Flip-Flop or Blink-Blink?
Remember when Zell Miller said that "twenty years of votes tell you a lot more about a man than twenty weeks of campaign rhetoric"? Well, twenty weeks of campaign rhetoric can wear away a candidate's rhetorical facade as well. And unless you're a perpetual performer like Bill Clinton, sooner or later the real man behind the laboring facade shows himself.
Now everybody knows that John Kerry is a political mercenary who hedges his bets on everything in order to leave himself an out later on. That would have come across in this campaign quite well even without Team Bush pointing it out at every opportunity. And here is a prime example:
"Also on Saturday, Diamond reports, Kerry applied for an Ohio hunting license. Most notable about that event, Diamond says, is that Kerry hedged on naming the color of his eyes, telling the clerk that they were 'hazel. Blue some days.' He then asked, 'Do they have blue some days in the computer?'"
He can't even be direct about his eye color. Probably because he wears different colored contact lenses depending upon what his focus-grouping has determined about the preferences of the audience he's next to address. (Hat tip: KerrySpot)
If it's convolution you want, however, it doesn't get any better than this:
"Would you ever change your mind regarding same-sex marriage?
KERRY: "I have my view, and my view is my view. I can’t tell you in 20 years or whenever, if someone made a persuasive argument, the world changes. You know, George Bush just changed his mind on a national security director, and he changed his mind on raiding Social Security, and he changed his mind on homeland security. So I don’t predict the future. What I tell you is that my position is what it is."
He calls it "nuance." I call it being asked what color the sky is and being given a five-hundred word answer that boils down to "Millard Filmore." (Hat tip: The Corner)
This is what happens when you make an entire career out of endless, moment-by-moment calculation.
After this campaign, though, the only accurate description of John Kerry's eyes will be "bloodshot" - with little "x"'s across the pupils.
Now everybody knows that John Kerry is a political mercenary who hedges his bets on everything in order to leave himself an out later on. That would have come across in this campaign quite well even without Team Bush pointing it out at every opportunity. And here is a prime example:
"Also on Saturday, Diamond reports, Kerry applied for an Ohio hunting license. Most notable about that event, Diamond says, is that Kerry hedged on naming the color of his eyes, telling the clerk that they were 'hazel. Blue some days.' He then asked, 'Do they have blue some days in the computer?'"
He can't even be direct about his eye color. Probably because he wears different colored contact lenses depending upon what his focus-grouping has determined about the preferences of the audience he's next to address. (Hat tip: KerrySpot)
If it's convolution you want, however, it doesn't get any better than this:
"Would you ever change your mind regarding same-sex marriage?
KERRY: "I have my view, and my view is my view. I can’t tell you in 20 years or whenever, if someone made a persuasive argument, the world changes. You know, George Bush just changed his mind on a national security director, and he changed his mind on raiding Social Security, and he changed his mind on homeland security. So I don’t predict the future. What I tell you is that my position is what it is."
He calls it "nuance." I call it being asked what color the sky is and being given a five-hundred word answer that boils down to "Millard Filmore." (Hat tip: The Corner)
This is what happens when you make an entire career out of endless, moment-by-moment calculation.
After this campaign, though, the only accurate description of John Kerry's eyes will be "bloodshot" - with little "x"'s across the pupils.
posted by JASmius at 6:53 PM
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