Kerry Haters: We're Not Fonda John

 
More Witty Wilgoren--Updated!

She really gets a few subtle digs at Nuancy Boy in every article--such a delight to read by comparison to Brinkley's tome.

Like a caged hamster, Senator John Kerry is restless on the road. He pokes at the perimeter of the campaign bubble that envelops him, constantly trying to break out for a walk around the block, a restaurant dinner, the latest movie.

Landing one sunny day in St. Louis, Mr. Kerry wandered off the airstrip to stroll through a grass patch, leaving his security detail trying to keep him in sight while scores of staff members, supporters, police officers and journalists waited without explanation for an hour. Another afternoon on another tarmac, he tossed a baseball, then a football, then hopped on a policeman's motorcycle for a spin, all in the space of 30 minutes. Late one evening in Harrisburg, Pa., Mr. Kerry jumped from the motorcade to greet some children on a street corner.

You may recall we highlighted the combination baseball and football throwing photo op, even mentioning the motorcycle ride. But, apropos of the photo with Le Fraude below on his bike, she notes:

At 60, Mr. Kerry is an avid and able athlete, though he sometimes seems physically awkward, with custom-made clothes hanging off his lanky frame as he pumps a fist at rallies.

And where former President Bill Clinton plays cards and President Bush turns to the treadmill, Senator Kerry strums his Spanish classical guitar in a kind of musical meditation. Lately, in the private front cabin of his campaign plane, he has been learning a new (old) song, "This Land Is Your Land."

Rolling my eyes here. Is this intended to be some sort of nod to the left, that he's learning old Woody Guthrie tunes? As I've commented before, Kerry seems to be stuck in some sort of time warp--the war in Vietnam is raging, and protest songs are hitting the top of the pop charts. This is the weirdest person to run for president in my lifetime, by a large margin. He makes Mike Dukakis look passionate, Al Gore look hip.

Update: Hugh Hewitt has the same take: How do you spell "weird?" Try "Kerry."

 
The Old Man and the Seat

 
John, What's Your Daughter's Phone Number?



The Big He and the Big Huh discuss the important issues.

 
He's Voting Bush



Phil Moschetta symbolizes Kerry's problems in New Jersey. We've highlighted the fact that the Garden State is in play in the past, the story under this photo agrees with us as to why:

Moschetta said he believes Bush has performed strongly in fighting terrorism, which is important in Middletown, a bedroom community of New York City, where 37 residents lost their lives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

 
Nader on the Ballot in Arizona

As I've commented before, I don't see Nuancy Boy having a great chance in AZ, but Nader appearing on the ballot won't make it any easier.

 
He'll Be Voting for Kerry

 
They'd Vote for Kerry if They Could IX

 
More on the LA Times Poll--Kerry Really Losing By Four!

Kitty posted a bit earlier on this quoting from Rush Limbaugh.

How does this compute? If Bush carries independents 49-46 and Republicans by 92-4, how does Kerry have a six-point [note--actually seven-point] lead? Because in the same poll, Kerry leads among Democrats by 86-7, not 92-4. With Bush carrying independents by three points in this poll, and holding more of his own party than does Kerry, the Times' sample, in order to give Kerry this lead, has to contain far more Democrats than Republicans!

Well, I fired up the old spreadsheet program and took a look, and doggone it if Rush isn't right. There is not quite enough information to make an exact calculation, but I can provide a range of solutions that illustrates the point.

First off, the poll says that there were 1230 registered voters surveyed. If we assumed that 20% of those polled were independents, then we can solve for the number of Republicans and Democrats required to produce the percentages show. First, based on the information given, we can say that President Bush was the choice of 541 voters, including 121 independents. Doing the math reveals that of the remaining 80% of those polled, 33.6% would have to be Republicans and 46.4% would have to be Democrats in order for Bush to end up with 541 votes. This would indicate that they polled 414 Republicans and 570 Democrats! In a sample of 1230 people they overpolled by 156 Democrats--approximately 13%.

You get slightly different results with different estimates for the percentage of independents. For example, if you assume that 30% of the respondents were independents, then Republicans made up 28.7% of the sample and Democrats 41.3%, but there is roughly the same numerical difference between the two--155 this time instead of 156.

Now, here's the fun part. Suppose we just balance out the LA Times Poll by adding 155 Republicans to the mix? We know that according to them, Bush would get 92% of those, or 143 votes, giving him a total of 684. Kerry would get 4% of them, or 6 votes, giving him a total of 634. With the new sample total of 1385 registered voters, Bush would have 49.7% of the vote, and Kerry would have 45.7% of the vote. Thus, it appears that what this poll reveals is that Kerry is actually behind by four points, not up by seven!

 
FLASHBACK



1988 Flashback: Kerry calls Reagan Presidency "Moral Darkness" in convention speech
Fri Jun 11 2004 12:32:42 ET
*** The Boston Globe Archives | July 21, 1988 | Walter V. Robinson ***
ATLANTA -- Michael Stanley Dukakis, a self-described "very, very long- shot" candidate just 16 months ago, last night became the Democratic nominee for president and his party's best hope to win the White House since 1976. Earlier, Sen. John F. Kerry took to the convention hall podium, telling the delegates that the "moral darkness" of President Reagan's presidency will soon end.
"A Republican president once reminded us, 'There is absolutely nothing to be said for a government of powerful men with the ideals of pawnbrokers,' " Kerry said.
"That president's name was Theodore Roosevelt. And today Theodore Roosevelt would be ashamed to be a Republican."
Said Kerry: "It is time we once again had a government of laws and not of lawbreakers."

 
Tour of Duty, Continued

Sometimes the effort at the greater glorification of John F. Kerry gets a bit flowery. Consider this passage:

One attribute of Kerry's served him particularly well: he was a first-rate listener--asking sincere questions, probing for information, paying attention to the nuances of every crack in a voice. He never acted the know-it-all. As a result, he became something of a ship's therapist, listening to everyone's beefs and thereby earning the clout that comes with the respect of one's peers.

Must stop gagging... and keep reading...

 
Kerry: Wrong Then....

Andrew Sullivan provides the quote:

"Are we rushing headlong into the next step of those 40 years of progressions by which we do something then they do something, by which we pretend that we're going to build this and it will somehow strengthen our deterrent then they do it, and low and behold, the next thing we know is, the President of the United States is addressing the nation saying, ‘My fellow Americans, I hate to tell you this, but the Soviet Union is deploying more of these, and we have to respond, and I'm asking the Congress for more money in order to respond.’ Star Wars is guaranteed to do that, and it's guaranteed to threaten the heavens -- the one line we haven't yet crossed with weaponry: the heavens." – Senator John Kerry, on SDI, the program that brought the evil empire to its knees, August 5, 1986.

Wrong Now

Within weeks of being inaugurated, I will return to the U.N. and I will literally, formally rejoin the community of nations and turn over a proud new chapter in America's relationship with the world, which will do a number of things. Number one, change how we're approaching North Korea. Number two, change how we're dealing with AIDS globally. Number three, change how we're doing with proliferation with Russia and other countries. Number four, change our approach to global warming and the effort of 160 nations.
Senator John Kerry on Meet the Press, April 18, 2004.

 
A Last Look

In his lifetime Ronald Reagan was such a cheerful and invigorating presence that it was easy to forget what daunting historic tasks he set himself. He sought to mend America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism. These were causes hard to accomplish and heavy with risk.

Yet they were pursued with almost a lightness of spirit. For Ronald Reagan also embodied another great cause - what Arnold Bennett once called `the great cause of cheering us all up'. His politics had a freshness and optimism that won converts from every class and every nation - and ultimately from the very heart of the evil empire.

Baroness Thatcher













Great speeches by Baroness Thatcher, Prime Minister Mulrooney, and both Presidents Bush. I'd write more, but I'm bawling right now.

 
Putin Gets Medieval on Democrats

He's not always on our side, but Russian President Vladmir Putin understands that the Democrats are wrong.

The Kremlin leader, answering a reporter's question in Sea Island, Georgia, suggested that the Democrats were two-faced in criticizing Bush on Iraq since it had been the Clinton administration that authorized the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia by U.S. and NATO forces.

He went on: "I am deeply convinced that President Bush's political adversaries have no moral right to attack him over Iraq because they did exactly the same.

"It suffices to recall Yugoslavia. Now look at them. They don't like what President Bush is doing in Iraq."

 
McAwful & McUgly



Finally, an entusiastic crowd for Kerry! Everybody's smiling and clapping and taking pictures!

Oh. It's the staff workers at the Democratic National Headquarters.

Kerry looks more and more like Gomer Pyle every day.

 
Kerry's Classy Fans

You might recall that we talked a few days ago about an online debate between Patrick Hynes, our buddy over at Crush Kerry, and Joe Patrick, a "grassroots" Kerry supporter and proprietor of Kerry Support (no link this time, for reasons that will become apparent).

As you will recall, we were rather amused by the debate. It was as if the anti-Kerry side was represented by Muhammed Ali, circa 1973, and the pro-Kerry side was represented by Richard Simmons, circa 2054.

Turns out Mr Patrick had some more "points" to make, and he made them in an email to Crush Kerry.

You back a p*ssy liar AWOL coward frat boy dumb Fudge*.

I will be glad to put and your minions in your place.

With the spirit and honorable joy of our Founding Fathers by my side, we will put your sorry pitiful cowardly lying shills in a place where all that love the real America will rejoice.

As I commented over at CK, it reminds me of Reagan's quip about liberals being willing to defend to the death your right to agree with them. Note: Where the asterisk appears, assume that we've used a euphemism. Apparently Joe Patrick took the Richard Pryor debating seminar.

 
ABOUT THOSE POLLS



Rush found much to question about those latest poll numbers.

Explaining the LA Times Poll
How does this compute? If Bush carries independents 49-46 and Republicans by 92-4, how does Kerry have a six-point lead? Because in the same poll, Kerry leads among Democrats by 86-7, not 92-4. With Bush carrying independents by three points in this poll, and holding more of his own party than does Kerry, the Times' sample, in order to give Kerry this lead, has to contain far more Democrats than Republicans! It has to be a weighted survey. They have to have talked to a vast majority of Democrats compared to Republicans and independents in this poll. And in this same poll, they also point out there are three battleground states, and one of them is now Ohio, that Bush is doing much better in and Kerry is in trouble.

And Crush Kerry did an excellent piece on explaining why we shouldn't give much credence to these polls not so long ago.

We Expose The Fraudulent Media Polls

 
Kerry's First Tour--Updated

As you know, I've been trying to slog my way through Douglas Brinkley's "Tour of Duty", his paean to Nuancy Boy's Vietnam days. Oddly, the title appears to be a misnomer as Kerry served two tours of duty. However, we only hear from the Kerry campaign about the second tour, when he was in charge of the Swift boat. Ever wonder why?

Brinkley's chapter dealing with Kerry's first tour is entitled "High Seas Adventures", which certainly makes it sound like some thrilling stuff is coming our way. Guess again.

It was his responsibility to make sure the Gridley stayed in tip-top shape--"spic-and-span" was the phrase the ship's captain used. The demands for meticulous maintenance were onerous, and exhausting. As he had learned in Long Beach, it was one thing to keep your own gun polished, but quite another to motivate 400 swabbies to keep a 533-foot ship glistening.

Update: Mike Bahnmiller makes an excellent point in the comments that I had intended to put in the post but forgot. I was chuckling at Brinkley's chapter title, not demeaning the service of the men responsible for shipboard maintenance--obviously that is an important and necessary duty. He points out that the Gridley may have been exposed to enemy fire. If so, Brinkley didn't write about it. Indeed, the chapter would have been better titled "Tedium on the High Seas".

 
A Question About The Legion Blogroll

I came up with the "Legion of Kerry Haters" idea as kind of a joke on the "Legion of Superheroes" from DC comics, which had many members, each with his or her own special power. I have pretty much limited it to people who are solely posting about Kerry, and solely posting negative stuff about Kerry.

Kausfiles has always been at the top of that list, because Kaus was really the inspiration for this blog. He had plenty of anti-Kerry material, very wittily presented. Unfortunately, plenty wasn't enough for me so I decided to gather up a little more, and 950 posts later, here we are.

Now I find, to my utter astonishment, that Kaus himself appears to acknowledge that personally he is voting for Kerry!

Because this panel was called "L.A. Bloggers Take on Politics and the Media," I tried to make it reasonably balanced politically, so I invited Reason media critic Matt Welch, who's vaguely libertarian but is voting for Kerry; Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs and screenwriter/mystery novelist Roger Simon, both of whom run anti-Islamofascist sites and (although basically Democrats) are probably voting for Bush; Moxie, a freelance writer/photographer and staunch Republican; Kevin Drum, who used to run his own left-of-center Calpundit blog until it was annexed by the neoliberal Washington Monthly; and Slate's Mickey Kaus, who may not like Kerry but is planning to vote for him anyway. (boldface added).

That was pretty surprising; say it ain't so, Mickey!

Anyway, I'm not going to play the game of delinking him. But I wonder if he should be moved from the top spot in the Legion section. It's like Cosmic Boy turning out to be the Time Trapper; I'm sure they didn't keep him on their honor roll for long after that discovery.

I still enjoy Kaus' blog, but I'm worried that someday everybody's going to click on that link and they'll see the "Why I'm Voting for John Kerry Even Though He's a Dirtbag" article. I can deal with that in the Blogger Favorites a hell of a lot better in the Legion. On the other hand, he's been a great read all along and so far he has not written that "WIVfJKETHaD" article, he's written great stuff, coined some great nicknames (DYKWIA, Man from Mope, the Pandescenderer).

So I thought, why not pretend Regis is here, and ask the audience?

 
Kerry Haters Continues to Grow

Just for fun, I decided to track Kerry Haters' visitors for the last week compared to two of the bigger blogs in the blogoverse, Captain's
Quarters and Michael J. Totten. Both of these are spectacular blogs, with thoughtful, intelligent commentary and marvelous posts.

First of all, these two blogs get way, way more traffic than Kerry Haters. Michael's site meter was at 676,000 when I started last week, while Captain's Quarters was at 300,000. KH was barely north of 10,900, so at that point, Captain Ed and his co-blogger Whiskey had 27.5 times as many visitors as KH, while Michael had 62 times the visitors.

A week later, Michael has had 55.6 times the visitors of KH, while CQ has 25.3 times the visitors. They both had more visitors this week, by a sizeable margin--both of them had about 13,000 visitors while KH only had about 1,500--so for this week they had about 9 times our traffic. But our audience grew by 13.5%, while Captain Ed's grew by 4.4%, and Michael's grew by 1.9%.

Now you know how this goes. Growth doesn't always tell the story. IIRC, Nevada has been the fastest growing state in percentage terms for the last five decades, but they're still miniscule in population terms compared to California. And as KH gets bigger, it will be harder to get 13.5% growth in visitors. But it is encouraging to us to see that we are doing well compared to two bloggers that I respect and admire.

 
Kerry's Attempts to Cut Defense

Tacitus poster Bird Dog puts up an incredible post summarizing Kerry's voting record on defense issues. This is such an extraordinary post that I won't provide a snippet--you MUST go read this one.

Hat Tip: Danegerus.

 
Kerry's Attempt to Cut Intelligence

Bob Novak's on the beat. He points out that Kerry likes to claim his vote in 1994 to cut intelligence funding was to cut pork, but two senators from his own party corrected him back then.

DeConcini, the Intelligence Committee chairman, and Inouye, the Appropriations Defense subcommittee chairman, assailed Kerry's unsuccessful efforts to cut the intelligence budget. DeConcini calculated it would cost $1 billion in intelligence spending that year and $5 billion over the next five years. Both senators suggested Kerry did not recognize the dangers existing then after the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. In opposing Kerry's amendment, DeConcini declared, ''We no longer seem immune from acts of terrorism in the United States.'' Inouye asked: ''Is this the time to cut the satellite programs that give our forces warning of attacks?''

 
Scratch McCain off the List

According to AFP, he'd have to do some pretty fancy footwork to become first mate on the SS Kerrytanic.

On Wednesday however, a deadline to change his previously announced campaign plans lapsed in McCain's home state of Arizona, and the popular, independent-minded senator remained registered to run for a fourth term in the US this fall, rather than for US vice president.

Officials say there are still a couple of technical maneuvers that would allow McCain to withdraw from the Senate race and run for vice president, but most agreed the lapse of the filing deadline puts to rest rumors that he might agree to a split ticket candidacy with the Democrats.

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I should have remembered this law all along. Arizona has what's known as a "Resign to Run" law. If you want to run for any other office than the one you currently have, there is a deadline by which you are required to resign your current office.

 
Kitty Litter Back on the Air

She's back, and has some wonderful posts where she takes a paddle to Mario Cuomo and Jacques Ch'Iraq (love that!).

 
Breakin' the Law!

Crush Kerry has a new scoop, based on solid work that they did involving making phone calls and exchanging emails that indicates the Kerry campaign may be getting illegal help from employees of the Heinz Family Philanthropies.

Congratulations to Patrick Hynes and his fellow Kerry Crushers for doing the detective work on this one!

 
Kerry Haters Scoops the Onion!

The Onion has the inside story on Kerry's Veep nominee. We don't like to brag, but Kerry Haters predicted this way back on March 6th.

 
The Disappearing Band

Want to see how many of John Kerry's former fellow Swift Boat officers support him?

Hat Tip: Dummocrats.

 
They'll Be Voting For Kerry, Part VIII



The kid in the front is doing his best Jon Gruden imitation.

 
KITTY LITTER readers:

It is I, Kitty, posting a message here at KH to let you know I've got a problem at Litter, in case you went there and found it EMPTY. I have NO idea what happened, nor do I know when it will be fixed. I've contacted Blogger Support. Just keep checking back throughout the day, and thank you for your understanding.

Kitty

 
Poll Fault Part III--Updated!

The LA Times is reporting a poll that purports to show Kerry beating Bush by 51%-44% nationwide in a head-to-head matchup, and 48-42% in a three-way race with Ralph Nader.

Now, if you're smart enough to be reading my blog, you already know two objections. The Times surveyed registered voters, not likely voters, and they polled too many Democrats and not enough Republicans.

Interestingly, the Times notes that Bush is beating Kerry by double-digits in Missouri (considered a battleground state), and is even with him in Wisconsin and Ohio, two more states that Kerry has to win in order to have a chance.

Now, if Bush is doing well in the battleground states, how can he be doing poorly overall? The answer, of course, is that he really can't. The only possibility would be if Bush were doing poorer than expected in Republican safe states and Kerry were wiping the floor with him in Democratic safe states. But if that were the case it would indicate that Bush could win the electoral college even while losing the popular vote by a wide margin.

The best news is that voters continue to give Bush low marks on the economy. Why is that good news? Because when they finally catch onto the fact that business is booming, Kerry's going to have lost his last major edge.

So be of good cheer, but continue to do what you can to help the President. Over the next few months the media are going to be doing everything they can to destroy the administration, and if the news doesn't fit that agenda, the news will be altered. We'll win, but only if everybody puts in the effort needed to win.

Update: Kerry Spot has a response from the Bush Campaign:

Bush campaign senior advisor Matthew Dowd says that the L.A. Times poll "is a mess. Bush is leading independents by three, ahead among Republicans by a larger margin than Kerry is ahead among Dems, and we are down by seven. Outrageous. And it gets worse. They have Dems leading generic congressional ballot by 19. This means this poll is too Democratic by 10 to 12 points."

 
Thanks, Mrs Thatcher



The two most demonized politicians of the 1980s, together again for the final time.

 
WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION IN THIS SCENE?



WITHOUT A PRAYER
According to a John Kerry campaign staffer, the candidate, who made much of his visit to the Reagan Library in Simi, California, on Tuesday afternoon, had to ask aides what behavior they felt would look appropriate. "It was like, 'Should I kneel? Should I greet people in line? Should I say a prayer? What?'"
Kerry ultimately was given VIP access to the area where the former President lay in repose, going beyond the rope line to stand alone with Reagan's coffin. Kerry made much of the making the sign of the cross, then visibly moving his lips in prayer.
Prior to visiting the Reagan Library, Kerry told reporters that he had visited and met with Reagan many times during his time in the White House.
Unfortunately, there is little evidence of that at the library, where records show that Kerry never privately met with Reagan, and the only time spent with the Gipper was when Kerry visited the White House as part of a Democratic Senate delegation.
"It's just fiction that Kerry had any kind of relationship with Reagan," says a former Reagan staffer. "That he's attempting to create something that wasn't there or never happened is embarrassing. Senator Kerry should be ashamed."

 
New Nickname

Mickey Kaus continues to show why he's one of our very favorite members of the Legion of Kerry Haters. He sneers like the rest of us about Kerry's attempt to portray himself as an optimist, but then he goes one step further:

How silly is the Kerry camp's attempt to fake it for 6 months by pretending that Kerry's an upbeat figure? Kerry's not even convincingly sunny for 10 seconds in his new "positive" 30 second spot, "Optimists." Any warm, upbeat human incidents Kerry aide Tad Devine can gather will be overwhelmed in a war with the daily drone of Kerry's pompous default speaking voice. Face it--he's The Man from Mope!

Oh, man, that is good. I'm trying to think of one comparable, but "Win one for the Griper!" is about the best I can come up with. "A thousand points of blight"?

 
They'd Vote for Kerry If They Could

 
More Funny Stuff

Chicago Ray has been busy with more hilarious parodies. This one is particularly good, as is this.

 
One of the More Silly Democratic Tropes about Reagan

Sean Macomber did a little surfing at Kerry's blog yesterday (great minds think alike) and found the liberals being less than charitable with the late President Reagan. No surprise there. He was also amused at some efforts to claim the Reagan mantle, and highlights this quote:

"Reagan did attempt to be a uniter, offering an optimistic viewpoint and seeking what he believed to be a better future," Ron Chusid wrote. "This contrasts with George Bush who has divided the country, and is willing to pursue a course harmful to over 99% of the country to benefit a small oligarchy. Ronald Reagan held views which he generally ahdered to.

Yes, Reagan did unite this country in a way that Bush has been unable to. But unmentioned is the obvious fact that Reagan united the country because he was kicking the Democrats' butts! I guarantee you, Democratic candidates were not pleased with the way Reagan united the country, because it was by making sure they didn't get elected. And you know that if Bush manages to get 53-54% of the vote (as I expect), the partisans on Kerry's blog will not be praising him for uniting the country.

Hat Tip: Crush Kerry

 
Who Let the Dogs Out?

Jim Geraghty highlights Kerry's Dog Hunters today. He points out that they first made their appearance during Kerry's primary campaign for the Senate in 1984. Turns out that Kerry accused his Democratic opponent of flip-flopping (ironic, no?). The opponent (James Shannon) pointed out that if Kerry really opposed the Vietnam war (and there is plenty of evidence that he did as early as 1966), then he should not have gone. This is certainly a valid argument, and as we've pointed out many times, there is every reason to suspect that Kerry went to Vietnam in order to further his political ambitions.

Two nights later, at another debate, Kerry charged that Shannon had “impugned the service of veterans in that war by saying they are somehow dopes or wrong for going.” (He had not taken the more appropriate step of accusing them of war crimes, as John Kerry had done in 1971.) A group of pro-Kerry Vietnam veterans calling themselves the “dog hunters” criticized and heckled Shannon for the rest of the race.

But of course, Shannon had not said that veterans were dopes or wrong for going. He said that Kerry should not have gone if he opposed the war. It is apparent that Kerry was looking for an opening to use the "dog hunters" and seized on the opportunity. This is pretty consistent with Kerry's pattern of wailing that "they're attacking my patriotism" every time a Republican brings up Kerry's miserable voting record on defense issues.

 
Kerry's Apology Tour, Part Deux

Here's another reason to hate Jacques Chirac, one of the charter members of Foreign Leaders for Kerry:

Last October 16, Malaysia’s then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told a summit of Islamic leaders that the “Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.” He added, “1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews,” therefore Muslims must unite against the Jews for a “final victory.” And who pleaded his case? No other that Jacques Chirac, the French President.

During the EU summit on Friday October 17, Chirac thought it would be clearly inappropriate for the EU to criticize Mahathir. According to the Associated Press, France opposed vehemently a condemnation of these anti-Semitic remarks. Then, on Saturday October 18, Mahathir said he would not apologize for his speech and that, “what I had stated about the Jews is based on facts.” He went on arguing that he was not anti-Semitic because” Arabs are also Semitic people,” and there is no way he is against Arabs.

This justification does not change the nature of his comments, which are clearly “anti-Jewish,” if that is the word he wants to use. Later that day, in an interview with the New Sunday Times, Mahathir declared that he would like to “publicly thank Chirac” and he was glad that “Chirac at least understands.”

 
Kerry Parties, Nation Mourns

Via Lucianne, Moxie tells us what the Botoxicated Brahmin did after skipping to the front of the line to view Reagan's casket. Not surprisingly, he went out and partied with the glitterati at a restaurant in Los Angeles.

 
BOSTON STRANGLED


Boston police offiers walked an informational picket line at the FleetCenter after midnight last night. (Globe Staff Photo / John Bohn)

BOSTON IS STRANGLED BY PICKETS
Chaos loomed in Boston yesterday as hundreds of union workers hit the picket lines and prevented the start of construction preparations for this summer's Democratic National Convention.
Seven weeks before Democrats gather to nominate hometown son Sen. John Kerry, city employees lined up at the Fleet Center, the site of the convention, to voice their displeasure with Mayor Thomas Menino over a labor dispute that has left the city's largest police union without a contract for two years.

 
John Kerry on the Issues--Ending the Era of Ashcroft

I have commented elsewhere that the Democrats have a pretty simple playbook that they don't update very often. One example is the way they demonize any Republican Attorneys General as Nazis. See for examples, John Mitchell, Ed Meese and the current head of the DoJ, John Ashcroft.

John Kerry knows the playbook well. He has a set of proposals for his worst, errr, first 100 days, and #3 on the list is 'End the Era of Ashcroft':

Immediately after the election, John Kerry will name a new Attorney General whose name is not John Ashcroft.

Now, isn't that just typical of Nuancy Boy? Never use a simple declarative sentence like, oh, "John Kerry will fire John Ashcroft", instead go about it in a roundabout fashion. Nobody ever taught him that brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes?

Kerry goes into some specifics on the changes under his Department of Justice:

Stop indefinitely detaining American citizens and give basic rights to those detained.

Well, now isn't that just peachy-keen? For those of you who don't know, Kerry's talking about one person and one person alone here, Jose Padilla. Who's Jose Padilla?

He's a former street thug from Chicago who decided he wanted to join a gang. Al Qaeda, to be specific.

Padilla, 31, had prepped hard for his meeting, but his ambition outstripped his guile. Senior U.S. officials tell Time that Padilla, conducting research on the Internet, had come across instructions for building a nuclear bomb—"an H-bomb," as a top official described it. The instructions were laughably inaccurate—more a parody than a plan—but not recognizing that, Padilla took them to Abu Zubaydah and other al-Qaeda planners and said he wanted to detonate such a weapon in the U.S. "He was trying to build something that would attain a nuclear yield," says a senior Bush Administration official monitoring Padilla's case. In response, Abu Zubaydah apparently cautioned his eager job applicant to think smaller—to get some training and attack America with a so-called "dirty bomb," a conventional explosive packed with radioactive waste that would spew when the bomb blew up. "They sent him to the U.S. to see what he could do—plan and execute," the official says. What he did was get arrested as soon as he stepped off the plane on May 8, having come full circle, back to Chicago, the site of his first encounters with the law.

Now I don't know about you, but I'm kinda more comfortable with that guy cooling his heels in jail. John Kerry wants to put him out on the street. Reportedly the Feds can't try him without revealing sources of intelligence that led them to arrest Padilla, so the only option is to let him go. But to John Kerry, the fact that this guy wanted to join our mortal enemies and kill millions, means less than his "civil rights".

Assuring that terrorism laws are used to combat terrorism and not in ordinary criminal cases, such as to send the FBI to churches or anti-war demonstrations or to help a political cause.

Uh, does the FBI ordinarily send their agents to churches "in ordinary criminal cases"? What in the world is Kerry talking about?

Assuring government is transparent and information is available so that Congress and the public can hold the Justice Department accountable.

Also known as the "let the terrorists know what we know" act.

 
She'll Be Voting For Bush



10.

 
Focus on Reagan Will Hurt Kerry

Hugh Hewitt shows why.

That's why the memorials to Reagan will have an impact far deeper than Democratic spinners are admitting. In the midst of difficult times, the legacy of Ronald Reagan reminds America that America can and has won difficult battles in the past against powerful adversaries, but only when its leadership was committed to winning.

 
He'd Vote For Kerry If He Could VI



I have to admit, when I heard this, my reaction was, who's Morrissey? Apparently he's a washed-up turd trying to breathe a little life into his career. The Michael Moore crowd will probably rush out and buy his cruddy music.

Hat Tip: Rambling's Journal

 
Fop-timist, Maybe--Updated!

Our good friends at Crush Kerry take on Kerry's laughable attempt to claim the mantle of Reagan as the optimist in this election.

What Kerry doesn’t understand is that a politician can’t simply walk up to people and say “I’m an optimist” and expect folks to believe it. You can’t simply run around saying “the world is so awful (particularly when your examples are largely false) but I promise to make it better.” Optimism a quality you can sense in someone even when they don’t take the time to point it out for you. Ronald Reagan’s optimism, for example, was “infectious,” to use Kerry’s word.

Exactly. About the only thing Kerry is optimistic about is his naive faith in the UN and international institutions.

Danegerus points us to this article.

On a conference call on Sunday morning with political staff and senior Democrats involved in Kerry's message team, Kerry senior advisers told all surrogates that when asked to speak about President Ronald Reagan, to make sure their soundbites used the words "optimist" and "optimistic" often.

"This is the new Kerry theme and message, that he's an optimist," says a Kerry campaign staffer in New York, who was on the call. "There is little that Kerry can grasp of Reagan's legacy or aura. The optimistic message is one of the few, but even that would be a stretch."

Even Kerry's spandex bicycle riding shorts won't stretch that much!

Update: David Brooks, who blows hot and cold, is hot today.

Once it was liberals who rhapsodized about progress. Even stoic Woodrow Wilson once exulted: "Progress! No word comes more often or more naturally to the lips of modern man, as if the things it stands for were almost synonymous with life itself." But since Reagan's time, it sometimes appears that liberals and conservatives have traded places.

Now Democrats often accuse Republicans of recklessness and utopianism while Republicans accuse Democrats of being the timorous defenders of the status quo. Democrats are more likely to emphasize fiscal prudence, foreign policy caution and economic security.

But it's all really about American exceptionalism. Reagan embraced America as a permanent revolutionary force. His critics came to fear exactly that sort of zeal. John Kerry's father, Richard, was a representative one. He wrote a book, just after the Reagan years, arguing that the Reagan brand of exceptionalism is a danger. Americans are mistaken if they think all people want to copy their institutions, he argued. Instead, the U.S. should marshal its power within a web of multilateral arrangements, or it will create all sorts of problems.

Reagan's outlook, however, was a bold and challenging optimism. The debate Reagan launched is the one we are still having today.

 
Kerry's Apology Tour

We've talked a bit about Kerry's proposal to go around the world in his first 100 days apologizing to other countries. We presume that the French will be high on his list of butts to kiss.

Then again, somebody with a little more sense might have a bit of a problem sucking up to a country like this:

Hezbollah’s goals are clear and can be summed up through this Nasrallah statement in March 2003: “Death to America was, is and will stay our slogan.” What a shock, then, that when Chirac met Nasrallah, the French President said, “Hezbollah is an important component of the Lebanese society”.

Obviously, Chirac sees a major terrorist organization, whose goal is to destroy us, as a morally legitimized entity.

On a more cultural level, during that Francophone Summit, Hezbollah and France agreed on having Al Manar TV (the Hezbollah TV network) start broadcasting their terrorist propaganda in France to the French people, and in particular to the Muslim community. At the same time, on October 22, 2002 Al Manar won in France the equivalent of the Emmy for best news reporting!

Read the whole article and you'll do a slow burn.

 
She'll Be Voting for Kerry

 
Getting a Good Mad On

Went over to John Kerry's blog to check out what they were saying about Reagan. No big surprise, his partisans are not being as gracious as he was the other day.

Oh dear. "Cheerful crusader." The lionizing begins. I'm sorry, he wasn't cheerful, he was daft.

Posted by kj at June 5, 2004 05:01 PM

Reagan's Philadelphia speech was unforgiveable, and I don't forgive it, not now, and not ever.

Posted by John in CU at June 5, 2004 05:27 PM

Too this day, I still believe Reagan was involved in Iran Contra and should have been impeached along with Papa Bush. His casual denial of not remembering was just bull. And he started this country down a road of tax cuts for the rich and a ballooning deficit, which our new boy has gladly taken up. Not to mention his horrible disregard for homosexuals and minorities and reliance on astrology in later years. Despite being for less government, it actually grew under his watch.

Yes, RIP. But let's not lionize the guy like he was a God. He was not a great politician. He was great at giving speeches.

Posted by peter k. at June 5, 2004 05:35 PM

Philadelphia, Mississippi is notable for only one thing. It's the place 3 young civil rights workers (James Chaney, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman) were murdered by the Klan in 1964. In fact, we are just a couple of weeks from the 40th anniversary of the murders. The day after receiving the nomination for President, Reagan went to Philadelphia and gave a speech in which he expressed his support for state's rights (a well-known code phrase for resistance to Federal enforcement of civil rights laws), and never mentioned the victims of the murders.

He might as well have put on Klan robes for that speech, since it was an unsubtle declaration that he would be the candidate of white bigotry.

Posted by John in CU at June 5, 2004 05:37 PM

But I remember all too well the damage Reagan did to our democracy.

I will not engage in romanticizing the myth of the man. The corruption that is the current Bush Admin got its start in the Reagan Admin. Same goons, same corruption, same lies, just worse.

I never thought he was a great leader, a great president, or a great champion for democracy. Iran-Contra kind of summed it all up. And those same participants are embedded in this Bush Admin and the Iraq War- the very same.

Posted by wild_salmon at June 5, 2004 06:08 PM

The Reagan Revolution was a disaster for this country and we're still dealing with the aftermath. Most of us have been harmed by Reaganomics and huge deficits--the whole trickle-down, voodoo economics thing--but it wasn't just that. The Reagan Revolution heralded the beginning of a very nasty chapter in GOP politics that has become the horrific specter of rise of the neocons.

Sorry but I can't find it in my heart to be too gracious at a time like this because of having to live in times like these.

Posted by Ron Logee at June 5, 2004 07:11 PM

 
An Aside

I recognize that I've been a bit of a softy the last few days. It's not solely Reagan's death, although that has really affected me more than I expected. Don't worry, I'll get my mean streak back before long.

 
Wrong Then, Wrong Now

Jim Geraghty has a great article in the National Review with quotes from leading academics during the Reagan era, on how the US could not hope to win the Cold War.

But this debate will not go on forever. The appeasers and the doves were wrong about the Cold War, and they're going to be wrong about the war on terror. There will never be another Ronald Reagan, but this November Americans are going to find themselves in the middle of another great struggle. The choice will be stark: On one side, a cowboy, dismissed by the elites, deemed too conservative by the media, denounced by protesters as a warmonger, called every name in the book by all the "right" people. On the other side, the distilled essence of the Democratic party, educated around the world, fluent in French, rich beyond imagination, with a career spent almost entirely in government. A man who called on Reagan to "reorder his priorities...we don't need expensive and exotic weapons systems, who called Reagan "unilateral and arrogant," who declared that he is "proud that he stood against Ronald Reagan."

No, Ronald Reagan's not on the ballot this fall. But the choice is just as stark as it in 1980 and 1984.

That's a home run.

 
FUHGEDDABOUDIT



KERRY FUND-RAISERS YANKED FROM SKED
NOT only were John Kerry's scheduled New York and Los Angeles star-studded fund-raiser concerts next week with everyone from Barbra Streisand to Whoopi Goldberg both scratched, but Jann Wenner's VIP cocktail party, which was to precede the June 10 Madison Square Garden affair and was to have everyone from Bette Midler to Paul Newman, was also scratched.
Tickets to both fund-raisers were slow. Tough for Kerry to catch a break. A convention coming up? Former President Clinton has a book coming out. These Los Angeles and Madison Square Garden concerts? Former President Reagan makes his final farewell. Trying for TV? Current President Bush is all over with D-Day. Hoping for mobs? Smarty Jones got the biggest overflow crowd ever. A week he's in town we had Tony Soprano, Tony Awards, even the marriage de jour of J.Lo to another Tony, Marc Anthony.

 
NUANCED vs. NEAT



He should learn but will he? No, because you can’t teach an old donkey new tricks.

Kerry should learn from Reagan legacy
Peggy Noonan said of Reagan in a column in yesterday's Wall Street Journal: "He thought that intellectuals tended to tie themselves in great webs of complexity, webs they'd often spun themselves - great complicated things that they'd get stuck in, and finally get out of, only to go on and construct a new web for mankind to get caught in.''
Who doubts that in a President Kerry, we'd have a spider-in-chief occupying the Oval Office?

 
And Now, A Word from His Hair UPDATE:


T-shirt at dwtoons.com

 
And Now, A Word from His Hair

It's been a good run, being with John all these years. Although I'm happy now, I still sometimes drift back to those halcyon days after the war. I was long and dark, and constantly run-through by hippie girls' fingers. That was great. I love to see that old footage, testifying before Congress, standing strong before the man. Those were really heady times. I always had the best smell, that sweet mix of patchouli and pot smoke.

But these days, I'm happy. John's really happy, too. He's doing okay in the polls, and I'm still hanging in there with him. With a little hard work by me, and a vote from you, I may be sliding across pillow cases on Pennsylvania Avenue next January.

 
Yes, He's Voting for Kerry



Check here if you really want to know.

 
#1 Reason I Hate Kerry

The $87 billion vote. It's so indefensible that Kerry's tried the ridiculous "I voted for it before I voted against it" dodge. Democrats will harrumph that he in fact voted for a version of the bill that included a repeal of the tax cuts for the wealthy. But he himself closed off that avenue of defense:

On the Sept. 14, 2003, edition of CBS's Face the Nation, Kerry spoke at length about an amendment he and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., were offering which would have paid for the $87 billion by delaying some of the recent tax cuts.

Asked if he would vote against the $87 billion if his amendment did not pass, Kerry said, "I don't think any United States senator is going to abandon our troops and recklessly leave Iraq to whatever follows as a result of simply cutting and running. That's irresponsible."

There is no way he can defend that vote other than a desperate attempt at prostituting himself to the far left wing of the democratic party, which is exactly what it was (phenomenally succesful too!). But he can't square that vote with the centrists in America.

 
Amen

 
Working Permalinks

Okay, I'm an idiot for not figuring it out before.

 
Microbes of the Day Update!

They're all gone!

No they're not. They're in the blogroll where they belong.

 
Update on Bedford High Graduation Speech By Kerry

Reader Mike Grobbel sends us an update on the graduation speech for Bedford High School delivered by John Kerry on Saturday. (Text from here is Mr Grobbel's):

From these press accounts, it appears that John Kerry handled his self-invited commencement speech with class and without any evident partisanship. According to an article in today's Toledo Blade, the ceremony was only slightly delayed because of security checks for the "few thousand attendees". The actual attendance was previously predicted to be near 5,000 and that would square with the attendance policy for my son's high school graduation, which was held Saturday June 5th at the Palace of Auburn Hills near Detroit and for which each graduate was allotted 12 tickets for family and friends.

So while Kerry finally had a chance to speak to a large crowd, I did not see any local TV coverage here in Detroit yesterday about it. He was crowded out by coverage of Reagan's death and the D-Day anniversary.

One fallout over Kerry's visit was the recent decision of a Bedford School Board member to withdraw from his re-election race due to the minority viewpoint he held which was in opposition to inviting Kerry.

Kerry's Bedford commencement speech was also mentioned in an article in today's NY Times. Here is the relevant portion of the article:

Here at the University of Toledo on Sunday afternoon, Mr. Kerry bowed his head for a moment of silence in Mr. Reagan's honor and edited a tribute to the late president into his keynote speech at the commencement of Bedford High School in nearby Temperance, Mich.

Ignoring their obvious differences - Mr. Kerry's first flash in the Senate was leading the investigation into the Reagan administration over Iran-contra - the Democrat praised the Republican as a "modern giant" who provided "the voice of America in good times and in grief."

"Because of the way he led, he taught us that there was a difference between strong beliefs and bitter partisanship," Mr. Kerry told the 372 Bedford graduates and their friends and relatives. "He was our oldest president, ladies and gentlemen, but he made America young again."

Lauding Mr. Reagan's speech 20 years ago on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, as well as his leadership after the Challenger explosion, Mr. Kerry said the American spirit "wears no political label.''

"In service to others and yes, in sacrifice for our country, there are no Republicans; there are no Democrats; there are only Americans and patriots," Mr. Kerry told the class, which includes the largest number of Bedford graduates in a single class, 26, ever to enlist in the military.

Mr. Kerry was invited to speak at the ceremony by one of those service-members-to-be, Brandon Spader, who plans to attend the Air Force Academy this fall. Some parents had protested, since speaking spots are generally reserved for students, but the crowd rewarded Mr. Kerry with a standing ovation.

"Now it is your generation's turn to find the greatness that's in you," Mr. Kerry told the class of 2004, in their red and silver robes. "You are the ones who will lift this land up with your ideas and your values, with your faith and your love of family and of country."

He added, "Your idealism is our hope."

(Pat writing again)

I read the text of Kerry's speech online last night, and as Mike states, there's very little that's objectionable. Oh, I could carp that his tribute to Reagan as an optimist was an attempt to tie into his current campaign ad, but it's reasonably subtle and nobody would deny that optimism was one of President Reagan's strong points.

Don't worry, we haven't gone soft on Nuancy Boy. But we'll give him credit for carrying things off with grace and dignity this once.

 
Nuge and Keith Do the Fallujah Tour

Go. Read. You'll be happy you did.

 
Kerry Honored by Vietnamese Communists Part II

We commented on the fact that John Kerry's picture appears proudly in a Saigon museum dedicated to the Vietnamese War. Kerry Lied has more evidence and a lot of photos of other exhibits in that museum.

Hat Tip: Useful Fools

 
Is John Kerry Fit to Be President?

That's the question Independent Bias asked Crush Kerry proprietor Patrick Hynes and Kerry Support owner Joe Patrick.

As you would expect, Patrick Hynes did a wonderful job of laying out the case against John Kerry, with links to evidence to support his points.

To be kind, Joe Patrick did not do quite as good a job of presenting the case for John Kerry. To start with, the writing is really awful as these passages will illustrate:

Serving nearly 20 years of service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...

Concerning how we should be viewed by the rest of the World, Kerry is not for alienating our allies like Bush has great skills at doing.

He has a backgrounds as a Chief prosecutor before becoming Senator where he spearheaded the Reagan adminstration¹s tendency toward corruption with the Iran/Contra and BCCI scandals and exposing traitors to democracy like Oliver North.

Okay, not everybody is a good writer. But it would seem to me that if you're not, you could at least find someone who is to review your work and point out obvious errors. Kerry spearheaded the Reagan administration's tendency toward corruption? Maybe he means spearheaded an investigation of... etc?

What about his arguments? Joe does a fair job of parroting the talking points of the Kerry campaign. On the Iraq War, he wants us to know that John Kerry was not really in favor of the invasion.

He has been consistent on his vote. He did not vote FOR the war. In an interview on CNN, he illustrated his reasoning for his vote:

"I am absolutely convinced I voted for the security of the United States of the America with the assurance of the president that he was going to go to the United Nations and build a international coalition, that he was going to make a plan to win the peace, that he would do the preparations, he would respect the U.N. process and that he would go to war as a last resort.

Too bad Kerry didn't read the resolution he voted in favor of. It contained this passage:

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.
(a) AUTHORIZATION- The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate in order to--
(1) defend the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and
(2) enforce all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq.

 
Another Reason for Suspending Kerry's Campaign

It just hit me on the drive into the office. This was supposed to be the week of the star-studded galas in both New York and Los Angeles for Kerry. Celebs of the 1970s and 1980s were scheduled to appear, and you know they were not going to be as sensible as Kerry, who offered a gracious comment about Reagan's passing.

No, it was going to be a Reagan-bashing event. Danny Glover, who was scheduled to appear, had already done his part:

“We all know Reagan’s legacy, from the Iran-Contra affair to the funding of the Nicaraguan military in which over 200,000 people died. The groundwork for the move steadily to the right happened with the Reagan administration. People want to elevate him to some mythic level; they have their own reason for doing that.”

Kerry knew there was no way that he would be able to keep Glover and Streisand and the rest of the celebrity moonbats under control. So he took the week off rather than have them get everybody angry at their classlessness.

 
MRS. RAZZLE-DAZZLE



HEINZ KERRY'S SPEECH IS WRONG ADDRESS
TERESA Heinz Kerry didn't exactly knock 'em dead with her keynote address at last Thursday's New York State Democratic Jefferson-Jackson dinner, Post City Hall bureauman Stefan C. Friedman reports. Most high-ranking officials had already taken off before Sen. John Kerry's wife began her speech nearly an hour late, and those who remained were treated to an often-rambling missive delivered just above a whisper. A particularly uncomfortable moment came when the ketchup heiress commented that if her late husband, Republican Sen. John Heinz of Pennsylvania, were still alive, he likely would have been at the dinner supporting her current husband. The morbid moment was met with uncomfortable silence. But one diner was anything but quiet after the half-hour speech ended. The Dem donor, who split seconds after Heinz's speech ended, could be heard saying, "That was the worst speech I've ever seen" as he exited the Hilton.

 
Why the Left Continues to Villify Reagan

I haven't posted some of the really vile stuff that some Democrats are saying about Ronald Reagan. I'm sure many of you know where to go, sites like DU and Whiskey Bar and Daily Kos are just filled with hatred for the Gipper. Michele Catalano put it best:

The talking point for yesterday: Reagan is dead, commence pissing. And they all pulled down their flies and let go. From the look of things, they had been holding that in for years, doing a child's pee-pee dance in front of the Reagan Library, just waiting for the right moment to relieve their poisoned bladders.

Now, the interesting thing is to contrast this with what would have happened if George H.W. Bush (the President's father) had passed away. We'd have been hearing how he assembled a real coalition and repelled an unjustified invasion. In other words, the father would have been the stick with which to beat the son.

But they can't do that with Reagan. Why? Because Bush is the heir to Reagan's legacy. Think of the similarities; Bush is upbeat and optimistic, a believer in America. He came into office with a platform of tax cuts and defense increases. He defines the world in terms of good and evil, and has no qualms about stating that our enemies are the bad guys. Reagan was caricatured as a cowboy; so is Bush. They both lacked nuance; they both had core principles from which they would not back down.

So the Reagan-bashing must begin, because the American people are going to be thinking a lot about Reagan this week, and seeing the ways in which their current leader resembles the Gipper.

 
They'd Vote for Kerry if They Could Part V

 
HERE COME THE REV



And he's totin' the unions right along with him. Jesse Jackson is just one of the may fringe benefits for candidates of the Left. Diss him at your peril.

UP WITH JESSE
Having been locked out of the Kerry campaign, and for that matter, mainstream Democratic Party politics, Jesse Jackson began his own road tour yesterday through Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania using his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition as his vehicle and buses to get him there.
"This is kind of big F-you to Kerry and the DNC," says DNC political staffer. "This isn't something we signed off on, and really, Jackson didn't ask. It's just Jesse being Jesse."

 
Not All Democrats Gracious About Reagan

Get this note:

Pelosi's office also nixed sending flowers to the funeral home where the president's body was being prepared for burial.

Back in Washington, staffers at the Democratic National Committee stopped a couple of interns who were lowering the flags to half mast outside their headquarters.

"The interns were just doing what they thought was right," says a DNC staffer, who heard about the incident. "But somebody a bit more senior told them not to lower the flags until they absolutely had to, I guess when President Bush announced that all flags should be lowered. There was only an hour's difference. It was pretty petty, but that's how bad things have gotten around here."

Not surprising--junior Democrats want to do the right thing; senior Democrats have to let them know there are other considerations. What was that old song?

You've got to be taught to hate and fear;
You've got to be taught, year after year,
You've got to be carefully taught.

 
Somebody Forgot to Tell the Ketchup Queen

Hey, wait a minute, I thought Kerry suspended his campaign. Better tell your wife, Senator Botox!

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., has suspended campaigning and rearranged his schedule in the wake of Reagan's death.

But Heinz Kerry continued on with fund-raising events. After the Mill Valley appearance, she went to another fund-raiser last night in the South Bay.

As several folks have noted in the comments, the objective appears to be to get Kerry's face out of the news. The fact that his wife continues to campaign is certainly strong evidence that they're right.

 
They'd Vote for Kerry if They Could Part IV

 
He'll Be Voting for Kerry

 
Kerry On Reagan in the 1980s

Newsmax has a bunch of Kerry quotes on Reagan when he was in power. Suffice to say that they are not quite as respectful as what Kerry said last night.

In 1984 campaign literature: “We are continuing a defense buildup that is consuming our resources with weapons systems that we don’t need and can’t use.

“The Reagan Administration has no rational plan for our military. Instead, it acts on misinformed assumptions about the strength of the Soviet military and a presumed ‘window of vulnerability,’ which we now know not to exist.

Of course, there was a window of vulnerability. Remember, when a Democrat says "We know now..." that they're lying.

Hat Tip: Captain's Quarters.

 
Kerry Rolls the Dice in Nevada

A recent poll found that something like 63% of all Americans believe that Kerry does not tell the truth, that he tells them what they want to hear. And liberals think Americans are dumb?

George Will points out Kerry's latest effort to pick up a few votes. Remember the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal project in Nevada? Kerry, sensing a chance to pick up a few votes, is against it.

Regarding Yucca Mountain and CAFTA, Kerry's comportment reflects toughness -- call it Navarrean toughness -- about subordinating all considerations of principle to the exigencies of winning power. Someone in the White House has naughtily said that Kerry "looks French." The scalding truth is that he wears Hermes neckties, which are French, and, worse still, he speaks French. But his real French connection is his spiritual kinship with Henry of Navarre.

Henry was raised a Protestant but converted to Catholicism twice for political reasons. His explanation still resonates with those politicians who believe, as Kerry does, in doing whatever is necessary: "Paris is well worth a Mass."

 
They'd Vote for Kerry if They Could Part III

 
George W. Reagan

What's a Pundit has a great comparison of the similarities in the way George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan were considered during their campaigns and their first terms in office.

 
Kerry Suspends Campaign in Honor of Reagan

According to the AP.

``We're going to suspend any sort of overtly political rallies, events like that,'' Kerry said. He added that he would probably still have private meetings with advisers.

Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said the campaign would determine later in the day how long Kerry would observe Reagan's death and which activities he would cancel, but he would not pull his campaign advertising.

The cynic in me wants to say that it's because he knows he would not get any media attention, but I'm going to cut him some slack on this sad weekend.