July 30, 2004
The Perfect Storm
A storm knocks out the satellite and John Kerry for a half hour - but did we really miss anything?
Mother Nature herself intervened last night to knock out satellite reception in the area, and hence, we missed the middle of John Kerry's speech. Suprisingly, the weather did what an editor couldn't - shorten his remarks for the sake of brevity.
Having read the transcript of what was missed, some things are clear...
First, that Kerry should have ended with a salute, not began with it. He could even have carried that over to the campaign, because ending with it is far less immodest than beginning with it. When I saw it, I immediately thought Gomer Pyle...
Second, that Kerry gave little import to his Senate career, and is far more likely to play defense on this topic than offense.
Finally, that the centerpiece of the Kerry campaign will be the argument that the President is untrustworthy - that he misled the nation. This is not a particularly meritorious argument, but it works for Kerry in two ways: it connects with his party base's "Bush Lied!" meme, and it is an easy to understand argument to make to independent voters. Bush warned of WMD, there are none, ergo he lied and cannot be trusted.
The debate questioner who asks John Kerry if, now that he is in the same room with him, he wants to call George Bush a liar to his face, will gain historical notoriety...
Posted by MEC2 at July 30, 2004 01:05 PM