Becoming a Punch Line...
...At what point does this cease being a presidential campaign and start being nothing more than a long, drawn-out joke whose punchline will have to wait until November 2nd?
The Kerry campaign is a comedy of errors. John Kerry has yet to come up with a single coherent policy on Iraq. He may have a consistent position, but he can't keep his story straight. Even his backers are not so privately wondering what that position might be. When asked about his plans he claims that he has some, but they have to remain secret until after people elect him....umm....right...
He allowed his military service to become a running joke even though it should have been the strongest point of his candidacy (lacking anything else of substance upon which to base it). He could have made the common sense move of apologizing for lying before Congress in 1971 and claimed youthful indiscretion borne of anger. The American public would have forgiven him because they are forgiving by nature. They forgave George Bush even though he publicly admitted he had a drinking problem for some portion of his life. Instead he foolishly refused, and the Swift Vets (and all the attendant problems for his candidacy) were created. If you can't stand up to a couple hundred 60-year old men, how can you stand up to Iran...or North Korea...or even France?
Add to this the "MIS-Fortunate Son" DNC campaign that attempted to discredit the President's Air National Guard service. From ham-handed forgeries to a scandal-plagued partisan claiming he used an office he didn't have hold at the time to help the President to quickly discredited claims that "Bush Lied!" about having served in the active-duty Air Force, it has been an utter and complete failure. It only served to remind voters that Kerry's time in Vietnam really wasn't that relevant to this election after all despite the DNC having built an entire convention scripted around the ridiculous idea that four months on a boat 35 years ago equalled credentials for Commander-in-Chief.
His wife is an embarassment. She is plainly the beneficiary of the untimely death of her previous husband's fortune but has little of coherence to offer the campaign. Reporters hang on her every word because of her tendency to make wildly ridiculous statements such as "shove it!" (after talking about "un-American" tactics and pleading for a return to civility), "four more years of hell," etc. She is indulged because of the media confusion that having money makes one wise when the truth is that if a woman of lesser means made such statements, she would be advised to seek higher levels of medication to cure the problem.
Zell Miller's speech outlined the weakness of Kerry's post-Vietnam biography. Partisans screeched "foul," but the American public at-large heard and understood: John Kerry has consistently been on the wrong side of history at every opportunity he had. The polls turned decisively against Kerry even before President Bush took the stage on the final day of the RNC Convention. What had been a "margin of error" campaign suddenly encountered that error and swung sharply in President Bush's favor.
The grand ineptitude of the campaign combined with improving economic numbers are quickly turning this election into a game of steadily decreasing expectations for the Kerry campaign. Ralph Nader has even begun countering claims that his candidacy will cost Kerry the election by saying that Kerry can't win anyway.
To be sure there will be a floor under Kerry's weakening support. There is a sufficiently large "Anybody But Bush" contingent that he will receive a significant vote share no matter how badly the slow-motion implosion that is his campaign goes. But that doesn't mean that this election will remain competitive. In fact, I would say that it is already beyond that point...
His willingness to shift positions in the wind. His rambling on the stump. His history of marrying heiresses and living off their largesse. His inability to figure out whether or not he owns an SUV. His inability to accept to personal responsibility on any level - even going so far as to blame a Secret Service agent for his fall on a ski slope. His lack of personal warmth. His self-possessed arrogance. His lack of legislative achievement....All of these things are the stuff of late-night monologues already...and we still have two months to go...
Dan Rather is no longer known for his many years as a journalist. "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" stories are returning. Stories about other hatchet jobs by "60 Minutes" have returned. Parody memos claiming secret e-mails and PowerPoint presentations from the 1970's ridicule his journalistic skills and that of CBS News.
What do John Kerry and Dan Rather have in common? Both have become little more than the long-awaited punchlines of the 2004 Campaign...
The Kerry campaign is a comedy of errors. John Kerry has yet to come up with a single coherent policy on Iraq. He may have a consistent position, but he can't keep his story straight. Even his backers are not so privately wondering what that position might be. When asked about his plans he claims that he has some, but they have to remain secret until after people elect him....umm....right...
He allowed his military service to become a running joke even though it should have been the strongest point of his candidacy (lacking anything else of substance upon which to base it). He could have made the common sense move of apologizing for lying before Congress in 1971 and claimed youthful indiscretion borne of anger. The American public would have forgiven him because they are forgiving by nature. They forgave George Bush even though he publicly admitted he had a drinking problem for some portion of his life. Instead he foolishly refused, and the Swift Vets (and all the attendant problems for his candidacy) were created. If you can't stand up to a couple hundred 60-year old men, how can you stand up to Iran...or North Korea...or even France?
Add to this the "MIS-Fortunate Son" DNC campaign that attempted to discredit the President's Air National Guard service. From ham-handed forgeries to a scandal-plagued partisan claiming he used an office he didn't have hold at the time to help the President to quickly discredited claims that "Bush Lied!" about having served in the active-duty Air Force, it has been an utter and complete failure. It only served to remind voters that Kerry's time in Vietnam really wasn't that relevant to this election after all despite the DNC having built an entire convention scripted around the ridiculous idea that four months on a boat 35 years ago equalled credentials for Commander-in-Chief.
His wife is an embarassment. She is plainly the beneficiary of the untimely death of her previous husband's fortune but has little of coherence to offer the campaign. Reporters hang on her every word because of her tendency to make wildly ridiculous statements such as "shove it!" (after talking about "un-American" tactics and pleading for a return to civility), "four more years of hell," etc. She is indulged because of the media confusion that having money makes one wise when the truth is that if a woman of lesser means made such statements, she would be advised to seek higher levels of medication to cure the problem.
Zell Miller's speech outlined the weakness of Kerry's post-Vietnam biography. Partisans screeched "foul," but the American public at-large heard and understood: John Kerry has consistently been on the wrong side of history at every opportunity he had. The polls turned decisively against Kerry even before President Bush took the stage on the final day of the RNC Convention. What had been a "margin of error" campaign suddenly encountered that error and swung sharply in President Bush's favor.
The grand ineptitude of the campaign combined with improving economic numbers are quickly turning this election into a game of steadily decreasing expectations for the Kerry campaign. Ralph Nader has even begun countering claims that his candidacy will cost Kerry the election by saying that Kerry can't win anyway.
To be sure there will be a floor under Kerry's weakening support. There is a sufficiently large "Anybody But Bush" contingent that he will receive a significant vote share no matter how badly the slow-motion implosion that is his campaign goes. But that doesn't mean that this election will remain competitive. In fact, I would say that it is already beyond that point...
His willingness to shift positions in the wind. His rambling on the stump. His history of marrying heiresses and living off their largesse. His inability to figure out whether or not he owns an SUV. His inability to accept to personal responsibility on any level - even going so far as to blame a Secret Service agent for his fall on a ski slope. His lack of personal warmth. His self-possessed arrogance. His lack of legislative achievement....All of these things are the stuff of late-night monologues already...and we still have two months to go...
Dan Rather is no longer known for his many years as a journalist. "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" stories are returning. Stories about other hatchet jobs by "60 Minutes" have returned. Parody memos claiming secret e-mails and PowerPoint presentations from the 1970's ridicule his journalistic skills and that of CBS News.
What do John Kerry and Dan Rather have in common? Both have become little more than the long-awaited punchlines of the 2004 Campaign...
posted by Jim | 6:37 PM
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