DEFENDING KERRY: I agree with Hugh Hewitt that this photo of John Kerry is unlikely to strike fear into the hearts of our enemies. But I’m pretty sure that the oversized yellow daisy he’s wearing is a ski-lift ticket, and not a ’70s-revival sartorial accessory chosen by Sen. Kerry.
UPDATE: In this discussion thread on the Kerry flower (nothing’s too trivial for Web discussion!) it’s reported that the flower is not a lift ticket. Go figure. (More here, though I think the photo associated with that blog entry has been photoshopped.)
I would suggest that it’s an obscure hip-hop reference, but if so it’s too obscure for me.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a different photo of Kerry with the daisy. Note the Secret Service agent, who appears to be looking at it with a “WTF?” sort of expression. . . . And here’s another. It’s a campaign mystery that must be unravelled! (More bloggage here.)
Message to the Kerry Campaign: Release the Daisy Records! America wants to know.
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Powerline’s John Hinderaker emails with a report from the photo-analysts:
Glenn, my post on Kerry’s flower power zipper pull, inspired by my wife’s observing the photo that we reproduced on Power Line, has generated more mail from readers than almost anything we’ve done. For what it’s worth, based on a careful review of all photographic evidence–including photos of Kerry actually snowboarding on the same day, without the yellow flower, and a photo of Kerry snowboarding with the yellow flower, when the other snowboarder visible in the picture is not wearing a yellow flower–I’ve concluded that it isn’t a lift ticket.
America really does want to know!
MORE: I don’t think Kerry is referencing this group.
STILL MORE: “Deflowering” Kerry? I guess I couldn’t have resisted that headline either. . . .
MORE STILL: Eric Scheie is following a daisy chain of associations.
AND IT KEEPS COMING: Reader Lennie Smith writes with a new explanation, and an unfair slur:
I’ll agree with the conventional wisdom the Kerry flower is not a lift ticket. Way to hard to print all the legal disclaimers on the back of a die-cut like that. But, look at the snowboard he¹s holding. That the kind of sticker they put on rental boards for inventory/tracking purposes.
He’s worth millions. He could keep a board in the million dollar cabin the family owns. Yet, a rental board? Man, no wonder there are so many photos of this. Because, he is a poseur.
That’s not fair. Maybe he’s just frugal. This could feature in his campaign, like Michael Dukakis’s snowblower.