DUMB AND DUMBER
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
Actually, I think the answer is fairly simple: they regard GWB (a Yale and Harvard grad) as a traitor to their class. Not only didn't he become a liberal, he didn't become a tame Rockefeller Republican and stay in the northeast with an affected patrician accent. No, he went off, adopted Texas as his home, got a Texas accent, and became something approximating a conservative Republican, complete with appeals to God in his speeches, made worse because in unprepared remarks, he makes it clear they are sincere.
W rejected their culture, so even his unconservative embrace of entitlement programs and immigration amnesty doesn't win him any good will from them.
This was the only line I disagreed with in the entire article. It will be painful for the Democrats, but not for the rest of us observers. Nope, it will be very entertaining to watch these worms twist, as Nixon said, slowly in the wind.
Agree. During their long tenure most senators manage to be associated with some "signature" legislation or other major legislative accomplishments. This becomes their legacy. Not so with loser Kerry. He stands for nothing and has accomplished nothing. The man is truely an empty suit, and deep down he knows it.
It is bad enough that he is a successful gigolo, but intolerable that he is a pompous one.
W was born in Texas and lived there until being sent east to prep when he was a teen. He comes by the accent -- and the values -- as a birthright. Texas was and is his home. Others should be so lucky.
The "Algore derangement syndrome." This disease is spreading.
Not a principled bone in their bodies, which in turn is reflected in their policies: abortion on demand, weak defense, tax and waste.
"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?"
And Bush having a higher G.P.A. than Kerry.
"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."
Hanson Homers!
Until corrected, I'm calling the whole episode Kerrygate.
Great post. Thanks for posting.
For those who have not seen nor heard yesterday's Kerrism, the link below takes us to the Fox News Video were Kerry imitated Chavez at the UN in this vile non apology.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1729378/posts
Fox News Clip of Kerry's non apology and Bush bashing
hotair.com ^ | 10/31/2006 |
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1729378/posts
Bump
CNN just said dems are now calling for him to appologize. This isn't over yet Senator Kerry!!
~~snicker~~
You're still one of the best, so "Best wishes,"
HF
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