History Weighing In Early
usually this stuff doesn't come out 'til at least the body has cooledNEWSWEEK: Historian [sic] Douglas Brinkley, author of a wartime biography of Kerry, cautioned that Kerry's diary included mention of a meeting with some North Vietnamese terrorists in Paris. Edwards was flabbergasted. "Let me get this straight," the senator said. "He met with terrorists? Oh, that's good."
One of the little gems in the NEWSWEEK "exposé" of the campaign. Others include a characterization of TeRAYzha as a difficult, petulant, controlling, spoiled lush European bon vivant. [shocked I tell you...] And the candidate himself as amazed that not everyone luurved him -- while being manipulative with his own approval and 'affection.'
The last section of the 'special report' released today is difficult slogging, as compared to the marshmallow fluff of the previous bits. Pushing the sympathetic view of Kerry as 'deeply wounded' by the Swiftie's 'unfair' attacks, it is about as partisan a piece as I've seen -- a fact of which it seems blissfully unaware.
Discussing Kerry's withdrawal during August;
But mostly, in the last days of August, he disappeared inside [the Nantucket house], away from his staff. A silence descended over the candidate, a disturbing, distant quiet. His aides looked at his stony stare and tried to read his mind. They wondered, was he back in Vietnam?
Brilliant. In one swell foop this statement not only wrings sympathy for the besieged Kerry but re-evokes and normalizes that view he, himself, created, of Viet Nam vets as moody, disordered beings prone to unaccountable withdrawals [and that would be good in a POTUS how?!?] The blithe unawareness of the irony in their mixed messages is boggling. I found key insight into the psyche of the DhimmoCrap party as a whole in this story.
Carville was working himself up to a confrontation. On the Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend, with the Republicans basking in the success of their convention, he decided to try to force the issue. Along with Clinton's old pollster Stan Greenberg, Carville went to see Mary Beth Cahill and Joe Lockhart at the Kerry campaign headquarters on 15th Street. Greenberg was soft-spoken and generally supportive of the Kerry team, though he did offer a critique demonstrating that Kerry's speeches sounded about five different themes without any organizing principle. Carville, however, was so worked up that he began to cry. He wanted so badly to beat Bush, he said, yet the Kerry campaign was failing miserably. Carville came right out and said that Cahill had to step aside and let Lockhart, the Clintonista newcomer, run the campaign. "You've got to let him do it!" implored Carville, pounding Lockhart's arm until it was bruised. Carville spoke as if Mary Beth weren't in the room. "Nobody can gain power without someone losing power. If somebody doesn't lose power, nobody's gained power," he lectured. The "somebody" sitting a few feet away just remained silent. Carville threatened to go on "Meet the Press" the next day "and tell the truth about how bad it is" if Cahill didn't give effective control to Lockhart.
Politics has long been a vicious game, but if someone came at me with tears and blackmail as tactics to change my mind, I b'lieve I would be forced to reconsider my alliances. The emotionality, the black and white thinking, and the general incapacity to look to the core object, candidate and message/Values and Vision, instead of squabbling over the window dressing, staff and methodology/strategy and tactics, is clear evidence of the source of their ineffectiveness. And dangerousness. Despite the article's repetition some of the DNC's spin points as though they are part of reality, it portrays Kerry as alone in the midst of the whirl of a campaign, unable to relate to any one individual yet obsessively seeking the opinions of hundreds - until Sasso had to take away his cell phone. Repeatedly. Kerry would go with the opinion he had heard most recently.
For months Kerry had been the oldest political person on his campaign plane by about 20 years. He may have liked to be a loner, playing his guitar and watching old movies, but he needed a grown-up to advise him and deliver bad news if necessary.
Whew! Dodged Ducked that bullet.
Is this WordPress?
Posted by Herr Schwantz on 11/09/04 at 01:27 AMI’m going to miss Tuh-RAY-zuh, The Human Flesh Eating Virus.
Posted by on 11/09/04 at 06:10 PM
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