I don't care either way about Teresa Heinz Kerry's outbursts: she isn't the candidate, it is sexist to assume that her husband can "control" her (I sure as hell can't control my wife), and her bluntness isn't inherently good or bad - it just is. I am somewhat concerned about the implications of this episode, though:
- Heinz Kerry was introducing her husband, John F. Kerry, at a huge outdoor rally here when a group of Bush supporters, armed with a megaphone, started chanting from a distance, "Four more years! Four more years!"
Without hesitating, Heinz Kerry responded, "They want four more years of hell."
....When it was his turn to speak, Kerry said of his wife, "She speaks her mind, and she speaks the truth — and she's pretty quick on her feet, too." [Washington Post]
The issue here is Teresa says that life under the Bush administration has been hell, and states that another Bush term would be four more years of the same. This also implies that the next four years under a Kerry administration would not be hell, and by the candidate endorsing his wife's statement, he agrees. This seems a bit presumptuous. I wonder what, specifically, he will do to remove the hell-quotient from our lives.
Article comments
1 - JR
This also implies that the next four years under a Kerry administration would not be hell, and by the candidate endorsing his wife's statement, he agrees. This seems a bit presumptuous.
Isn't running for office inherently presumptuous? I always assumed ALL politicians were presumptuous.
And hey, it's not like the guy just spent his first 40 years being a total fuck-up and then up and decided he should be in charge of a state or a whole country.
2 - Dirtgrain
I have not seen Dawn post in a while? Is she storing up her energy like a volcano?
3 - Joe
I wonder what hell is like when your net worth is $1B+.
4 - Eric Olsen
Dirtgrain, She is working two jobs, 12 hours a day, in addition to us sharing the care of a 7 month-old. She is blogging when she can, but hasn't had nearly as much time or energy as before. Sept 1 she will switch to one job, which should ease her schedule
JR, all true except deciding whether or not life under a given administration was hell or not would seem to me best decided after the period was concluded, and best decided by the constituents themselves.
5 - Justene
wonder what hell is like when your net worth is $1B+.
You realize that money can't solve all your problems.
6 - Eric Olsen
but it is one less thing to worry about, per the wisdom of Mr. Gump.
7 - Lono
I agree, it has been four years of hell. Also, her comment still pails to Cheney's 'go Fuck yourself' gem. Vote Democrat!
8 - Joe
Well, true, you can't get good help any more, the Hampton's have been overtaken by new money, and should you buy or go Netjets for the GV? But is that hell?
9 - A. Scribe
I once heard a wise-sounding man on a radio program make the following observation about the wealthy and the poor.
"The difference between the poor and the rich is that the poor suffer uncomfortably, while the rich suffer comfortably.
10 - Eric Olsen
I wasn't really addressing her means of expression, which as I said, I don't care much about one way or the other, but the implications of the content, and most importantly, the candidate's agreement with her statement. She isn't the issue at all.
I also have a hard time picturing Teresa carrying any kind of pail.
11 - Hal Pawluk
Wonder no more, Eric:
"John Kerry for President" site
You can even download the Kerry/Edwards book "Our Plan For America" there as a pdf file.
12 - Eric Olsen
I see many a generality, many a generic goal, very little about HOW it is to be done. And his recent statement about sending no more troops to Iraq is not encouraging.
13 - boomcrashbaby
We need more troops in Iraq? It's my understanding we are already spread thin, and now that they are their own country, our objective is to decrease our presence, not increase. Did I miss some news report changing our plans?
14 - Hal Pawluk
The HOW is pretty easy, including not sending more American troops, in the Middle East.
The first thing I'd do is dump the neocons and jump into the Iraeli-Palestinian situation as an honest broker, rather than with the current neocon approach of "Israel right or wrong."
Once we approach the Arab states without being seen as "anti-Arabs," there won't be a lot of difficulty in getting them to help stabilize Iraq. With that in train, European nations are going to see that's it's in their own self-interest to jump on board and "all things will become possible."
Easy, huh?
Now let's look at the other side where we don't have to guess to make a judgment.
Just compare the Bush promises to the Bush performance. You name it - "compassionate conservatism," foreign policy, terrorism , the economy, trade, the budget - and he screwed up.
Bush is right in saying that "results matter" - and he's a total flop.
15 - RJ
Bush as President = USA is Hell.
Does that make Bush Satan in the eyes of the Kerrys?
16 - Hal Pawluk
No, RJ - the world under Bush is hell.
Does that make Bush Satan in the eyes of the world?
17 - RJ
Wow!
Bush controls the world!
AND he happens to be SATAN.
Nice.
Print up some posters for the next Kerry rally, Hal. Please.
18 - Eric Olsen
We will never be seen as an honest broker as long as we support Israel - are you suggesting we no longer support Israel? Is this a viable option for Kerry? what would be different now if Gore or Kerry had been president for the last four years regarding foreign policy and security? Would 9/11 have happened? Would we have invaded Afghanistan? Where would we be now?
There are many issues I agree more with Kerry than with Bush, but foreign policy and the war on terror are what I care most about, and that's where Bush is the clear winner thus far. He has fucked up, but he has proved to be both resolute and flexible. I don't give a damn about him personally one way or the other, but I do care about the plain fact that he sees the war on terror as a fucking MISSION and it will take that kind of zeal to continue to move it forward in the face of every manner of inertia dragging it down. I don't see Kerry fighting that inertia.
19 - Hal Pawluk
Where did I say anything like that, Eric? ( Eric: We will never be seen as an honest broker as long as we support Israel.)
Becoming an honest broker and not being "seen as anti-Arab" can be done and has been done while still being a friend to Israel. Friends can speak truth to friends. Clinton wasn't my favorite President but he managed it.
In the war on terrorism, Bush is a clear loser thus far.
He has increased the dangers from Islamist extremists - worldwide - while pouring American lives and resources into the sands of Iraq.
A more approriate characterization of him than yours would be "pig-headed, inflexible pursuit of an idé¥ fixe" and an almost pathological unwillingless to admit errror.
Accomplishing the mission means that you have to address the mission. Invading Iraq was avoiding the mission to follow the neocon dream. Rather than leaving Afghanistan, more resources should have been brought to bear there and in Pakistan.
Removing Bush from office is the only way to get back on track.
Think about it.
20 - mike
"We will never be seen as an honest broker as long as we support Israel - are you suggesting we no longer support Israel?"
No, it's that we not support Israel as uncritically as we do. We basically give it everything it wants, when it wants it, covered only by a fig leaf of hand wringing that it show "restraint."
Israel has become a tribal, racist state, and only if the U.S. uses its enormous leverage to force Israel back to a more secular direction can it hope to win any support among Arab moderates.
That won't happen, of course, which is why there are no prospects for peace in the Middle East. It's four more years of hell.
21 - Hal Pawluk
Naah, Mike it's not four more years of hell.
As I said a couple or three days ago (then watched Bill Mahr repeat it on MSNBC yesterday), I sense a slow, solid groundswell building for Kerry and he's likely to win handily come November.
I worried a bit about the possiblity of well-timed events from the right that might disrupt this process ("Be afraid ... and vote for Bush"), but am starting to think that no matter what they do, it will only serve to open more people's eyes as to what we really have in this administration.
22 - mike
I hope you're right.