The Undiscoverable Candidate
Can you believe the Kerry campaign is actually secreting the same spin that Thursday's first presidential debate with George W. Bush is yet another chance for John Kerry to "introduce himself to the American people"? Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, this is like the dork who goes stag to the junior prom and "introduces" himself to every girl in the gym and gets shot down each and every time in turn.
Yep, John Kerry is the Jon Arbuckle of American politics. And like Garfield's hapless owner, he's running out of "girls" to rope onto the dance floor to do the electoral polka.
How long has this man been the "presumptive" Democrat nominee? Over six months? He's had all that time, plus the Dem convention, to "introduce himself." How could he possibly still be "unknown" to the American people?
The answer, of course, is that he isn't unknown. Over the course of the summer, and especially in August, after the Dem convention, the undecided public took a close look at Lurch, found a great deal wanting, and overwhelmingly said "thanks, but no thanks."
What did they see when they took this close look? A disingenuous, conniving political tap-dancer so overwhelmingly convinced of his own mental mastery that he's proven incapable of sufficient introspection to realize that he has all the actual political skill, much less interpersonal warmth, of a nauseous gila monster. That's what the whole Swiftboat Vet furor was really about, after all. His convention "introduction" was exposed as a blatant, calculated fraud that could withstand what passed for scrutiny in the People's Republic of Taxachusetts, but not remotely on the national stage. And the reflexively hamfisted way he reacted to it, the faux wounded pride, the attempted smearing and bullying, the relentless ducking and dodging without ever actually addressing questions so fundamental to his credibility that had, well, more credibility than he displayed in trying to evade them, all combined to create a picture that didn't inspire people who were evaluating the man's personal character in what is, after all, a months-long interview for the job that, in this day and age, is primarily that of the nation's protector.
The wonder is not that the President gained a five or six point bounce from the GOP convention; it is that, given what a clay pigeon Kerry had made of himself, the bounce wasn't twice that big or more, "50-50 nation" be damned.
And now, a month further along, his campaign mired in chaos, overmanaged and overhandled, so many cooks stirring the pot that there's no room in it for the soup, and the candidate himself almost a wallflower-like bystander to it all, John Kerry will be running yet another persona up the PR flagpole: Howard Dean.
When you start seeing wistfully crestfallen lib columns like this one, is it any wonder, given who and what this man is?
Or, put another way, "Anybody but Bush" has now been surpassed by "Anybody but Kerry" - in the minds of his own base.
It's the ultimate measure of the Boston Balker that he's willing to oblige them.
And that message will drown out anything he says on Thursday.
Yep, John Kerry is the Jon Arbuckle of American politics. And like Garfield's hapless owner, he's running out of "girls" to rope onto the dance floor to do the electoral polka.
How long has this man been the "presumptive" Democrat nominee? Over six months? He's had all that time, plus the Dem convention, to "introduce himself." How could he possibly still be "unknown" to the American people?
The answer, of course, is that he isn't unknown. Over the course of the summer, and especially in August, after the Dem convention, the undecided public took a close look at Lurch, found a great deal wanting, and overwhelmingly said "thanks, but no thanks."
What did they see when they took this close look? A disingenuous, conniving political tap-dancer so overwhelmingly convinced of his own mental mastery that he's proven incapable of sufficient introspection to realize that he has all the actual political skill, much less interpersonal warmth, of a nauseous gila monster. That's what the whole Swiftboat Vet furor was really about, after all. His convention "introduction" was exposed as a blatant, calculated fraud that could withstand what passed for scrutiny in the People's Republic of Taxachusetts, but not remotely on the national stage. And the reflexively hamfisted way he reacted to it, the faux wounded pride, the attempted smearing and bullying, the relentless ducking and dodging without ever actually addressing questions so fundamental to his credibility that had, well, more credibility than he displayed in trying to evade them, all combined to create a picture that didn't inspire people who were evaluating the man's personal character in what is, after all, a months-long interview for the job that, in this day and age, is primarily that of the nation's protector.
The wonder is not that the President gained a five or six point bounce from the GOP convention; it is that, given what a clay pigeon Kerry had made of himself, the bounce wasn't twice that big or more, "50-50 nation" be damned.
And now, a month further along, his campaign mired in chaos, overmanaged and overhandled, so many cooks stirring the pot that there's no room in it for the soup, and the candidate himself almost a wallflower-like bystander to it all, John Kerry will be running yet another persona up the PR flagpole: Howard Dean.
When you start seeing wistfully crestfallen lib columns like this one, is it any wonder, given who and what this man is?
Or, put another way, "Anybody but Bush" has now been surpassed by "Anybody but Kerry" - in the minds of his own base.
It's the ultimate measure of the Boston Balker that he's willing to oblige them.
And that message will drown out anything he says on Thursday.
posted by JASmius at 7:49 PM
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