Is there really any doubt what John Kerry thinks about the military?
Kerry then told the students that if they were able to navigate the education system, they could get comfortable jobs - "If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq," he said to a mixture of laughter and gasps.
It is possible to believe Kerry's response to the firestorm of protests, that it was just a "botched attempt" at a joke that was really aimed at President Bush, but his objection that only "rightwing nutjobs" are trying to make it something more is a sign that the man is having a meltdown. And he has certainly been down this road before, witness his despicably opportunistic congressional testimony about his fellow Vietnam veterans. He deserves to be called a war hero about as much as I deserve to be the next pope.
The temptation will be to make this a partisan rallying cry; indeed, you can already hear the Republicans' glee and feel the Democrats' dismay. What makes this so dangerous for Democrats is that many people have the uncomfortable feeling that most of them, at least those on the national stage, really don't have a clue about national defense. And when the expected "October surprise" comes from one of their own, it doesn't inspire confidence in them.
I haven't exactly become a one-issue voter, but security is so far at the top of my list that it will be almost the sole determinant of who gets my presidential vote. Whichever candidate I think takes that issue most seriously and is the most competent to deal with it will probably get my vote, even in the unlikely event that it is a Democrat. And, yes, even if it is Hillary Clinton. But a strong-on-defense Democrat will have a bigger burden of proof than a like-minded Republican. He or she would also have to be a good enough leader to drag the rest of the party kicking and screaming to some common sense on the issue.
Comments
Gee Leo...give yourself some credit... I (at least) like to think of you as a "monsignor" of journalism...!
;)
B.G.
I think Kerry was uttering a version of his old Vietnam-war-protest line, and I think it's essentially how he really thinks of the troops. If liberals are going to be sympathetic to the troops (which they know they must claim to be), it's important for them to paint the troops as uneducated, involuntary victims and dupes of their nemesis ideology, rather than viewing them as the well-educated volunteers and re-enlisters they generally are.
Kerry pops up to remind us (again) that he's a veteran, but fails to mention (again) that he was the spokesman for anti-military groups, speaking (inaccurately) before a Congressional committee and attending draft card burnings and Jane Fonda's FTA (F**k the Army) show in the 70s.
I wouldn't epxect fresh thought now from this source. What I WOULD expect is exactly what he said in the supposed bad joke. He forgot to engage his liberal-speak translator, and the mask slipped indeed. The words came out un-encoded.
This is one of the senior liberals Rep. Souder is warning us about, should we be foolish enough to consider voting Mr. Hayhurst into Congress. Kerry and the rest of the liberal royalty would be the very people we will be ushering right back into power by shifting the simple majority in either house back to the Democrats.
I still like my first idea - vote them ALL out and start from scratch, ... I think a very large part of all the problems we have today is professional politics - both sides of the "2 party system".