MARK STEYN writes that Kerry can’t take the heat:
There was an old joke back in the Cold War:
Proud American to Russian guy: ”In my country every one of us has the right to criticize our president.”
Russian guy: ”Same here. In my country every one of us has the right to criticize your president.”
That seems to be the way John Kerry likes it. Americans should be free to call Bush a moron, a liar, a fraud, a deserter, an agent of the House of Saud, a mass murderer, a mass rapist (according to the speaker at a National Organization for Women rally last week) and the new Hitler (according to just about everyone). But how dare anyone be so impertinent as to insult John Kerry! . . .
Sorry, man, that’s not the way it works. And if he thinks it does, he’s even further removed from the realities of democratic politics than he was from the interior of Cambodia. Instead of those military records the swift boat vets are calling for, I’d be more interested in seeing his medical ones.
I don’t think a Kerry administration would work out well.
UPDATE: Related thoughts here:
By now, much of the sturm und drang of the Swiftboat controversy has passed. Yet, one man seems intent on keeping it alive. His name is John Kerry and he’s from Massachusetts. At a rally here in Ohio, Kerry denounced Bush for questioning his patriotism, and mocked Cheney for not serving in Vietnam (in contrast to, say, John Edwards?). Beyond sounding petty in light of the larger campaign issues, this tirade reveals some fundamental flaws in Kerry as a presidential candidate. These flaws range from the personal, to campaign strategy, to larger misunderstandings about America’s cultural dynamic.
Indeed.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Ouch: “The only thing that was bad about the convention week was that it kept Kerry out of the public eye. Thanks to the Kerry Magic, the more the public sees of him the better we do. Answering our desperate pleas Kerry made an unprecedented midnight appearance last night, holding a rally to answer the charges hurled at him by the Republican Convention speakers.”
MORE: Still more Kerry pans here.