John Kerry: there is no there there...

[Exile_In_SJ]

By DICK MORRIS



July 30, 2004 -- I LOVED Bill Clinton's speech. I was inspired by John Edwards. Bar ack Obama thrilled me. Max Cleland made me grow as a person as I heard him . . .
And then there was John Kerry.

All around him was eloquence but, in the center of the bagel, there was a speech that was a letdown.

And did he just tell 140,000 men and women fighting in Iraq that they are there because of a mistake?

By insisting that we are in Iraq because we "want to be," rather than because we "have to be," he is telling them that they are risking their lives for an optional, elective adventure. The fact is, that the reason we have not been attacked in the United States is that the terrorists are fleeing from cave to cave in Afghanistan and from building to building in Iraq — pursued by our heroic young men and women.

I honor his service in Vietnam. I think a man who knows what it is like to fight in a war is a good person to have as commander-in-chief. John Kerry is a good man. But what else is there?

Last time I checked, Sen. John Kerry was 60 years old. But to listen to his speech last night at the Democratic National Convention, you would think he was still in his 20s.



He opened up his talk with a lengthy and evocative description of his childhood and what it was like growing up in divided Berlin. He told us of the "goose bumps" he remembers getting when the band struck up "Stars and Stripes Forever."

Then, after this long rendition of his childhood, he tells us at length what it was like to serve in Vietnam for the four months that he was there. So far, so good.

But then he spent only about one minute talking about what he has done since.

Beyond a brief allusion to his efforts for crime victims and to prosecute crimes against women as an assistant district attorney, his support for Clinton's plan for extra cops and a balanced budget and a reference to his work with John McCain on the POW and MIA issue in Vietnam, that's it.

What did this man do as an adult? What happened during his service as Michael Dukakis' lieutenant-governor in Massachusetts and in his 20 years in the United States Senate?

What bills did he introduce? What initiatives did he sponsor? Which investigations did he lead? What amendments bear his name? What great debates did he participate in?

What did he do for his constituents in Massachusetts? What businesses did he persuade to come to the Bay State? Which elderly did he help get their Social Security benefits? What injustices did he correct?

Kerry's biography ends at 24.

America does not want to elect a lieutenant to the presidency. The voters want a commander-in-chief, but there is precious little in the autobiography of John Kerry, as we heard it last night, to commend him to us.

The Democratic National Convention closes as a nutritious, tasty, appetizing bagel — with a hole in the middle.

John Kerry? Oh yeah, he's the guy who fought in Vietnam and then he ran for president. That's not enough. Where did his 20 years in the Senate go?


Oddly, his absence of biography confirms the impression I formed of him during my White House years: He's a back-bencher. I never can recall a single time that his name came up in any discussion of White House strategy on anything. He was the man who wasn't there. We were always figuring out how to deal with Ted Kennedy or Pat Moynihan or Tom Daschle or Phil Gramm, or Al D'Amato or Bob Dole or Jesse Helms or Orin Hatch or Joe Biden. But nobody every asked about John Kerry.

He wasn't much there then, and he's not much there now. Only now he wants us to trust him to be president.

[Exile_In_SJ]

Kerrys only there because he's the anti-bush, not because he's anything special. He's not special at all, his real skill is picking rich wives.

Will it be enough to defeat Bush? Probably not.

[TexanBob]

The last time Kerry "reported for duty", he stayed for four months then went home and spent the next three years organizing protests against his fellow soldiers. If he wins the presidency, will he give a repeat performance?

With "war heroes" like this, who needs enemies?

[TexanBob]

America does not want to elect a lieutenant to the presidency. The voters want a commander-in-chief, but there is precious little in the autobiography of John Kerry, as we heard it last night, to commend him to us.

Didn't you hear his daughter, Dickie?? He gave CPR to a hamster! Now if THAT doesn't qualify you to be commander-in-chief, I don't know what does...

[Spider]

Didn't you hear his daughter, Dickie?? He gave CPR to a hamster! Now if THAT doesn't qualify you to be commander-in-chief, I don't know what does...
Hm Just a guess but it seems getting Drunk and Driving your car is enough .......

[TexanBob]

Granted, jumping into the water to save a life is braver than what Ted Kennedy did.

[Spider]

Granted, jumping into the water to save a life is braver than what Ted Kennedy did.
True , But then Bush didnt even go near water ....... But in Bush's defense , not one Viet Cong pilot made it past Alabama ....... Good Job Georgie

[Rohirrim]

Judging by this board, I'm guessing that the non-bashing convention, followed by Kerry's call for an attack free campaign on the issues, did work. Just kidding. The attacks are twice as nasty now. I guess when you have nothing to run on, there's really no other option. Dick Morris? rofl

Next you'll be posting articles by that moderate - Ann Coulter.

[Exile_In_SJ]

funny Dick Morris was a big Clintonite... has been in the war rooms with Billy...When he speaks about this, he has lived it. Kerry is an empty suit. nothing more.

[Exile_In_SJ]

Judging by this board, I'm guessing that the non-bashing convention, followed by Kerry's call for an attack free campaign on the issues, did work. Just kidding. The attacks are twice as nasty now. I guess when you have nothing to run on, there's really no other option. Dick Morris? rofl

Next you'll be posting articles by that moderate - Ann Coulter.


that describes Kerry perfectly, thank you.

[watermock]

Dick Morris was a hired gun to create the Illusion of Clinton for the mainstream. His vivid and accurate descriptions of the inner workings of the Clinton Administration are always brutally frank.

This guy was right there, every day, and your going to dismiss him out of hand?

Do you know who this guy is?

Bio: Dick Morris grew up in New York City and graduated from Columbia College. He began his political career working in Democratic Party politics on Manhattan's Upper West Side. In the mid-1970s he began consulting for New York State Democrats such as Congresswoman Bella Abzug and Mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins. His long association with President Clinton began in the late 1970s and continued for twenty years. Mr. Morris is often credited with the strategies that led to Mr. Clinton's move to the center of the political spectrum and his reelection in 1996.

It's all so amusing how poisoned people are. Why would Dick Morris turn into some liar. Has anyone been able to say a single thing he has said was untrue? Has a single word come out of Clinton disputing anything he has said? Clinton won't touch him, cause Morris has the goods on him, period.

[Hogan11]

It's all so amusing how poisoned people are.


Yes...isn't it??

[watermock]

Yes, indeed. I don't need your approval, you just felt compelled take my name of the response heading.

"Tell me more about Dick Morris watermock."

[Hogan11]

Yes, indeed. I don't need your approval, you just felt compelled take my name of the response heading.

"Tell me more about Dick Morris watermock."

Approval? Hardly.....you missed the irony evidently.

[watermock]

So did you.

[TexanBob]

Everyone who repped Clinton is a liar, Dick Morris included. He has some good political instincts but, I'm sorry, there is nobody from either Clinton administration who doesn't swallow the Kool-Aid for their boss. They are like some demented cult. They lie even when it's not necessary to lie or when the falsehood is blatant for anyone to see.

[Blueflame]

Everyone who repped Clinton is a liar, Dick Morris included. He has some good political instincts but, I'm sorry, there is nobody from either Clinton administration who doesn't swallow the Kool-Aid for their boss. They are like some demented cult. They lie even when it's not necessary to lie or when the falsehood is blatant for anyone to see.

Hmmmm... sounds like a pretty good description of the "you're either for us or agin' us" administration as well....

[TexanBob]

Hmmmm... sounds like a pretty good description of the "you're either for us or agin' us" administration as well....

Oh? And how many Joe Wilsons, Paul O'Neills and Richard Clarkes can you name from the Clinton administration? How many folks left the Clinton administration writing tell-all books trashing the administration they worked for?

Fewer than the number of women who claimed Clinton accosted them.

[Taco John]

The last time Kerry "reported for duty", he stayed for four months then went home and spent the next three years organizing protests against his fellow soldiers. If he wins the presidency, will he give a repeat performance?

With "war heroes" like this, who needs enemies?



Crazy rhetoric... This is the kind of stuff that makes LABF look somewhat sane.

Any amount of time spent under fire his honorable. Kerry didn't organize protests against his fellow soldiers; it was against the government who was in a war that has since come to be known as the war that we didn't belong in the first place. And to suggest by inference that Kerry is the enemy is no more sane than brazenly comparing Bush to Hitler.

[watermock]

Any amount of time spent under fire his honorable. Kerry didn't organize protests against his fellow soldiers; it was against the government who was in a war that has since come to be known as the war that we didn't belong in the first place. And to suggest by inference that Kerry is the enemy is no more sane than brazenly comparing Bush to Hitler.

Sorry, but no. Noone is comparing Kerry to Hitler. Your just minimizing by a rediculous comparison. And noone is attacking Kerry's service. It's certainly been misrepresented, just as Bush's has been. That isn't the issue in this election.

The Bush Campaign isn't attacking Kerry's war record, a Rear Admiral who took over the boat after him is. And it isn't an issue to the Bush Campain, just to Kerry as a diversion from his voting record.

I don't really care if a leutenant from 1070 wants to show off his ribbons or throw borrowed ones over a fence. I want to know his voting record.

I want the 19 year voting record that puts him left of Ted Kennedy, completely missing while we listened to Speilberg ralph up "Looking for Lt. Kerry"

I suppose the enemy checked with Kerry and the UN before bombing 6 churches on a Sunday.

[TexanBob]

Any amount of time spent under fire his honorable.

Agreed. But many thousands of other men did come home and did not begin launching protests, accusing his comrades in arms of war attrocities. Did you listen to the audio clip? This is what he was telling U.S. Senators under oath.

Kerry didn't organize protests against his fellow soldiers;

So I guess you didn't check out the second link either. He's not saying his government raped Vietnamese women, shot their dogs and burned their villages. He's saying U.S. soldiers did that. How can you separate the two?

it was against the government who was in a war that has since come to be known as the war that we didn't belong in the first place.

You can disagree with the policy of war without defaming soldiers. Was it necessary to defame soldiers in order to defame the war?

And to suggest by inference that Kerry is the enemy is no more sane than brazenly comparing Bush to Hitler.

My point being that many thousands of men went to Vietnam, returned home, and went about returning to a normal life. And yet they aren't given four days of convention speeches for their service to our country. Only the one who slandered his fellow countrymen and accused them of attrocities is so honored by the Democrat Party. This, they claim, is heroism. This, they claim, is leadership. And to figuratively put back on the uniform 30 years later and pretend to be Mr. Clean Cut American War Hero is, others will claim, fraud.

For the record, I am not one who is questioning how he got those medals. If he threw them away, or pretended to for the cameras, that tells you all you need to know about what he really thinks of those medals. I'm not, as some others, trying to claim any of the medals were undeserved. Only that his own conduct after returning dishonors those medals. And that it's hypocritical to cast himself as a glorified hero without pointing out the other side which is that of someone who slandered the men fighting valiantly along side him.

It would be as if I spent six months as a preacher, then ran a whorehouse for three years and then came back three decades later to the church and claimed to be a moral and upright man who was there to lead the congregation on the right path. Sure, I deserves credit for once being a preacher, but I also need to either confess my sins or denounce my past immoral life and then prove that I have seen the error of my ways and been forgiven before I should be trusted with moral leadership again. Kerry has never admitted he was wrong in mischaracterizing fellow soldiers. He has never apologized for what he has done. Why should he be trusted in a time of war if he can't acknowledge the wrongdoings in his past?

I'm not trying to be LABF here. I'm trying to show why Kerry is the wrong choice to be leading our country. Believe me, if I wanted to go to third-rate websites and reprint scurrilous dirt, I could. But I don't believe I have to resort to such desperate ploys to make my point.

The facts of Kerry's post-Vietnam life should do that for me. Nobody even brings up what he's done in the Senate for the past 20 years. I guess he's not proud enough of that record to run on it. Instead, he runs as if he never took off the uniform of the U.S. Navy.

[Rohirrim]

You're wrong about this. I've already proved you're wrong about it. In fact, every post you put up with these same claims is just further proof of your determination to remain ignorant about it. And yet you persist. What is that, if not blind prejudice?

[TexanBob]

Where are your facts, Roh? A claim is not a fact. You claimed he apologized but I haven't seen you prove it. Show me where he has apologized.

[Rohirrim]

Hell, last week in an interview with Dan Rather. A couple of months ago on 60 Minutes. I don't know how many more. Read the John Kerry War Hero thread. I answered it there in more detail.

[watermock]

Did Dan Rather ask him about his voting record for 19 years?

[TexanBob]

Hell, last week in an interview with Dan Rather. A couple of months ago on 60 Minutes. I don't know how many more. Read the John Kerry War Hero thread. I answered it there in more detail.

After a long Google search (Kerry apologize veterans), I found this which doesn't really sound like an apology:

In an April 23, 2004 interview with CNN, Kerry said his 1971 comments were "mostly voice of a young, angry person who wanted to end the war" and "honest expressions of the passion that we brought to the cause."

He told CNN he regretted "any feeling that anybody had that I somehow didn't embrace the quality of the service. But I have always said how nobly I think every veteran served."

He described himself as older and wiser: "But they were the words that came out of my gut at that time, based on the anger and frustration that I felt back when it was happening," Kerry told CNN in April.

He also told CNN, "I'm not going to back down one inch on what I've fought for and what I've stood for all of these years."

"I have always said how nobly I think every veteran served"?????

How can you listen to his 1971 testimony and believe that? Yes, we raped women, burned villages, shot dogs, shot at anything that moved but every veteran served nobly? How can he possibly mean that?

I'll keep looking for a real apology rather than justification cloaked in weasel words.

[TexanBob]

Here's another citing. Apparently, the vet who was interviewed wasn't satisfied:

When someone mentioned to O'Neill that Kerry had recently, in an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, described his war-crimes accusations as "honest" but at the same time "a little bit over the top," O'Neill was in no mood for conciliation. "The allegation of war crimes on a systematic basis by Kerry was a total lie," O'Neill told the news conference. "He knew it was a lie when he said it in 1971. It wasn't simply 'over the top' . . . It was done out of gross political calculation. If that was an attempt to apologize, on behalf of my friends, living and dead, I don't accept that apology."

[Rohirrim]

O'Neill again - right. Still waiting for those thousands of Vietnam vets who disagree with Kerry.

[TexanBob]

My point being: Where the apology? I found plenty of references from vets (granted some were the same ones in multiple places) claiming they've heard no apology. I Googled using different combinations of words and these two references above were the closest I got to an apology.

Let's put it this way: Let's say I was a woman who accused you falsely of rape. I was able to convince a jury and you were sent to jail for 20 years. Then, years later, I decide to run for office and proof emerges that I lied about being raped.

If a reporter asked me about it and I said I regretted if anyone had their feelings hurt by it but I was young and angry and perhaps some of my claims were a little "over the top" but I was being honest, would you consider that an apology?

That's what you are asking Vietnam vets to accept from Kerry. The actions of groups like VVAW resulted in returning soldiers being treated like lepers when they returned home instead of being treated with gratitude and honor for the sacrifices they made. He has figuratively put many of his fellow soldiers in jail, convicted in public opinion of something they weren't guilty of doing all because Kerry was "young and angry".

I'm not a vet so I'm not seeking an apology for myself or any close family member. But I certainly understand the premise of being unjustly accused and if this is the closest he can come to an apology, I can understand why many Vietnam vets reject it.

[Exile_In_SJ]

The actions of groups like VVAW resulted in returning soldiers being treated like lepers when they returned home instead of being treated with gratitude and honor for the sacrifices they made. He has figuratively put many of his fellow soldiers in jail, convicted in public opinion of something they weren't guilty of doing all because Kerry was "young and angry".

Heinz-Kerrys actions helped created the atmosphere of 'baby killers' being screamed at our returning vietnam vets.

Now, Heinz-Kerry wants us to forget that he falsely tarnished these soldiers and to only remember that he went to Vietnam for 4 months. He wants the honor which by his false accusations has denied so many vietnam vets the same chance at honor.