The Return Of Dukakis

It appears as though the Kerry-as-Dukakis meme has taken off. Considering that Kerry was Dukakis’ Lt. Gov., perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising. Kerry campaign was never strong, he benefitted first of all from the crash of Howard Dean in January and secondly from the weakness of Bush throughout the summer.

Kerry’s biggest flaw was in his fundamental lack of vision. His convention speech was his best opportunity to sell himself to the American people – instead he harped on Vietnam, opening himself up to the attacks by the Swift Boat Vets (which the Kerry campaign had to have known about since they first emerged in May of this year).

Now Kerry find himself in the middle of an official inquiry into his medals, his numbers have plummeted, and Bush is now running several points ahead with double digit leads in multiple polls.

Kerry could have elucidated a vision for the country, but Kerry is not a political risk-taker. He tried to substitute biography for real strength on the war on terrorism. He used his history as a shield against criticism of his liberal anti-military record and whined about people “questioning his patriotism” whenever anyone dared criticize that record. In short, he has been acting like a whiny petulant little brat. Sadly, Kerry is likely to do much better than Dukakis did based only on the vicious hatred of Bush coming from the anti-war left, but given that Bush now has the momentum, I don’t see Kerry pulling significantly ahead unless he radically alters nearly everything in his campaign. While such a scenario is possible, it’s also highly unlikely. Instead, look to more of Kerry’s attempts at a smear campaign leading into a sound electoral defeat. John Kerry may have gone to Vietnam, but he doesn’t have what it takes to move into the Oval Office.

Roger L. Simon delivers the single biggest rebuke of Kerry I’ve ever seen:

The meme now skittering around the Internet that John Kerry 2004 equals Michael Dukakis 1988 may be true in that Kerry could be headed for a similar electoral disaster, but it is a huge insult to Michael Dukakis.

Dukakis, whatever his (considerable) deficiencies as a candidate, was a man who usually tried to fight for his principles, whether you agreed with them or not. Even in his worst moments like the stammering answer to the hypothetical about his wife being murdered during a debate on capital punishment, you see a man wrestling with his commitment to an issue.

Kerry is the opposite. He has never seemed committed to any issue. That goes back to the days when he supposedly was against the war in Vietnam and then volunteered to fight in it (the only one I knew of at Yale then to do such a thing – we all assumed it was resume padding for future electoral battles and we were right). And now he brags about his heroism in that same war after coming back to oppose it vehemently. No wonder Clinton is advising him to shut up. I’d advise him to resign. To have a man with this lack of values in the White House in this era is terrifying.

Ouch.

43 thoughts on “The Return Of Dukakis

  1. This — radically altering just about everything in his campaign — has been suggested elsewhere. But I don’t see how that is possible

    The campaign’s main problem is Kerry himself; his thin record as a legislator, his apparent lack of judgment and leadership skills, his lack of vision, his indecisiveness and his general unlikability.

    Also, there’s the fraud that lies at the root of the Kerry campaign: electability. The D’s knew that voters would reject someone representative of their views on national security (Dean). The D’s also wouldn’t nominate someone who disagreed with their views (Lieberman) regardless of his electability. So they settled for Kerry — someone who shares their dovish view on national security, but who they thought they could market as a hawk.

    Kerry’s campaign’s main problem is that contradiction between who his record shows he is, and what he wants voters to believe he is.

    I think the D’s expected that their allies in the media would make this work by hiding the contradictions. But that’s not working anymore. Worse for Kerry, the media’s partisanship is becoming a story in itself, and even people who don’t follow politics closely will hear about the media being in the tank with Kerry and see plenty of evidence for that. I think that matters; people will distrust the mainstream media’s reporting on Kerry, and the mainstream media might even start thinking about how badly they’re willing to betray their audience now that their audience will find out that they’re habitually and systematically lied to for no better reason than D partisanship.

  2. his apparent lack of judgment and leadership skills

    How is it, exactly, that you come to that conclusion?

    the media’s partisanship is becoming a story in itself

    In the face of how long the Swift Boat lies had legs, I don’t see how anyone can come to the conclusion that there’s a “liberal media.”

    A liberal media, for instance, would have been all over the lies promulgated at the RNC, for instance.

  3. Now Kerry find himself in the middle of an official inquiry into his medals

    Wasn’t there a time when you guys tried to hide the fact that you were part of the right-wing conspiracy?

    What does it mean, then, that now we can have a right-wing group ask a rightwing attorney general to investigate his right-wing boss’ political opponent, and nobody stops and says “hrm, wait a minute, isn’t that maybe using the machinery of state to pervert the democratic process?”

    I liked it better when you right-wingers at least pretended to be on the side of democracy and accountability of government.

  4. Lack of judgment: his voting record, especially on defense; e.g. voting no on the Gulf War and voting to defund intel programs after the WTC bombing. His cavalier attitude towards his official duties is also cause for concern. In terms of pure politics, I think it was a mistake to run on his 4 months in Vietnam and leave it to the R’s define his
    legislative record. His “midnight madness” speech last Thursday wasn’t a very good idea either. I also think it shows poor judgment that he’s been hiding from reporters for over a month now.

    Lack of leadership skills: thin legislative record; strong tendency to blame underlings for everything that goes wrong; also, his campaign’s not-ready-for-prime-time-ness (spokesmen contradicting each other; blaming dirty tricksters at NASA for the unflattering bunny suit pix) reflects poorly on his ability to make decisions and delegate.

  5. It’s pretty simple to understand, no conspiracy necessary:

    Kerry took credit for a medal that doesn’t exist, from a Secretary of the Navy who disavows giving it to him.

    He pinned that medal and dubious others to his fatigues and used them to tell a whopper about Cambodia. He told it to Congress and he told it to the people. He also pissed off nearly every serviceman and servicewoman by telling stories of atrocities that he didn’t personally witness.

    And he’s done nothing exceptional since.

    So, what’s the big deal? If you can’t come up with a better candidate than this, you deserve to lose!

  6. Lack of leadership. I’ve been trying to find anyone who can give me ONE piece of legislation that Kerry authored in his Senate carreer. The only bill I’ve been able to come up with is the beaut to reduce intelligence spending by $6B that he brought to the floor after the first WTC bombing. Even Ted Kennedy voted against it.

    And I must say, the man just isn’t too bright. If he doesn’t know that there are lots of vets (and even lots of non-vets) who would like to see him tried for treason he’s been living in a cave for past 30 years. He could have easily taken the steam out of the Swiftvets back in March or April. But his ego got in the way.

    Kerry is unfit to be Commander in Chief. He can’t make a decision, won’t take responsibility, is accountable to no one, and seems to come unhinged when challenged. If he can’t handle 250 irritated old Navy guys, what’s he going to do when he has to deal with Iran and North Korea? I for one don’t want to find out.

  7. I believe that a Kerry candidacy for President represents a price this nation must pay for not having tried, convicted and executed or imprisoned those who have knowingly committed treason during war, precisely as Federal law requires.

    John Kerry, Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, FRONT AND CENTER!!!

  8. First, it is Kerry’s job to prove leadership, instead of ours to disprove it. He, after all, is the challenger. Mr. Bush, on the other hand, besides being the incumbant, and thus not having to prove his ability to lead, has done just that. Not for everyone, but at least for probably half the voting population AND a large marjority of the military.

    On the other hand, what has Mr. Kerry shown of leadership?

    He was made an officer and a gentleman by Act of Congress. Thus, those working for him had to follow him, or face Court Marshal. But it is telling that of the Swift Boat veterans who have picked sides, he has a handful on his side, and over 260, the vast majority, against him.

    This is arguably because they appear to view his service as being all about him. On the one hand, he would take unnecessary chances, risking lives, while disobeying orders. On the other hand, he would go back the next day and film his exploits. Are these the actions of a leader? 260+ of his Swift Boat compatriots do not think so. And then, there were his post-Vietnam statements and actions. While this may have been a matter of his heart, they feel that he sold them out for his own personal advantage by claiming that they participated in war crimes.

    Then there is the blame game. He blames a Secret Service agent, sworn to take a bullet for him, for hitting him, while it is much more likely he failed to see the guy in his blind spot over his shoulder when snowboarding (seen it dozens of times with riders of his skill level). Or blaming a speech writer for a misstatement. Or blaming not attacking the Swift Boat Veterans quickly enough on his staff. A true leader does just the opposite – taking the blame for failures, but passing any acclaim for success to those under him.

    A leader puts the welfare of his followers first. Every indication is that the only welfare that Mr. Kerry cares about is his own.

    Another attribute of a leader is vision. Mr. Kerry may have some, but I, as well as most Americans, have yet to see any of it from it during this election.

    Mr. Kerry has had twenty years in the Senate, a term as Lt. Governor, and, yes, his tour in Vietnam, to show leadership. In those 20 years in the Senate, he has never lead. One term Senators have bills named after themselves. He has none. Pretty much all we know about his service there was what he voted against (most of our current weapons systems, funding troops in Iraq, intelligence gathering, tax cuts, etc.) and for (tax increases, cutting defense and intelligence, Communists in Nicuragua). He has invested almost nothing in political capital in anything there in 20 years.

    He may have some leadership qualities. I am just waiting to see them, as are the American People. Until, and unless he can, I don’t see him winning the Presidency.

  9. I would like to see the mantra “If Kerry had responded to the SVFT charges earlier…” dropped. I’m a USAF vet and I guarantee that once the Swifties opened that can, there was no way that it would ever be anything but worms for that expletive deleted John F. Kerry. The second he started talking about his war history outside of MA, he was toast.

    There is no way any of us that heard him talk at those hearings would ever stand down and allow him to become CIC! The biggest war crime to come out of Viet Nam was John Kerry’s testimony to Congress!

  10. Howard,

    I was one of those vets who believed Kerry in ’71. (What did I know? I spent ALL my “in country” time in the Tonkin Gulf.) By ’80 and 2+ million dead I learned the truth. The very hardest way.

    I will never ever forgive that whole bunch for deluding me (or myself for being such a fool). Now I can let the past lie. All Kerry had to do was to say he was wrong. If he had given an apology no better than Fonda’s I would have put the matter down. But ole john can’t have it both ways. In this time of war there is not much room for the anti-war war hero.

    –==–

    Steal this sig:

    Why did John Kerry meet three times with the representatives of the Viet Cong and Communist North Vietnam?

    Some times it takes a while to sell out your country.

    New Soldier html

    What is the War Hero Afraid of?
    Form 180. Release ALL the records

  11. “In short, he has been acting like a whiny petulant little brat.”

    Yes. Why am I not surprised? I would argue that has been his consistent behavior since he emerged on the public scene in 1971.

  12. one-mad-marine,

    The only people who should have been put on trial and punished for their actions during Vietnam are the American soldiers who raped, killed or otherwise brutalized innocent Vietnamese civilians and the politicans and generals who sanctioned their actions. The entire war was one gigantic atrocity and courageous citizens like Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden and John Kerry should be commended for speaking against it.

  13. I like “elite media”. The biggies left the mainstream years ago and, in light of the recent lies (see AP’s world-wide prevarication re non-existent boos when Bush wished Clinton well) and suppression of actual stories (see, SBVT), won’t be big much longer. I still have not seen any description of them (the Swiftees) in the elite media other than singing the Kerry/Edwards tune. Third finger, any recollection where you saw stories?

  14. Alex, do your homework or move to China, where your misinformed BS will meet sympathetic ears. Until and unless you do, confine your play to the kiddie pool. Adults are conversing here.

  15. Larry,

    Substantive rebuttal – I wonder what the family of the 10 year old boy my father shot and killed in Vietnam would have to say (he struggles to this day with remorse and regret over his actions), never mind the thousands of innocents that your Air Force and Navy colleagues bombed out of existence.

  16. Wow, funny how Labor Day weekend seems to have brought a giant batch of right-wing loons out of their cocoon. Kind of ironic how the institution of organized labor has provided political ideologues who largely despise it the opportunity to sit on their asses in front of a home computer the first Monday of September and spew RNC talking points.

    Off-topic, but an amusing observation.

  17. “Adults are conversing here”: well, maybe adults preparing “the late show”?:
    1-Jane Fonda, Tom hayden and John Kerry should have been shot for treason.

    2-Why did John Kerry meet three times with the representatives of the Viet Cong and Communist North Vietnam?
    Some times it takes a while to sell out your country.

    3-Assuming that there is a right-wing conspiracy, why wouldn’t the left form its own conspiracy to counter it?

    Maybe it’s hard for some people to understand, but being adult isn’t just about your age…

    Confronting ideas is more interesting than repeating the same arguments among your already-convinced-noding-friends…unless your ideas are crap, and that you can’t justify them otherwise…

    From a really safer world,

  18. I’m glad you right-wing guys have nothing to offer but personal attacks. It relieves me of the duty of having to refute any sort of substantial argument.

    Now, could one of you guys explain why Bush isn’t running on his record? Why his website has more pictures of Kerry than of Bush?

    What is it about Bush’s record that he feels the need to run from? Oh, right – it’s a record of miserable failure.

  19. Alex, your father’s story is of course disturbing, but before I convince him of a CRIME I would like to know whether he deliberately shot an unarmed ten year old boy. His regret and remorse leads me to doubt it. No doubt war crimes were committed, but I am unready to believe that your father had the conscious intention to shoot and unarmed ten year old. That he did apparantly made him feel like a criminal, but I say, so far, not guilty, or at least not proven. And of course, generalization from a single case says nothing about the behavior of other troops, particularly since most of the winter soldier stories remain unproven themselves and in some cases clearly disproven. Of course I’m in no position to know, but just from what you’ve said I believe your father feels like a criminal but is unlikely to actually be one.

  20. Alex,

    If your dad shot a child deliberately then he is a murderer. Period. Circumstances, location, nationality, religion, all those things are irrelevant. Whether it be in uniform or out of uniform, in Vietnam or in the US (or on the Moon), whether the killer is American, Vietnamese or Arab. It doesn’t matter.

  21. Alex, your father deserves credit for his service, but you deserve nothing for spouting what you don’t know anything about.

    You might have just been born. You never saw what happened. You didn’t get spit on and called every name in the book, but I and many others did.

    If you weren’t part of it, you can spout all you want, but you sound more ignorant and stupid with every stinking Demo sound bite you utter.

    By the way, most vets would give more than you know to have Kerry, Fonda and Hayden within arms’ length. The result would not be pretty.

    To call them anything positive displays your abject ignorance.

    Our Federal laws provide for imprisonment or execution for treason conducted during war. John Kerry, Jane Fonad and Tom Hayden among many others committed treason, bragged about it and flaunted it at the nation. We execute spies for less.

    Why do they deserve anything less than what the law provides for?

  22. M. Simon,

    REMEMBER, Veterans Day falls on November 2d this year.

    Let’s all give John F*ing Kerry a gift he’ll never forget.

  23. Mark,

    Three cheers for the good blokes that have provided the wealth for us to take this day off!

    For organized labor, may the dues one day be spent on something other than electing democrats and may the taxes – well – not be taxed (except for the essentials), and the earnings remain with its members. The same goes for the rest (as applicable).

  24. I thought that I asked an intelligent question about why there isn’t a left wing conspiracy. Instead I am accused of repeating arguments.

    So let me hypothesize on what I would consider a left wing conspiracy to look like.

    First, people in this conspiracy would move freely between 527s and the DNC. The media would not mention this. Leftist performers would put on a tour within the 60 day limit for window that McCain-Feingold put in place for ad blackouts. These concerts should be couched in get out the vote language but the performers should spend their time on stage letting the fans know who they should vote for.

    Also, the conspiracy would have performers on talk shows bring up their choice for president while insulting the current president.

    Any other ideas on how a left-wing conspiracy should be run?

  25. This comes from http://www.blackfive.net

    As a fellow vet and paratrooper, gotta agree with this one:

    How liberals do defy the mind
    For nothing in theirs’ can we find,
    That willingly will look with reason
    At how their man committed treason,
    Skulked off to Paris this effete
    To grovel at the Madame’s feet,
    Betraying his sworn officer’s oath
    To become the turncoat we so loathe.

    Our law is clear you shall not treat
    With America’s foes nor their cadres meet;
    Give aid nor comfort to enemy forces
    Nor espouse a view from hostile sources.

    Without a mandate from the state
    Wherefrom your right to negotiate?
    Was treason, John, and is treason still
    To this very day your unpaid bill.

    Don’t try to hide behind your youth.
    You knew the law you knew the truth.
    You knew your faux negotiation
    Would further tear our war-torn nation

    And all for what, John, your career
    So you can shameless brazen here,
    And claim now that you’re fit to lead
    The very nation you made bleed?

    And yet before us there you stand
    With medals blazing you demand
    Such treachery we must ignore
    Your treason that lost us our war.

    But hold on, John, we veterans say,
    You had your turn, now comes our day.
    You thought we slept, forgot your crime?
    Oh no, John boy, it’s come our time.

    Some say let you apologize
    But that won’t do it in our eyes.
    A man astride of each position
    Could we believe your true contrition?

    The vindication we’ll accept
    In settling up this long-held debt,
    Is each of us will do his best
    To deny you, John, your lifelong quest.

    Listen carefully John to what we say,
    November 2nd is Veterans’ Day.

    Russ Vaughn
    2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
    101st Airborne Division
    Vietnam 65-66

  26. Alex,

    I’m sorry your dad suffers. However, for those who wheren’t around back then, the Viet Cong often used children and women to smuggle weapons and carry bombs. This doesn’t excuse any criminal acts by our soldiers but when a murderous enemy could, literally, be anyone you encounter it is quite a bit different than conventional warfare.

  27. First, people in this conspiracy would move freely between 527s and the DNC.

    Who exactly are you talking about here, out of curiosity?

    Any other ideas on how a left-wing conspiracy should be run?

    None of what you mentioned sounds like a conspiracy, though.

    It sounds like people with access to the media engaging in free speech.

    A conspiracy would be something like making sure 90,000 minority voters in Florida were wrongfully stricken from the voting rolls. A conspiracy would be more arrests in New York in one day of the RNC than any other day in New York history (and holding those people well beyond the time allowed by law.) In other words a conspiracy is using the machinery of government to eliminate dissent.

    People get to speak their minds about which candidate they support; some people get to speak their minds on TV. That’s not indicative of a conspiracy unless you’re an idiot.

  28. What I enjoy most is that the Swift Boaters don’t criticize the truthfulness of Kerry’s testimony to Congress; they simply mention how deeply their feelings were hurt.

    Get over it, guys.

  29. Would it be like trying to invalidate military votes or only doing recounts in counties that favor a particular party?

    Did they do those things in secret, like the voter purges, or did they advocate those things in public?

    Would those things have been against the law, like the voter purges were? Or wasn’t it the case that the military votes arrived after the election deadlines?

    Ok, I looked at your link. I see some tenuous connections between people in the DNC that nobody’s ever heard of and some 527’s that nobody’s ever heard of. I’m not really impressed. Oh, and you should know that MoveOn.org isn’t a 527.

  30. Arguing with someone who wants to invent conspiracy stories is pointless.

    Oh, for god’s sake.

    I find it very significant that you have nothing to bring to your own website besides ad hominem attacks against people who actually bother to look at the data.

    Hell, who needs truth when barbed cliches will serve, right Jay?

  31. Unless I’m mistaken, MoveOn.org is a 527 group, in that they air commercials that are legal due to that particular clause of Campaign Finance Reform.

  32. Slow down everbody – I sometimes forget the remarkable amount of passion any discussion of Vietnam still provokes, and perhaps rightly so. I have a tremendous amount of respect for my father’s service in Vietnam, and according to him, the boy he killed may or may not have been a combatant. As several have commented, this was one of the disturbing features of the war in Vietnam. None of this changes the fact that a child was killed, something I think we’re all accountable for, whether we participated in the war or not. But regardless of my respect for the men and women who served in uniform then and who still do so now, I reserve my right and affirm my responsibility as an American citizen to criticize the actions of my government and those who act on its behalf. Atrocities were committed in Vietnam on both sides. Atrocities continue to be committed today, all over the world. We have a solemn duty as citizens of the most powerful and most respected democracy in the world to hold our country accountable to the lofty content of our creeds. I have never understood why some equate criticism with treason. As far as I can tell, when we criticize the United States we are in fact living up to our most patriotic ideal.

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