Another Kerry Pre-Post-Mortem

Chalk up one more lib pundit volunteering as pall-bearer for the Kerry candidacy.

John Kerry is not George W. Bush — and for a lot of us, that's reason enough to vote for Kerry come November. But reason enough for a majority of voters? I doubt it...

But if Bush is frightening — in part because he so dogmatically believes what he believes — Kerry is frustrating and infuriating because he seems not to believe much of anything worth risking offense...

No, what infuriates about Kerry is his wish to be all things to all people — or, at any rate, not to give them any basis for attacking him. He has, as far as I can tell, staked out a single position that might be called controversial: He would repeal the tax cuts for the rich.

But nearly everything else he says or does seems calculated to avoid clear-cut disagreement with people on either side of any issue. Thus he ‘voted for [the $87 billion supplemental military budget] before I voted against it.’ Thus he differs with the president on what he would do to extricate us from Iraq, but has offered no discernible policy. Thus he parses every statement to the point where even he must wonder what he said. Thus he (to return to his Vietnam War protest days) didn't return his ‘medals,’ but only the ‘ribbons’ that represent them.

Little things become big issues for Kerry because he refuses to stake out positions on the big things. Maybe, with the polls showing him in a virtual dead heat with Bush, he doesn't want to frighten the ‘undecideds.’ Well, if I were undecided (and, frankly, I would be if Kerry were pitted against Bush I instead of his scary son) I'd find Kerry's super-carefulness off-putting.

Is Kerry acting on advice of his political advisers, or does he really have no important and articulable policy differences with the man he would replace? If the former, it strikes me as questionable advice; if the latter, it suggests a president who would be weak on leadership.

I’m telling you, if by mid-September Bush is up as much as some observers are beginning to openly predict (see below), the Big Media wall-to-wall pro-Kerry flack & hack apparatus will begin to crumble.

If Lurch can’t beat Bush, they’ll drop him like Michael Moore on a blind date.