“And what’s more, Senator McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove when he was the target, has morphed into candidate McCain who is using the same Rove tactics and the same Rove staff to repeat the same old politics of fear and smear.”
And don’t tell me that both McCain and Obama are using dirty tactics. That’s simply a moral relativism that doesn’t wash. McCain and his team strike fear by insinuation, using Obama’s unique background to suggest he may not be quite as American, not as patriotic, as McCain.
Obama’s commercial about McCain’s houses (called by some an attack) is relevant, because it shows him to be out of touch economically with middle class America. Anyone who can’t remember how many houses they own (even if they’re owned by a spouse) may not feel the pain of many Americans (no matter how many years he may have spent in the Hanoi Hilton).
But Kerry went on to remind us all that it’s not necessarily how many years experience you have (after all, Cheney-Rumsfeld is about as experienced as you get in a foreign policy team). It’s all about judgment; keeping cool in a crisis and surrounding yourself with people who will disagree and debate; argue, and keep you from the arrogance that the presidency can bring to bear. Ideologues make bad foreign policy, as we have seen.
And that’s not all. Kerry also made the point that all along the way, from September 11, 2001, to today’s foreign policy decisions, Obama has been right. McCain has been wrong. “Time and again,” Kerry said, “Barack Obama has seen farther, thought harder, and listened better. And time and again, Barack Obama has been proven right.”
The Rove-Bush-McCain machine will try to tap in to fear; the Obama campaign will give us a vision for the future. Voters will have to decide for themselves to whose voice they will listen.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Baronius
I guess the speech was well-targeted to its audience. Reading your comments about it, the things you praise sound like gaffes to me.
2 - Barbara Barnett
The "gaffe" you say Baronius. Whose? McCain's? You don't suggest that Kerry was speaking in gaffe-ese, do you?
3 - Baronius
Yeah, I do. The idea of having John Kerry, of all people, criticize someone for waffling seems ridiculous to me. Having Kerry pass judgement on anyone's foriegn policy or campaign ethics is almost as bad. Maybe that sounds fine to a Democrat, and it probably rallied the people in the room. I'd guess that the average American would cringe at it.
Kerry's the kind of guy that you put onstage from 2:15am - 2:35am Wednesday morning and hope that the networks aren't filming it. Given Kerry's loss in 2004 against a much-hated President, I think that most people would agree with me.
4 - bliffle
Baronius, erroneous as usual, says: "...The idea of having John Kerry, of all people, criticize someone ..."
What does THAT mean? That Kerry is barred from criticising someone because he was criticized first? And the 'waffling' of Kerry seems pretty trivial compared to McCain, who still can't seem to decide what his stand is on torture.
5 - El Bicho
That whole "before it/against it" line only worked because the majority of the American people are too ignorant of how the Senate actually works. It's just like those who repeat the lie that Al Gore claims to have invented the Internet or that John McCain wants to stay in Iraq 100 years. When you see that stuff pulled out, you know how small the mind is that you are up against. It's no wonder we get the politicians and the campaign tactics when feeble lines like that get traction.
In regards to the article, you shouldn't flip-flop on how to type "flip-flop." Hyphens are free.
6 - Dr Dreadful
you shouldn't flip-flop on how to type "flip-flop." Hyphens are free.
I hear the latest Republican attack ad claims Obama wants to tax them...
7 - Clavos
I hear the latest Republican attack ad claims Obama wants to tax them...
Actually, it's part of the Obama platform. The Republicans haven't even seen it yet...shhhh
8 - Pablo
Perhaps you would prefer to have your children if you have any have to pay for this war Clavy. Or perhaps you are a proponent of printing up more dollars out of thin air, to reduce the purchasing power of working americans.
9 - troll
...we should look into that proposal: tax members of the party(s) out of power only
10 - jamminsue
Flip-Flop unmasked:
My PHI101 instructor, a moderate conservative, said in class that it is important to keep an open mind, "but not too open, or it will fall out."
This whole idea of demonizing a change in one's policy and labeling it flip-flopping seems odd to me. The reasoning is, don't we all change our minds on occasion on issues big and small, as new information comes available? Does that make a person a flip-flopper? (read stupid, dishonorable person)
It takes some, but not genius, intelligence to apply new information to old ideas and realize a change is necessary. So, by direct logic, a person who never changes their point of view, despite new information that challenges old ideas, must be stubborn, blind, dishonorable, or stupid, or maybe all of the above.
For instance, no one thinks there are Weapons of Mass Destruction hidden in Iraq any more, although many believed it to be so eight long years ago.
There is no such thing as a human that makes correct decisions all the time. As a humanist, this is painful to say, but isn't that right reserved to God?
So, by extension, anyone who can change is not lacking in character (at least on that issue) nor does this one issue make them less than respectable. The person who can change thier ideas is the same as all of the rest of us, doing the best they can with the information available at the time.
11 - Dave Nalle
Kerry skewered McCain so effectively that it prompted John Stewart to make fun of Kerry's psst flip flops for about 5 minutes tonight. If a Dem makes a speech and lefty stalwart John Stewart makes jokes about it you know they have REALLY blown it.
Dave
12 - Arch Conservative
John Kerry? Are you f-ing kidding me?
Most of you aren't from New England as I am so you're probably not familiar with a local radio talk show host named Howie Carr. Howie is a pretty decent guy and a straight shooter. He gives you "the business" when you've done something boneheaded and deserve it regardless of your poltical affiliation, color, race, sex etc etc etc He's not prone to hyperbole, just an objective assessment of the facts that is both witty and entertaining. Earlier this year when it was revealed that Senator Kennedy had a brain tumor and was in the hospital Howie, who had long been a critic of Kennedy, wished him a speedy recovery and wished the senators loved ones well. Howie also didn't allow his radio show to be turned into a forum for people who dislike Kennedy to bash him at such a time. That's the kind of guy Howie is. He's a real human being and a class act... which is more than can be said for many in Washington.
Anyhoo... Howie's radio show is famous for people calling in with stories about their interactions with John Kerry in public. Most of these stories involve someone somehow being taken advantage of or slighted by John Kerry who will ultimately tell them "Do you know who I am?" That's the kind of guy John Kerry is.
Here's an editorial that Howie Carr wrote about Kerry during the 2004 election. It's dated but Kerry was a douche then and he's a douche today.
13 - Arch Conservative
"It takes some, but not genius, intelligence to apply new information to old ideas and realize a change is necessary. So, by direct logic, a person who never changes their point of view, despite new information that challenges old ideas, must be stubborn, blind, dishonorable, or stupid, or maybe all of the above."
Yes but here's a little hypothetical.....let's just say we were in the middle of a presidential campaign and there was a major issue...oh I don't know....let's just use offshore drilling as an example.............so we have the two candidates...one who's for it and the other's who been railing against it the entire campaign.......let's just say that more and more public opinion polls are shwoing that the public overwelmingly supports it so that canddiate that's been opposing wiats until Saturday monring when no one's listenign to come out in favor of offshore drilling and then claims it's not a flip flop rleated to the opinion polls, but a reasoned approach to our to our energy problem...
Does that smell like horseshit? yes or no?
14 - Andy Marsh
You mean Kerry spoke at the convention and somebody actually gave a damn? Why?
Let's just call it the parade of losers! Kerry, Gore, Dukakis, Kennedy, Biden, Clinton...I could go on, but you get the point. Six people that ran for pres as a democrat and lost, either before the convention or after. Did Mondale speak at the convention too?
Let's see, they paraded out to past presidents, one who lusted in his pants and the other who lusted in his heart. Both of them had to be followed by reps to handle the mess they left in the desert.
You may not like the way Bush handled Iraq, but it was your boy Clinton that left it that way.
15 - Barbara Barnett
That's what I love about you republicans. Loyal till the end. Yeah, Andy, Bush really rescued us from Clinton. The party that gave us Abramoff and Delay and Rumsfeld and Cheney and "Mission Accomplished" and "They will Greet us Liberators" and "bring 'em on," and now...."let's change reality once again to the fiction that everyone (even illegal immigrants) are covered by medical insurance." Oh yeah, and "global warming? what global warming?"
Have fun in Minnesota next week.
16 - Arch Conservative
Hey Barbara I am a former Republican and it's former because I freely admit that Bush and the GOP leadership lately sucks and has done nothing to better America.
However logic does not dictate that Bush sucks = Obama is our savior.
Obama is a complete empty suit hack who will solve none of our problems and only idiots that can't think beyond monosyllabic soundbites like "hope" and "change" support him.
17 - Andy Marsh
You mean the Clinton that gave us Somalia and Khobar Towers and the Cole and the first Twin Tower bombings and OK City and embassy bombings in Kenya...that Clinton? The Clinton that was in the White House when the second Twin Tower bombings were planned? That Clinton? The Clinton that was CinC when I finished up my time in the military...the one that cut all the military growth that Reagan had started, that Clinton?
You want free medical coverage? I have it! It's easy to get too. Just do something for your country and you too can have free medical coverage for you and your family. If you're not willing to do that then stay out of my pockets! It only cost me twenty years and you want it for free...here's an answer for you to that. Go fuck yourself!
I never said I was a Bush fan. I'm just an extreme anti-liberal is all. I'm against giving people something for nothing. Everybody has their hand out. gimme gimme gimme! And I hear your boy Obama promising it to them too! Not sure how he's gonna pay for it all...oh yeah that's right, he's gonna whack the oil companies for the money, which means I'll pay for all this bullshit at the pump.
You just go ahead and head out to the polls and vote down the party line like all you dems do anyway!
I won't be in Minnesota next weekend, I'll be in Richmond rednecking it with my friends at a NASCAR race!
18 - steve
...all of these "hopes" and "dreams" for "change" by barak obama are not accounted for monetarily. I am not going to vote for someone that wants to provide free health care for women to go get free abortions. He is full of empty promises...there is no way that he will NOT vote to raise taxes...he has done so 94 times. Lest we not forget; the media has done a great job nursing a candidate solely running as an alternative to bush. All of the bush bashers that buy into obama's empty promises will be singing a different tune in 4 years
19 - Jordan Richardson
Kerry skewered McCain so effectively that it prompted John Stewart to make fun of Kerry's psst flip flops for about 5 minutes tonight. If a Dem makes a speech and lefty stalwart John Stewart makes jokes about it you know they have REALLY blown it.
Actually, Stewart was making fun of Kerry's long-winded way of speaking. The entire show, because it was based on the DNC like it has been all week, has been making jokes about Dems. I guess in your mind that means they're REALLY blown it...
20 - Jordan Richardson
You want free medical coverage? I have it! It's easy to get too. Just do something for your country and you too can have free medical coverage for you and your family. If you're not willing to do that then stay out of my pockets! It only cost me twenty years and you want it for free...here's an answer for you to that. Go fuck yourself!
Andy, you really need to understand what single-payer health care is all about. But I can't cram research and information down your throat, so I won't bother. All I'll do is simply say that I'm stunned (but not surprised) by your inherent lack of compassion for other human beings. The very fact that America remains so backwards on the health care front is disturbing, but the fact that individuals like you STILL somehow find a reason as to how it can conceivably be a good thing is utterly fucking stunning.
You should be ashamed of yourself for having the audacity to deny the basic right of decent health to somebody else because you're so fucking arrogant as to think you've "earned it."
I'm against giving people something for nothing. Everybody has their hand out. gimme gimme gimme! And I hear your boy Obama promising it to them too! Not sure how he's gonna pay for it all...oh yeah that's right, he's gonna whack the oil companies for the money, which means I'll pay for all this bullshit at the pump.
Jesus, that's a simplistic view of things. Not that I'm actually surprised, Andy, but come on. "Everybody has their hand out," you say. Have you ever been amongst the poor? Have you ever been amongst people with diseases or addictions, Andy? I know you wouldn't dare lower yourself to the muck and mire of daily reality for your own nation's downtrodden for a million dollars, but can you really be so arrogant and so fucking foolish?
Is water a handout? Is a meal a handout? Is a roof a handout? Is decent care a handout? Do you really believe that there are men, women, and children in this fucking WORLD (never mind your own idiotic country for a minute) that should do without those things simply because you think you've earned them with 20 years of geographical conceit-backed "service?" What about those who served just as long as you did and got NOTHING? Oh well, tough luck ya bastard?
Seriously, how do you account for thinking like that? How do you account for being so deliberately arrogant towards your fellow man? How can you be so arrogant as to think that you deserve something that I don't? That you deserve food and I don't? That you deserve water and I don't? That you deserve a job and I don't? That you deserve to have a basic operation and I don't? Because you earned it? Are you fucking kidding me?
What about children? Should we ship them off to Iraq ASAP so they can earn their motherfucking "right" to basic health care?
And you wanna talk about "where's Obama gonna get the money," there are some real fucking easy answers to that but you obviously, like the health care bullshit, have no interest in listening to them. So wound up are you in your own version of GIMME GIMME GIMME (you're so arrogant you don't even see it, Andy) that any possible explanation of shutting down corporate loopholes, shutting down the war in Iraq, shutting down superfluous and redundant programs that don't work, and making things more efficient will just go in one year and out the other. And when Obama says he's going to do those things, you don't trust him anyway. So what's the fucking point? You honestly don't want an answer because you're so damn wrapped up in thinking somebody's going to want "something for nothing."
Well guess what? So do you. You want protection from all of the horseshit you step over on your way to Applebees. You want protection from even having to THINK about someone elses' problems. You, like many Americans, don't want to be their brother's keeper. You say "Fuck my brother, he's on his own because he's a lazy bum." What about his kids? What about the fact that he just loss his job and needs help putting food on his table? What about the single mother who can't find a job to feed her two kids? What about LIFE, Andy? Ah, you have no time for that. Yours seemed to do okay.
So you say fuck them. You tell those people to go fuck themselves. [personal attack deleted]
Yeah, yeah, comments policy...
[That's right, Jordan.
>:-<
Dr Dreadful
Asst Comments Editor]
21 - Andy Marsh
Actually Jordan, I have been poor in my life..elligible for foodstamps and WIC...and it was all while I was on active duty for twenty years...yeah, that's right, junior enlisted in the military used to be elliglbe for foodstamps and WIC. I never took it, but I was elligible.
WTF is geographical conceit-backed service?
I never said you didn't deserve it...I said go out and earn it!
And show me one person that did twenty in the US military and doesn't have health care...just one...that didn't lose it for fucking up...
And as far as children go, if you can't afford them then don't have them!
As far as the guy who just lost his job, that's why people in this country pay unemployment insurance...it covers those little unexpected problems.
And hey, I'm sorry, but I take care of my own and everybody else needs to do the same...
I know you guys up the in canada have free health care and I hear you all love it. That's great...I guess we can send everyone up there.
Is there a line in the constitution I missed? Does it say in there somewhere that every person has a right to health care? A roof? Any of that stuff you seem to think is some kind of right for every person?
Not for nothing, but in a lot of other countries service to the country is mandated. It doesn't have to be military, but it has to be govt service. Nothings free...unless of course you live in Canada!
And for your information, I'm not an arrogant cunt, I'm a self-centered, egotistical bastard! Get it right!
22 - Andy Marsh
Doesn't bother me Doc...I always take Canadians with a grain of salt anyway!
23 - Jordan Richardson
Is there a line in the constitution I missed? Does it say in there somewhere that every person has a right to health care? A roof? Any of that stuff you seem to think is some kind of right for every person?
Oh well then, I guess we're all wrong for doubting the Mighty American Constitution and its Moral Authority on the lives of all human beings. Forgive me, dear sir, for ever doubting that Holy Document.
Yes, I seem to think that all HUMAN BEINGS deserve the basics. And the very fact that you seem to think a crusty document is the final say on the matter makes me pretty damn glad that I don't live where you do.
And as far as children go, if you can't afford them then don't have them!
Must be nice to have your ideologies wrapped up so simply...
Christ, Britney Spears is more thoughtful.
As far as the guy who just lost his job, that's why people in this country pay unemployment insurance...it covers those little unexpected problems.
Who do you think pays for that? You do. And I know how much you hate paying for something you don't use.
By the way, why do you agree to pay for the police department and the fire department if you never need those services and if your house doesn't ever burn down?
I would think that a privatized system would work better, that way you don't have to pay for police to wrangle the crack addicts on the other half of town or for the fire department to put out the inferno at the single mother's house because she shouldn't have had those kids.
Or what about school systems? Why do you agree to pay for those long after your kids have used them? Or corporate buyouts? Why are those okay? What about parks you never go to? National landmarks you don't care for? Why do you think it's okay to pay for those things with your tax dollars but it's not okay to pay for basic health care?
Nothings free...unless of course you live in Canada!
Yeah, poor shameful Canada. We refuse to put a PRICE on basic human needs. What a damn pity.
24 - Dr Dreadful
They're also good with a sprinkle of tarragon.
And I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't reproduce personal attacks against you like they're some sort of trophy you hang on your wall. Undermines our whole comment editing gig, so it does.
In all seriousness, though, Andy, you're still missing the basic point that 'free' healthcare isn't free. It's paid for either directly through taxes or by something like what we Brits have, 'National Insurance', which is pretty much just another tax anyway, in all but name.
I just don't get why so many Americans think that their health - a basic human need - isn't a good thing to spend their taxes on.
People in most other countries work all their lives for state health coverage, and don't feel the need to get shot at in order to earn it.
25 - Joanne Huspek
Damn. I'm not stepping into this minefield, but the comments are sure interesting to read.