Kerry Haters: We're Not Fonda John

 
Look Out, Here Comes the Master Race!

The Times has an editorial entitled Springtime for John Kerry.

 
Proof Kerry is Not a Vampire!

Note the text accompanying this photo of Jean-Claude Kerry:

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), D-Mass., casts a shadow as he skiis on his vacation at Sun Valley in Ketchum, Idaho Saturday, March 20, 2004.

 
No, No, I Said Bling It On!

President Bush comes out swinging.

"It's pretty clear how he's going to fill the tax gap," Bush told a rally of 13,000 supporters in Orlando, Florida. "He's going to tax all of you. Fortunately, you're not going to give him that chance."

 
Flapjack Kerry

Kevin McCullough's entry in the "Name Flipper" contest. However, he's got a better reason than most for Kerry's startling mood-changes:

Kerry is bothered by the reality he has created. That is, he cooks on one side until the heat gets too hot then he flips.

That is classic.

 
Serial Flopper?

Seems Kerry slipped on his way into a c-store yesterday.

Best bit though was about the reaction of a fellow diner at lunch:

Kerry got a taste of local hostility when he lunched with his wife Thursday at the Warm Springs ski area. An octogenarian at a nearby table loudly told his date, "I see the idiot is here."

 
The Assassination Game, Part Quatre

The Kansas City Star, a Knight-Ridder paper, waddles in with a story on Kerry's presence at the VVAW assassination plot meeting.

A statement Thursday by Kerry's camp said the Massachusetts Democrat did not recall the meeting, although FBI surveillance material and the group's archives clearly show that Kerry resigned from his national coordinator post at that November 1971 meeting.

"Oh, THAT meeting where we discussed shooting John Tower and Strom Thurmond? I had completely forgotten about it."

 
John Kerry's Smarter Brother?

Pretty good picture comparison.

 
Site Update

Added a couple new blogs to my Anti-Kerry section, starting with a Vietnam Special Forces Vet Against Kerry. From the site:

This site is not against the Democrats, it is against John Kerry, it does not look at any other issue other than his military service, the anti-war movement and how he has dealt with Vietnam's Human Rights.

Thank you for serving your country, sir.

Second site is Right-Wing and Right-Minded. Not solely dedicated to decimating John Kerry, but with lots of cool stuff. Well worth the visit.

Third up is POW/MIA Families Against Kerry. As they say:

John Kerry abandoned our husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers in favor of trade and normalization of relations with Vietnam.

Last, but certainly not least, is Green Beret Net's take on Kerry. This quote should give you a hint of the take:

Why Don't We Just Elect Jane Fonda & Just Be Done With It ???

Thank you for your service, sir.

 
The Assassination Game Part Trois

Following up on the earlier post, here are some quotes from Josh Gerstein's explosive article:

“John Kerry had no personal recollection of this meeting 33 years ago,” a Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, said in a statement e-mailed last night from Idaho, where Mr. Kerry is on vacation.

Mr. Wade said Mr. Kerry does remember “disagreements with elements of VVAW leadership” that led to his resignation, but the statement did not specify what the disagreements were.

“If there are valid FBI surveillance reports from credible sources that place some of those disagreements in Kansas City, we accept that historical footnote in the account of his work to end the difficult and divisive war,” the statement said.

Just to check, I looked up David Wade on the Kerry website. Here's the campaign bio of Mr. Wade. Actually calling it a bio is a bit misleading; it's more like a Mo Do culture quiz.

 
The Assassination Game Part Deux

The New York Sun seems to be scooping everybody on the VVAW assassination plot story. Nobody can accuse them of burying the lead:

Senator Kerry of Massachusetts yesterday retreated from his earlier steadfast denials that he attended a meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War at which a plan to assassinate U.S. Senators was debated.

So far the mainstream media are staying away from this story, but I came across a link to the story in ABC's blog, The Note.

 
Rowback for Kerry

In the spirit of Patrick Healy (see post immediately below), I thought I would perform a public service for John Kerry and "fix" up some of his comments.

For example, Kerry has been the subject of merciless "attacks" by the Vice President and other members of the Republican Smear Machine. At first blush, this might seem like a response to Kerry's call:

"The president wants to run on national security," Kerry said. "Well, if George Bush wants to make national security the central issue in 2004, I have three simple words for him I know he understands: Bring it on."

However, after listening to the tape, I am convinced that the reporters got it wrong. What Kerry actually said was "Bling it on," referring to his desire that the President shower him with gold necklaces and other jewelry.

Kerry also reportedly said the following:

"I actually did vote for his $87 billion, before I voted against it."

But by slowing down the tape and listening to it carefully, I am convinced that what Kerry really said was, "I actually didn't vote for his $87 billion, before I voted against it." See the difference? No flip-flop there.

 
Maybe it was "Moron Leaders"

Boston Globe Reporter Patrick Healy claims he mistranscribed from his notes. He says that after reviewing the audiotape, he concluded that Kerry actually said "more leaders" and not "foreign leaders".

Of course, this does not fit the context of Kerry's comments as Healy makes clear:

When Kerry concluded his stump to the Florida fundraisers and donors, Milton Ferrell, Kerry's Florida finance chair, piped up:

MILTON FERRELL: "This is more than just the 50 states. You travel around outside the states, the people are still [inaudible] Europeans and elsewhere, they're counting on the American people. They hate Bush, but they know we're going to get rid of him. They're counting on us. [inaudible] It's a lot more than just [inaudible]-"

KERRY: "I've been hearing it, I'll tell ya. The news, the coverage in other countries, the news in other places. I've met more leaders who can't go out and say it all publicly, but boy they look at you and say, you gotta win this, you gotta beat this guy, we need a new policy, things like that. So there is enormous energy out there. Tell them, whereever they can find an American abroad, they can contribute," a reference to donations, prompting laughter from the crowd.

 
Kerry's Nuts

(Via Kausfiles) ABC's the Note summarizes Nuancy Boy's gaffes. Most of them will be familiar to readers of this blog, but here's one I hadn't heard about:

8. Buying a jockstrap in front of the press corps. Just weird.

 
Drudge Weirdness?

Drudge was reporting earlier this morning that a Kerry foreign policy advisor had stated that Kerry would not accept the endorsements of foreign leaders. However, the story, which was not linked, has disappeared.

(Later addition: Story confirmed).

 
What Polls?

Robert Moran has a great piece commenting on the silence of the major media about the latest CBS/NY Times poll that shows Bush leading Kerry. He provides the analysis they have ignored. Key item:

Kerry is still mostly a blank slate, and the Bush campaign has a chalk warehouse.

Heh. I have a hunch by election time Kerry will be a chalk outline on the street. (Later addition: I mean a metaphorical chalk outline of course).

 
F'ing Secret Service!

Kerry was "taken out" by a Secret Service agent on the ski slopes yesterday according to the NY Times:

His next trip down, a reporter and a camera crew were allowed to follow along on skis — just in time to see Mr. Kerry taken out by one of the Secret Service men, who had inadvertently moved into his path, sending him into the snow.

But Kerry, man of the people, was ever forgiving:

When asked about the mishap a moment later, he said sharply, "I don't fall down," then used an expletive to describe the agent who "knocked me over."

 
A Little Lower and the Opposite End

(Via Useful Fools) Randal Robinson has a great new Kerry campaign poster.

 
Tasty Manatees (mmm, manatees) has a scanned copy of John Kerry's position paper on defense that he used in his 1984 initial run for the Senate, and observes:

John Kerry's brilliant hindsight won't help our soldiers in the field, and it certainly won't bring the victims of terrorists back from the dead.

I want foresight, not hindsight.

In fairness, Kerry does disown some of those positions. But hey, who says we have to be fair at Kerryhaters?

 
Sage Advice from the Most Trusted Man in America

Walter Cronkite advises Kerry to embrace his liberalism. He expands on the grey theme:

Certainly your sensitivity to nuance, your ability to see shades of gray where George Bush sees only black and white, explains some of your difficulty.

Curiously, Katrina vanden Heuvel makes a similar point in The Nation.

Isn't it time, after more than twenty years of conservative ascendancy, for liberals to take the offensive, stop biting their tongues and declare forcefully--I'm a liberal and proud of it!

It isn't often that I agree with these two.

 
Dodgeball is Hateful

The Wheeling News-Messenger takes Kerry's staff to task for refusing to answer the question of which foreign leaders have expressed their support for him. Fun bit:

Questions about precisely which foreign leaders want Kerry to win are "preventing him from talking about what he wants to talk about," Shelton emphasized.

Awwwww!

 
Bush Uses Kerry Statement In Ad

Nuancy Boy's dopey comment, "I actually did vote for his $87 billion, before I voted against it," is moving into the Dukakis-in-a-tank category of political blunders. Bush has added the quote to an ad.

Note also the griping from the Kerry camp about Cheney being "an attack dog". Funny, that's part of the job description for a VP nominee.

 
Ketchum Worried About Ketchup

Yet another downside to a Kerry presidency.

 
Kerry Picks Up Another Key Endorsement

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad endorsed Democratic contender John Kerry today, although he did warn that Kerry would not be able to do much:

"But in the U.S., the Jewish lobby is very strong, and any American who wants to become president cannot change the policy toward Palestine radically," he said.

That darn Jewish lobby!

 
Kerry's Structural Weaknesses

Noam Scheiber has a good article about Kerry's innate weaknesses. Bottom line:

Kerry's third structural weakness is that having a reputation for being both a liberal and a flip-flopper is a combustible combination: Whatever you do to rebut one charge just confirms the other.

 
Deborah Orin notes Kerry's surprising repudiation of Howard Dean's comments about President Bush being responsible for the bombings in Spain, and his suggestion that the new Spanish PM-elect reconsider his pledge to pull troops out of Iraq.

Kerry's slippage came after an amateurish week in which he claimed unnamed foreign leaders are egging him on to beat Bush, and attacked Republicans as liars and crooks when he didn't realize he was on a live microphone.

While both positions are welcome, Kerry's just playing politics. He doesn't need to throw any more red meat to the lefties; he is following Nixon's dictum of running to the center.

 
The Assassination Game

The question of whether Kerry was present at a meeting of the VVAW during which the assassination of Southern senators was discussed continues to resonate.

Nicosia told CNSNews.com he was uncomfortable disputing Kerry's statements.

"I am in kind of an awkward position here. I am a Kerry supporter and I certainly don't want to do anything that hurts him. On the other hand, my number one allegiance is to truth. So I am going to go with where the facts are, and John is going to have to deal with that," Nicosia said.

 
2+2=16

The Washington Times approvingly cites a new Bush ad which notes that Kerry's spending promises and budget reduction promises don't add up. Best bit:

For Mr. Kerry to meet his deficit goal, it suddenly becomes clear that he would have to raise taxes hundreds of billions of dollars more than he has so far implied. And, quite obviously, not only on "the rich."

 
Pants on Fire

John Henke catches Kerry's blog in some misrepresentations.

 
Mickey Kaus links to an interesting article. Key Points:

Equally worrisome to the party was the record low turnout in the Democratic primaries, down 18 percent by mid-April. Democratic turnout was down 39 percent in New York alone over 1988, hitting new lows as well in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Texas. That was further proof that Kerry was not attracting broad support from his own party, let alone the independents and working-class swing Democrats who are critical to any hope of a Democratic victory.

"The drop in the turnout has to terrify the Democratic Party, [a former senator] said.

It is little wonder, then, that a growing number of Democrats are only questioning Kerry's electability in the fall.

Many Democratic strategists and party activists think he may be able to regain some of his credibility among his party. But many others fear that his candidacy has been so badly damaged during the early primary process that he will find it nearly impossible to slough off his considerable negatives in a climate of widespread voter cynicism, suspicion, and anger toward all politicians.

In over three decades of political reporting, I cannot recall a time when some of the Democratic Party's senior strategists and adviser have spoken with such brutal candor about their likely nominee and his perceived weaknesses. Here's what some of them are saying:

"The negatives are forming on John Kerry like a political stalactite, drop by drop," said veteran Democratic consultant David Sawyer. "Each drip leaves a residue that builds on his negative image."

"The halls of Congress are filled with Democrats wringing their hands over their prospective nominee," Sawyer said.

Okay, I pulled a fast one on you. The comments are not about John Kerry, but about Bill Clinton in 1992. Something to remember when we're feeling overly confident.

 
A Sandalista and Proud of It!

Looks like Kerry's comment, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it," is fated to be hung around his neck for the next 7-1/2 months (is the election really that soon?) Hugh Hewitt has a take here. Choice cut:

A long career in Massachusetts politics simply means intoning respectful nods towards Ted Kennedy and mouthing Harvard seminar sentences, as prolix as they are inconsequential (and frequently self-contradicting). Kerry has trained in a political land that requires none of the skills that a campaign extending to all corners of America requires.

 
Are Democrats Paranoid Schizophrenics?

Michael Barone points out that Kerry was forced into his contradictory positions on Iraq (voting for the War Resolution, but against the funding) by the schizophrenic nature of the Democrats.

He is like the politician who says, "Some of my friends are for the bill, and some of my friends are against the bill, and I’m always with my friends."

 
The Best Defense Is a Good Offense

(Via Instapundit) Bill Hobbs notes that Kerry's position on the War on Terror seems to be reactive. Pull quote:

For John Kerry, our "first responders" in the War on Terror are the people who respond to an attack with firehoses, bulldozers and cadaver dogs. For President George Bush, our "first responders" are the 101st Airborne, the Third Infantry Division, the Navy and the Air Force.

Excellent post, highly recommended.

 
Random Musings

Watched Kerry give a speech the other day to the Firefighters union IAFF. After reading Mo-Do's column on his impassive features, I was curious to see him for myself. First impression: Kerry sucks as a speaker (no surprise there; most campaign events for Nuancy Boy these days are an hour of accolades from other speakers, followed by a five minute stemwinder that seems longer than Bill Clinton's speech at the 1988 DNC. Second impression: his forehead never moves. Looks to me like the botox story is true.

I'm a long time L-Dotter at Lucianne Goldberg's website. I love the way that website works, with posters putting up the headline and opening paragraph of news articles, and other posters commenting on them. I've stolen a few jokes from them, even.

But (you knew there had to be a but) one thing that I find odd about the site is the absolute paranoia many of the posters there have over the Clintons. Many L-Dotters are absolutely convinced that if Kerry's poll numbers are tanking during the summer, that Kerry will be pushed aside in favor of Hillary. I don't think there's a chance in the world that will happen myself. For one thing, Hillary is much better off waiting unless Kerry is likely to win. If Kerry's sinking, it will probably be because Bush is perceived as doing well on the economy and the war. Why would Hillary think she could change that? In 2008 Bush will be term-limited out and there is no heir apparent on the Republican side.

(Later addition: My joke about Kerry's intro taking an hour versus a 5 minute speech that sounds like it takes forever is too close to one of Steyn's jokes, and I'll admit I read his piece first. Steyn is amazing; we remember the best jokes and we steal the moderately funny ones without even knowing it.)

 
More Cheney

"Senator Kerry said, 'That's none of your business,' but it is our business when a candidate for president claims the political endorsement of foreign leaders. At the very least, we have a right to know what he is saying to them that makes them so supportive of his candidacy.''

Damn, he's good. Don't listen to the folks suggesting that you drop him from the ticket, President Bush!

 
AP Rowbacking for Kerry?

The Associated Press, in a story headlined "Kerry Criticizes Bush for Failed Policies" (note that they do not put Failed Policies in scare quotes), attempts to help Kerry out of his "foreign leaders love me" gaffe.

Spain's Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero indicated his dislike of Bush's policies during the Spanish election campaign when he said he hoped Kerry would win in November. The International Herald Tribune recently quoted Zapatero as saying: "We're aligning ourselves with Kerry. Our allegiance will be for peace, against war, no more deaths for oil, and for a dialogue between the government of Spain and the new Kerry administration."

Curiously, AP does NOT mention Zapatero's party affiliation, perhaps because it would be embarrassing to note that a Socialist PM-elect supports the Botoxicate Brahmin.

 
Man of the People

Drudge notes that Kerry is taking some r&r at his palatial estate in Sun Valley. Get this:

Gorgeous, 19.5 rooms at 7,749 square-feet, with a market value of $4.9 million [property taxes of more than $30,000 annually], Kerry's Idaho vacation getaway will be the setting of a Spring Break regroup and unwind, sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.

Who hasn't got a place like that?

 
Steve Hornbeck has a very witty take on John Kerry's attempt to schedule monthly debates with President Bush a la the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Favorite line:

All Kerry has to do is pull out some of his campaign literature, indicate the expiration date is January 29th or March 2nd or whatever and show that this particular Kerry position is long past its sell-by date.

 
Dueling Votes

Barbara Comstock laces into Kerry for his bizarre quote that "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." Best bit:

John Kerry was more interested in sending the "right signal" to the extremists in his party, whom he was trying to peel away from the soon-to-be unhinged Howard Dean. Or perhaps he was trying to send the "right signal" to all of those "foreign leaders" (or "more leaders") around the world who, he claims, want to see him as president.

 
Cheney Blasts Nuancy Boy

Dick Cheney gave a speech today at the Ronald Reagan library. Key quote:

"He speaks as if only those who openly oppose America's objectives have a chance of earning his respect."

 
Michael Dukhawkis?

Brendan Miniter has a great article in the WSJ. His argument is that Michael Dukakis was more of a hawk than John Kerry. Top observation:

Mr. Kerry will have to explain why voters should trust him to combat terrorism when, in the face of the Soviet threat, he favored an even weaker military than Mr. Dukakis did.

 
We Interrupt this Blog Again....

I will be out of town until Wednesday afternoon, so it's likely there will be no new posts until then. Good sources of anti-Kerry material until then are Lucianne, Kaus, and Real Clear Politics.

 
Bill Safire takes on Mr Ed's comment about "the most lying, you know, crooked group", notes Kerry's semi-apology and comments:

Kerry's pollsters apparently told him that his defiant embrace of the nasty crack backfired, and he was being tagged not as deliciously tough but as distastefully negative.

 
Nuancy Boy's comments about foreign leaders supporting his presidential bid continue to reverberate. Colin Powell called for their names on This Is Weak (Laura Ingraham joke). Paul Greenberg has a take here:

It was Senator Kerry who had to go blabbing it about. Not very smart. It's George W. Bush who's supposed to be the dummy in this race - if you believe the president's critics. The big problem with running against someone you consider a dummy, or want the voters to, is how easy it is to misunderestimate your opponent. That's been George W. Bush's great advantage in politics.

 
MIA on POWs

Found this picture linked at Lucianne.

 
Kerry Flip Flops on Cuba

Peter Wallsten adds another pair of sandals to Kerry's already formidable collection.

Then, reaching back eight years to one of the more significant efforts to toughen sanctions on the communist island, Kerry volunteered: ``And I voted for the Helms-Burton legislation to be tough on companies that deal with him.''

Turns out, of course, that Kerry voted against that legislation.

 
Rip Van Kerry?

The Boston Herald suggests that Kerry could use a little shut-eye. They appear to think that exhaustion accounts for some of the dumb things he says. However, their excuse for his "These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen," is a little backhanded here:

We fail to see how such an over-the-top statement could have been on purpose because it gains Kerry nothing. A typical Kerry MO is to tag his opponents with going negative first as cover for his own attacks.

They do chip in with another nickname--Lord of Louisville Square.