The Ugly American (John Kerry)

RealClearPolitics ^ | Februrary 1, 2007 | Victor Davis Hanson

[RWR8189]

Sen. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic candidate for president, is at it again with another rude gaffe, this one providing an unintended glimpse of the way many contemporary cosmopolitan elites characterize their homeland when abroad.

In the past, Kerry has said that our soldiers were "terrorizing" Iraqi civilians in their homes. He has also warned that uneducated Americans "get stuck in Iraq" -- a supposedly botched joke. Now, he assures an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the United States is a "sort of international pariah."

Kerry, who appeared on stage in Davos this past weekend with former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, also proclaimed, "When we walk away from global warming, Kyoto, when we are irresponsibly slow in moving toward AIDS in Africa, when we don't advance and live up to our own rhetoric and standards, we set a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy."

Kerry could learn a few simple rules of etiquette that should guide the "message" of all high American officials when abroad:

Tell the Whole Truth Without Posturing or Spinning

Kerry was clearly directing his criticism at the Bush administration, but the Kyoto Protocol, the international climate treaty, was first rejected by the U.S. in 1997. Ten years ago, President Clinton wisely chose not to refer the treaty to the Senate. Even that was not enough for outraged senators, who went ahead anyway to vote 95-0 to oppose any international agreement on climate control like Kyoto in which China, India and other developing countries would remain exempt. Kerry himself cast one of these votes -- an ironic example of what Kerry now calls "duplicity and hypocrisy."

[Bullish]

....He's an international embarrassment.

He's also a national disgrace, he's just too stupid and full of himself to know it.

[Fitzcarraldo]

"After William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, Roosevelt became our 26th President. America's natural resources were threatened. Species like the bison and beaver were disappearing; others were extinct. Soil fertility was low and about four-fifths of prime forests had been cut. Roosevelt expressed concern: " ..the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have been...washed into the streams, polluting our rivers .... " To emphasize his views, this fiery speaker once threw away a prepared speech and roared, "I hate a man who would skin the land!" His leadership changed public perception that America's natural resources were inexhaustible."

[Bullish]

I have no words to describe how extremely glad I am he is not creating international incidents three times a day as the president of my country.

Or nominating any Supreme Court Justices, for God's sake.

We really dodged a bullet to the heart of America with that one.

[singfreedom]

...except Obama, his middle name is Hussein. Are we, as a nation, really ready for that?

[Recon Dad]

I think in my time following politics there has never been someone who let has mouth write checks his mind hasn't endorsed more than Kerry.
I really think he likes to hear himself orate and is so dumb that he can't imagine anything stupid coming out of his mouth. He is the "Ted Baxter" of politics.

[ZULU]

Another HypoCrat

[Nathan Zachary]

"Was Frenchy in Vietnam ??

well, not really. He hid in a boat at the mouth of a river for a couple months, cut himself a few times faked a few purple hearts and John Fraud Kerry'd himself back Stateside.

[OldFriend]

Perhaps jon carry is planning on touring with the Dixie Chicks sometime soon!

[OldFriend]

Since the sense of the senate vote on the Kyoto Treaty was unanimously NO.........I fail to see why no one is pointing out the hypocracy of all this blathering now.

[Phlap]

If anything, he is over qualified.

[goldstategop]

The Left is ugly because at their core, they hate America. John F. Kerry has hated America ever since he left Vietnam. His denunciations of his country and its place in history haven't changed since he smeared his own troops at the infamous Senate committee hearing in 1971. This is who these people really are when they take off their "moderate" mask that they wear to win elections in this country.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[metesky]

intellectual laziness

That and a smug sense of entitlement pretty much says it all about John F'uggly Kerry.

[Tolik]

...What then drives John Kerry to say such ugly things?

Kerry must still hurt over his recent loss to the supposedly less sophisticated George Bush. And he and other leftist elites apparently must remind their kindred European counterparts that there are still refined Americans like themselves who are not flag-waving Christians from Texas.

But, mostly, it is intellectual laziness. It is always easier to cite America's flaws to applause than to take the time to explain the nature of its rare morality to catcalls. In truth, the United States has never been richer or more generous. Its military is preeminent, protects vulnerable allies and fights extremism worldwide. Immigrants risk their lives to reach our shores.

But we are in a deep spiritual crisis when a recent candidate for our presidency either cannot, or will not, patiently explain that to the world. Instead, Sen. Kerry, the new ugly American abroad, glibly misleads a global audience that his own America is a "pariah" -- a verdict that is as embarrassing to us as it is stupid for him.

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[SueRae]

BTTT

Wake up Massachusetts.

And to those who voted for this idiot in '04, I hope you've learned SOMETHING! Thanking my lucky stars that the majority didn't let this utter travesty come to pass.

[Tolik]

So it was a 95-0 Senate vote against the Kyoto treaty. Seems to me that Kerry has only two ways to spin this. Either he comes clean and admits he was one of the 95 voting against, or he was the "Zero" that voted for it.

[Tolik]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Yardstick]

*Bump*

[at bay]

Not a day goes by that I don't thank God for the bullet I dodged, for the bullet the nation dodged when this traitor was defeated.

Hopefully, some day, dictionaries everywhere will say:

phony (fony) adj. see John Kerry

[mort56]

Thanks all of you Swift Boaters!

[AxelPaulsenJr]

I suppose it would be too much to assume that this woman was crying because she realizes how close she came to electing that idiot?