First left-hand threaded object - Steve Lopez, who "traveled with Gore four years ago for Time magazine and watched as he managed to blow a lifetime of breeding and experience" [what flavor, Steve? - ed.] and has a big sad on in the LA Times. Skipping the obligatory snarking about President Bush and those sneaky Republicans that prove that he is a member in good standing of the mainstream media, Steve's basic complaint is about Lurch:
With only a month and a half before the election, the question is not whether George Bush showed up for National Guard duty 30 years ago, but whether John Kerry will show up for the rest of the campaign.Then a Freeper infiltrates a MoveOn/DNC event in the San Francisco Bay area. Conclusions:
Yes, I know. Kerry pops up here and there, makes speeches and moves on. But nothing sticks with me, other than the nagging sense that Kerry can't quite warm to the task.
...
The other day on the radio with Don Imus, Kerry was asked about getting American troops home from Iraq.
"What you ought to be doing — and what everybody in America ought to be doing — today is not asking me," Kerry said. "They ought to be asking the president: What is your plan?"
Even if he'd tried, Kerry could not have come up with a more harebrained answer. All he had to say is that he foolishly bought into the president's justification for war, and soon as possible, he'll get us out of that mess and fight a true war against actual terrorists.
"We're asking you," Imus persisted, "because you want to be president."
Kerry's response?
"I can't tell you what I'm going to find on the ground on Jan. 20."
How about his political career?
A few more answers like that, and he can share a lifetime of what-ifs with Al Gore.
1.) There is a great deal of conflict over whether the CBS memos were forged or not. It seems that a lot of hardcore liberals have accepted the fact that the documents were fake, but there are still some that are clinging on to the slightest shred of possibility that those memos were genuine as though their lives depended on it. Mentioning it in a room full of Democrats is like tossing a grenade, and they'll generate much heat arguing with each other.Aw, too bad! Although there's nothing that spells leftist fun more than a good purge of deviationists. But never count your crackpots until they're hatched.
2.) It is no longer a faux pas to say that you think Kerry is a lousy candidate choice among the KoolAid drinkers, and many Democrats are turned off by what even they describe is a New England elitist snobbishness that he can never seem to shake. This is San Francisco, so that New England attitude doesn't fly. I offered that I didn't think Kerry was a particularly good choice of candidates and many of the ultra-libs jumped in and stated that they quite frankly detested Kerry -- remember they thought I was one of them. Howard Dean was liked by a great many people, but a lot of liberal Democrats and party activists openly admit that they can barely stomach Kerry if you bring the topic up. When I first brought that point up to see what they thought of him, I wondered if I would get lynched at the first vaguely negative word. In truth, they had harsher words for him than I did.
3.) The the majority of Democrats, at least in the San Francisco area, think that the election is already over and that Bush has won. At this point, they are going through the motions and already planning the next campaign season. There are a few Kool-Aid drinkers who think Kerry will win big, but those folks are in the clear minority. Most are looking at this campaign as the worst they can remember and have already written it off as decided.
My analysis after having attended the event is that the hardcore Democrats are far more dismal about their prospects than is generally reported and that most of them have already thrown in the towel. Even the ones that haven't thrown in the towel don't like Kerry as a candidate and dearly wish they had selected someone else, even most of the Kool-Aid drinkers. I kind of expected most of them to be Kerry-bots, but they aren't. This gives me a sneaking suspicion that the Democrats aren't going to be showing up at the polls come election day.
