You're Boring
The opening line in John Kerry's acceptance speech last night -- "I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty" -- was as bad as it could have been. Few things come off as more pompous than false humility, and Kerry's allusion to his military service was absurdly heavy-handed. There's also something off-putting about Kerry's suggestion that he has some responsibility to run for president.
If there are any mentally sound adults in the United States who doesn't know yet that Kerry served in Vietnam and the president didn't, they're too dumb to live, much less vote. If Kerry is trying to reach out to these people, he's debasing himself and the political process. But that's not what's happening here. What Kerry is doing, with his continued reminders about his service, is known as "rubbing it in."
Kerry is going to win or lose based on how well he comes up with an economic plan that will lift up voters in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. Duh. If he has such a plan, the average American doesn't know about it. And unless Kerry comes up with something the average person understands and likes -- a lot -- he's going to lose in November, veteran or not.
posted by laser cub @ 2:05 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Hmmm I don't know how much I agree with your statement that people are going to vote on Kerry's economic plan. I seriously doubt it. Gore had a plan, Bush had some sweet talk. If you read Krugman's article in the NY Times today, he harps on the fact that none of the major news outlets are even reporting Kerry's detailed plans, economic or otherwise. The network news doesn't care, and I doubt most voters care either. They are fed a diet of differing "images", and in the middle of a war, the image of someone who knows how to handle the military is a powerful one. Especially for a challenger to a sitting president.
Yes it certainly was heavy handed, sure it could have been more subtle... but hey, this kind of mega politics can't be subtle, people just won't get it. The republicans have proven the way to get something to become conventional wisdom is to hammer away at it again and again. Soon the press will repeat it, and people will take it as gospel. Take your pick, flip-flopper, Saddam has WMD's, tax cuts help the poor, etc., etc. Yeah, at this point everyone SHOULD know that Kerry served in the military, and Bush didn't, but that is only because the Democrats have been banging away at this for six months now...
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