 11/01/2006 6:34:15 AM PST by knuthom
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To: GatorGirl

how can this man, who is incapable of putting together a sentence that reflects what he truly thinks, want to be president and negotiate with countries around the world..what would they think after a negotiating session where kerry comes out and says "well, I know what I said, but it's not what I meant..what I meant to say was...."...no one in the world would trust him, literally...


38 posted on 11/01/2006 6:35:19 AM PST by GeorgiaDawg32 (At 53, I'm already thinkin about goin home before I get to where I'm goin...:-))
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To: Peach
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.

Yeah, but Bush is a moron.

You can just TELL.

39 posted on 11/01/2006 6:35:36 AM PST by Lazamataz (I love you.... but not in a gay way.)
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To: Uncledave

This is almost enough to make me believe that John F'n Kerry is a GOP plant (like Ted Kennedy).

Has either one of those two done anything substantial for the democratic party? Ever?

I ask because they seem to be figures to rally against for us, motivating "the base" to vote GOP. Whenever things start to look bad for us you can count on one of those two to do, or say, something so stupid that GOP 'woes' are completely forgotten.

I think we should thank God that the democrats have useful (for us) idiots like those two...


40 posted on 11/01/2006 6:35:54 AM PST by Triggerhippie (Always use a silencer in a crowd. Loud noises offend people.)
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