Monday, October 04, 2004 :::
 
A busy day, so not much blogging. Just a few comments.

"Spring in Washington" is the name of a famous book on that most ephemeral thing--spring in Washington. Everyone says it is the most beautiful seaon, but a friend from Massachussetts was inspired to ask a few months ago if we actually believed in having it. All too typically, we had lurched into summer, and he felt the loss severely. It turned out to be a nice summer, fortunately, but it was not spring. There is no book, so far as A Mind That Suits knows, which covers the truly glorious season, and that is fall. Yesterday and today gave us crisp air and bright sunshine. It lasts a long, long time, and it is wonderful.

A confession: a certain pudgy, balding English teacher did not watch the debate last week. After a few moments, he got bored and so turned to aother things and just listened. He did the same during the fateful first debate in 2000, and he was quite able to hear the famous sighs emitted, to his detriment, by the then Vice-President. One cannot hear sneers, and that is what has gotten Mr. Bush in the most trouble. Most of the polling has been on "demeanor" and "comportment," which is one reason said English teacher was so far off in his estimation of the event. However, as one conservative pundit put it, "the transcript's the thing," and as the dust has settled plenty of commentators across the spectrum are corroborating what was perhaps clearer if one was just listening. With John Kerry's Iraq position, there is no there there.

But then again, there isn't with the current President's, either.

This may be the reason that Sen. Kerry has decided to concentrate on the economy in the run up to the next two debates. However, CBS's minute-by-minute focus group gave high ratings to his comments about the unarmored Humvees, and it is a pity that he has veered away from what would be a winning argument, one would think. And so, alas, we will have no thorough debate about the way the war has been managed, and that is a real pity.

The best of the the "a pox on both your houses" commentaries came in this morning's edition of the indispensible Wall Street Journal from Eliot Cohen, the Johns Hopkins professor who wrote a book that supposedly guided planning for the war, if you could call it that, and who has been forthright in saying how badly the war was planned and executed. You can read it for free here , although you have to register your e-mail. (For what purpose, it is hard to say, as it does not lead to WSJ spam.) There is another sterling piece in the indispensible Journal by old-fashioned, Kennedy-esque, love-big-government-and-strong-defense liberal Martin "at Harvard, where I teach" Peretz oof the equally indispensible New Republic. Why a person of his views is called a "neo-liberal" is hard to say, as he was surely right at home with the Democrats in the 1950's and 1960's. Ah, well, words can lead to more words, so we won't go down that path. He did, however, write a very good piece on the phenomenon of "Kerry Haters for Kerry." There is a group by that name, but Mr. Peretz, with good reason, thinks they are many more than just those who have joined that particular group. One can read it on the editorial page of the indispensible Journal , but only, alas, if you have a paid subscription.




::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 10:29 AM


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