Thursday, September 30, 2004 :::
 
About half-way through the first debate, it is hard not to conclude that the Democrats made a terrible mistake in nominating John Kerry. His "position" on Iraq is utterly incoherent.

The Weekly Standard made a bold move months ago when its editors said that the best service that the Democrats could do the country is provide a coherent criticism of the war. The key word is "coherent." John Kerry just said, "I've had one position." What, in the last thirty seconds? He has given answers where he walked down both sides of the street even in the last five minutes.

When Dick Lugar, one of the finest and steadiest members of the US Senate in the last fifty years, attacked John Kerry's participation in the Foreign Relations Committee, he was making a larger point, on which he expanded at length. (I am awaiting the transcript and will post it, subject to copyright rules. It was on ABC.) The larger point is that John Kerry already has a position under the Constitution in which he could have played a constructive role in shaping the war policy, and the only thing he did was run away and try to tell people that he should have a different position under the Constitution. (By the way, the Powers That Be--the Times, the Post, and the Democrats--screamed that Bob Dole should resign when he ran in 1996. They made not one noise about John Kerry.) (Someone challenged this point, so it will get checked.)

He also made the mistake of trying out the "Bush Lied" Lie on the campaign trail, and the much-too-honored moderator of this debate, Jim Lehrer, asked him to be specific. I have been through most of the record, and Bush never lied. The good Senator meandered all over the land in trying to defend his campaign statements, yet one more of many "inarticulate moments." The President nailed him on that one, and one has to ask about a man who uses a charge that has already been discredited and leaves himself open to such a clear shot.

That said, if John Kerry had stuck to the management of the war, he could have really drawn blood. Indeed, he asked why so many Humvees over there are unarmored, and why people have to send body armor to their children as birthday presents. But a man who says that he really did vote for the $87 million before he voted against it has a hard time pressing the point home. It is a pity. I mean, I don't care about Kerry; I care about that issue. That is the issue.

Unless the President really pulls a boner in the next 30 minutes, he has mopped up the floor. He looked uncertain in the first half hour, but has answered a number of questions quite well since then. He is not good at this, it is true. Stephen Douglas was good at debating, but we should be glad that Lincoln went on to be President. John Kerry speaks well, but what he says makes no sense.

Bush is not in Lincoln's category, though he could be. Perhaps. Maybe.

It is highly unlikely that John Kerry will ever be given the opportunity.




::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 9:42 PM


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