U.S. Senator John Kerry: John Wayne and John Lennon rolled into one

The Washington Post (Washington DC USA)
Wednesday 1 November 2006

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Posted by: jameskpolka
November 1, 2006 02:24 PM
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He's a stupid and an addled sort of a person.

Though he had the finest education -- American and Swiss -- money can buy, he reeks of the lazy preppie who knows his future will be smooth and easy, and so never felt compelled to do the hard work to master any difficult subject. Public service has never changed that mindset.

I'd challenge Kerry's most obsessive worshipper to quote one sentence Kerry ever spoke or wrote which deserves being chiseled in stone. From his mouth have come decades of the most forgettable and insubstantial blather.

What the physicist said about a new theory is what you can say about Kerry's Collected Speeches and Writings: "It's not even wrong."

I live in Massachusetts, but I never voted for the guy.

I voted against opponents who would have been worse.

It's scary to believe he would have made a better president than the guy we have now. That doesn't speak to Bush and Kerry -- it speaks to the entire pool of top-tier political talent and intellect in America, their ability to think, their ability to communicate ideas, their ability to inspire people.

Kerry -- who spends more on his hair than I spend to keep my truck on the road, including insurance -- Simonized an image for himself from old photos of John F. Kennedy.

It was easy to want to vote for Kennedy. It was easy to want to follow him -- into the Peace Corps, into space. Once he led us to the brink of nuclear war, we followed with fear and dread -- but nobody criticized his brain or leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis. When it ended, Americans kept or even increased their confidence in Kennedy's leadership.

It was easy to listen to his speeches, and it's been easy to remember his words.

Regardless of who actually wrote them. If anybody's in an equal position to hire great speechwriters, it's Kerry -- but he doesn't even have the wit to spend his money on competent speechwriters. This week's dopiness is typical of what's spilled out of a mouth people have every right to conclude is dumb and confused.

Kerry was a silly war hero, who learned odd, confused lessons from a silly war. He wanted voters to think of him simultaneously as an aggressive Communist-killing combat warrior for America, and as a dedicated antiwar activist -- John Wayne and John Lennon rolled into one.

That's hard for a single voter to grok in a single human brain at the same time. Kerry's Vietnam legacy is every bit what you'd expect the Vietnam legacy of a rich, privileged preppie temporarily forced into uniform would be.

When a White House guest praised his war heroism, Kennedy replied (ad lib, no writer): "It was involuntary. They sank my boat."

Though rich and privileged, every real veteran laughed and connected. They saw a real American hero -- a guy who does his job, but never went out of his way to win medals. A hero with a healthy, sane focus on surviving, for himself and for all the men he commanded.

Kerry -- what was on his mind in his Swift Boat year? Whatever it was, it was odd, fuzzy, unfocused. He wanted his War Hero ticket punched for future ambitions. He wanted rugged, grinning photos of himself with his combat crew like the WWII Pacific photos that had worked such magic for Kennedy.

Yeah, Kerry consistently gets my vote. That's political leadership in America this season. That's the talent pool.

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The Washington Post (Washington DC USA)
Wednesday 1 November 2006

Early Warning
William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security

Sen. Kerry Gets Stuck in Iraq

by William M. Arkin

If anyone is proof positive that a good education has nothing to do with being stuck in Iraq, it's John Kerry. The Massachusetts senator removed the silver spoon from his mouth just long enough to insert foot, bobbing and weaving his way through a scandal that delights the talk shows and blogs.

Appearing in Pasadena on behalf of California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides, Kerry quipped to a crowd of students: "You know, education -- if you make the most of it -- you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

America is stuck in Iraq, but earth to Kerry, no American is stuck in Iraq. There isn't a draft anymore.

The "being stuck" remark reminds me that if there's any one reason why the stiff and out-of-touch Kerry lost the 2004 presidential election, it is that Mr. National Security is stuck in his own Vietnam past.

Kerry, who has to amplify and defend and explain his remarks against a digital onslaught only too happy to have a nice diversion a week before elections, is swearing his allegiance to the troops.

His having to do so against a Republican backdrop of defense is the ultimate display of Democratic party weakness. No amount of explaining from Kerry will shift the debate to who put the troops in harm's way, who promised mission accomplished and then didn't deliver or who says today that we should do this and that to fight the enemy and then does little to turn words into deeds.

Rhetorically, we could ask who insults the troops more, but for now Kerry knocked himself out. It is another reminder that he is not viable presidential material.

But do volunteer troops need all this protection and defending? I say no, and perhaps if we put the Vietnam/draft notion behind us, not only could we better describe what they do need, but also honestly face our own willingness to be so cavalier with other people's lives.

"The senator's suggestion that the men and women of our military are somehow uneducated is insulting and shameful," President Bush said in Georgia, seizing on Kerry's remarks. "The members of the United States military are plenty smart and plenty brave, and the senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology."

Kerry at first dismissed his remarks as a "botched joke" meant to be about president and his people -- what, they Cheney and Rumsfeld are high school drop-outs?

Kerry then said that it was the president and a Congressional Congress who owned the troops an apology for "rubber stamping ... policies that have done injury to our troops and to their families."

Finally Kerry released a statement: "If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the president who got us stuck there, they're crazy. I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did."

Kerry says he has no intention of apologizing. "As a combat veteran, I know the dedication, integrity and commitment of American troops," he said. "Had George Bush and Dick Cheney been in combat one minute of their comfortable lives they would never have sent American troops to war without body armor or without a plan to win the peace and they wouldn't be exploiting our troops today."

Body armor? A plan to win the peace? What are you saying senator? That you would have supported the war had there been an abundance of body armor and a "plan"?

Military sociologists will no doubt trot out statistics about all of those Masters' degrees among the officer class, proving that the military is just as educated as the rest of society.

I suppose others will accuse me of "Swift Boating" Kerry myself. A campaign of allegations about his heroism figured prominently in the 2004 Kerry-Bush race.

But the truth is, for whatever reason, Kerry is stuck in his veteran's uniform with very little else to say. Bush and Cheney are to criticized for failing to serve (or in the case of Bush, for failing to serve in as difficult a position). They are to be condemned for the "comfortable lives."

This is a bit of a Captain Queeg moment for Kerry -- I veteran, defending the downtrodden and hungry against despicable non-veterans.

In other words, the Kerry mindset is that the soldiers must be uneducated to serve in Iraq, and thus need his leadership to get out. What is more, Kerry seems to believe in his heart that only a veteran can claim the right to lead and defend the troops, a kind of military club dictatorship that has no place in American society.

Civilians lead the military, Sen. Kerry, and whether he is a weekend warrior National Guard civilian in George W. Bush who served to avoid an unpleasant war or some fairy tale civilian who has never even wanted to wear the uniform, our system is enshrined in civilian leadership over a subordinate military.

The notion that only Kerry or his combat wounded ilk are qualified to speak to, or on behalf of the troops, is politically dangerous and insulting. I for one don't like Kerry for the very reason that he can't quit shoving his military experience 40 years ago into our faces. I fear that he has learned all of the wrong lessons and would impose a Kerry club litmus test for national security. What is more, I fear he misunderstands that today's military realities don't demand the hundreds of thousands of troops once needed to fight, the kind of military characteristic of his ancient draftee force. Perhaps this explains why Kerry's easy answer to Iraq and other military challenges is more troops!

By William M. Arkin
November 1, 2006; 8:25 AM ET