Kerry's Whining...
...is wearing thin...
I'm of the firm belief that it's not so much the Swift Vets or the convention speeches that have done in John Kerry as much as his response to it. When we elect presidents, we elect leaders. Elections turn as much on personality and character as they do on the issues.
For the majority of Americans for whom politics doesn't pulse in their veins but for whom politics is the occasional punctuation point in the running sentence of their daily lives, they glance at the candidates and try to decide which person they'd rather have on the television sets for the next four years.
John Kerry has spent the last month whining, and Americans don't like whiners. "They attacked my patriotism," he says over and over again. Yet that's patently false. Not one national Republican has done so. If one had, you can bet it would have been splashed on the front page of the NYT and Washington Post as proof of the inherent evil of the Republican party.
I think the difference the RNC convention highlighted is the essential difference between Democratic victimology and Republican resolve. After enduring years of withering attacks ranging from the slanderous 2000 NAACP ad implying that Bush was a racist to comparisons of President Bush to Hitler, Republicans didn't squander their moment in the national spotlight to whine about how unfair it has all been. In the parlance of their opponents, they "Moved On."
Given the choice of a candidate who spends a week decrying false attacks on his patriotism or a candidate who spends a week talking about the dangers facing this country and his plans for the future, the choice is clear. If John Kerry had spent his convention building up his candidacy instead of complaining about his opponents being, well, his opponents he might be sitting on a lead in the polls.
As it is, he preferred - and continues to prefer - the victim approach...If he so relishes acting in the role of victim that he must play it up at every opportunity, then Americans across the country will surely help him "stay in character" by handing him a staggering defeat on November 2nd...
I'm of the firm belief that it's not so much the Swift Vets or the convention speeches that have done in John Kerry as much as his response to it. When we elect presidents, we elect leaders. Elections turn as much on personality and character as they do on the issues.
For the majority of Americans for whom politics doesn't pulse in their veins but for whom politics is the occasional punctuation point in the running sentence of their daily lives, they glance at the candidates and try to decide which person they'd rather have on the television sets for the next four years.
John Kerry has spent the last month whining, and Americans don't like whiners. "They attacked my patriotism," he says over and over again. Yet that's patently false. Not one national Republican has done so. If one had, you can bet it would have been splashed on the front page of the NYT and Washington Post as proof of the inherent evil of the Republican party.
I think the difference the RNC convention highlighted is the essential difference between Democratic victimology and Republican resolve. After enduring years of withering attacks ranging from the slanderous 2000 NAACP ad implying that Bush was a racist to comparisons of President Bush to Hitler, Republicans didn't squander their moment in the national spotlight to whine about how unfair it has all been. In the parlance of their opponents, they "Moved On."
Given the choice of a candidate who spends a week decrying false attacks on his patriotism or a candidate who spends a week talking about the dangers facing this country and his plans for the future, the choice is clear. If John Kerry had spent his convention building up his candidacy instead of complaining about his opponents being, well, his opponents he might be sitting on a lead in the polls.
As it is, he preferred - and continues to prefer - the victim approach...If he so relishes acting in the role of victim that he must play it up at every opportunity, then Americans across the country will surely help him "stay in character" by handing him a staggering defeat on November 2nd...
posted by Jim | 11:03 AM
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