Opaque Lucidity

Kerry Redux

Senator John Kerry's appearance on Meet the Press this morning was his first since his loss in the Presidential election. He is, for all intents and purposes, the Kerry you knew then: vague, talking-point inclined and tan. Very tan. And despite nearly a full hour of questioning, the overriding theme was not one of a future-looking figure planning of 2008, but of a man who, depsite his loss, has not learned a single lesson from November.

On a positive note, Kerry took all the blame for his loss. His one caveat was that since he gained votes in all the battleground states, a shift in votes to Ohio would've meant a Democratic victory. Tim Russert reminded the Senator that the same could be said for the President in places like New Hampshire and Oregon. And if your aunt was a man, she'd be your uncle. Numbers alone do not tell the story of American elections. It's all about numbers in the right places, and the President had more. Re-engineering the vote into a fantasy victory is best left to Howard Dean and Micheal Moore.

The Senator mentioned his famous four-point plan for Iraq. Can anyone list these four points for me? I'm sure one of them includes the UN and/or France, Germany and Russia (those three nations without which a coalition doesn't exist in the mind of Democrats), but what are the other three? Seemingly, it is enough that he says a plan exists---details are for non-believers. Vote for me not because I have a history of action, but because I care more.

Kerry claims that foreign nations have offered to help with police training and have been rebuffed by the White House. Who? Syria? Jordan? Saudi Arabia? Could it be that the countries offering have no sense of or love for democracy? We don't know because, like his conversations with foreign leaders who endorsed him, no names are or ever will be forthcoming.

The Senator claimed that this election was purely a reaction to 9/11. On one hand, it was. The modern Democrat Party has a long history of turning conflicts into quagmires and drawnout occupations. Since 9/11, only Republicans have shown the willingness to do what it needed now: finding terrorists and killing them. When it comes to matters of war, the American people do not take the Democrats seriously.

But 9/11 is not the only reason for Kerry's loss. The real reason lies with the man himself. This election was about lies: lies told about a trip to Cambodia that never happened, wounds that did not merit Purple Hearts, protests that demeaned men with whom Kerry served and other lies of convienence ("I'm personally opposed to abortion, but...") that turned the American people against this fortunate son from Massachusetts. In the final analysis, one thing remains as clear now as it was in November: John Kerry doesn't get it.