He-e-e's BACK!
It was as if John Kerry understood that now is the time for all good men to
come to the aid of the other party.
Whatever possessed him, he got up in front of a student audience in
California and told them:
"You know, education - if you make the most of it, you study hard and 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."
Gulp.
The worst of it was that not until the speech started drawing flak from a
suddenly revived GOP did it occur to the senator that he had screwed up -
bad.
And that he had some explaining to do. Even then, he resisted apologizing
for an agonizingly long time.
It's remarkable when you think about it:
Here the country now has what may be our first dyslexic president in George
W. Bush, a lead-tongued orator who can scarcely get through a presidential
address or press conference without making word-salad of his speechwriters'
finest efforts. His manful struggle with the English language is renewed
every time he gets behind a rostrum, and it's a rarity when the language
wins.
Yet offhand I can't think of anything George W. has said, or attempted to
say in his clumsy way, as stupid - or as self-destructive - as this mangled
"joke" from a supposedly sophisticated man of the world, a Beacon Hill
Brahmin no less. But maybe that's precisely why John Kerry has such a
problem communicating with the rest of us: He's so removed.
Windsurfing through his prepared text, the senator's mind and mouth must
have disconnected. Sen. Kerry wound up insulting the troops - which may be
the one thing in this long, bitter, bare-knuckle campaign season that the
American people will not tolerate.
How like John Kerry. The man has a talent for political disaster. Of course
he'd fall into a hole like this. He's the Joe Bfstplk of American politics;
raindrops keep fallin' on his head. How'd you like to have him campaigning
for you? Right now his endorsement would be toxic. As sharper Democrats
immediately realized:
A Democratic congressional candidate locked in a close race in Iowa called
off a joint appearance with his party's most recent presidential nominee.
Canceled, too, was John Kerry's scheduled appearance with Bob Casey, the
Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. And with her eye already
on '08, Hillary Clinton called Sen. Kerry's comment "inappropriate," which
is schoolmarmish for Just Plain Awful.
All of which is understandable. What prudent Democratic office-seeker now
wants to be seen with John Kerry? Not even John Kerry wanted to be seen with
John Kerry. Passing up interviews, he was soon hightailing it back to
Washington. And to think, till only a few days ago George W. Bush was the
man to avoid in this campaign.
To quote one Democratic strategist on the subject of Sen. Kerry: "He has
already cost us one election. The guy just needs to keep his mouth shut
until after the election." The best thing the senator can do for his party
at the moment just now is to disappear. The man is a verbal danger to
himself and others.
The senator's disappearance from the news would certainly disappoint
Republican strategists. At this point, John Kerry may be one of the GOP's
few rays of hope in an election many pundits and pollsters have already
handed the Democrats without waiting for a mere formality like counting the
votes. But let him deliver more speeches like this one, and Sen. Kerry may
yet be able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The man has a genius for what the pols call Energizing the Base - the
Republican base, that is. A few more replays of this affair on Fox News, and
the GOP may still be able to pull this one out of the fire.
Never complain and never explain, said Disraeli. John Kerry does little
else. First the senator explained that it was all a misunderstanding, an
accident, a botched joke, a case of a politician's wandering away from his
prepared remarks. Nice try. Pity he wasn't writing instead of speaking. Then
he could have resorted to the newspaperman's favorite out and claimed it was
a typo. (Hey, it works for me.)
Then he started complaining about his critics: "It disgusts me that a bunch
of these Republican hacks who've never worn the uniform of our country are
willing to lie about those who did."
The way Franklin D. Roosevelt, another wartime leader, never served in
uniform? And didn't FDR's more fervid critics back then accuse him, too, of
"lying" us into war? Is the senator saying that only veterans have the right
to discuss war and peace? Or does he just think free speech ends where
Republicans begin? And is this the level of civility a once again Democratic
Congress will exemplify?
I know politics ain't beanbag, but does it have to be mud-rasslin'?
Apparently so. But this time the mudslinger muddied himself. John Kerry has
provided the GOP with the grist it needed in a campaign that appeared all
but lost. No wonder his Republican critics must be sorely disappointed to
hear that he's giving up the campaign trail. This guy is better'n Howard
Dean.