February 13, 2004

Friday Fripperies

Reading around the Blogosphere this morning; taking the temperature of the Kerry story. I dunno, I smell a rat, as does Jay Caruso. Seems like this rumor is coming from within his party rather than the VRWC. Has Al Gore declared war on the Clinton's control of the DNC money machine? He's about three years too late.

If this story has legs, it will hurt Kerry, not with his base, who will embrace any candidate with a chance to unseat Bush, but with ordinary married folk (swing voters in the main) who recognise that infidelity is not simply about sex, but trust, loyality and steadfastness to commitments. Lileks aptly puts it:


Does that matter in a Senator? A Congressman? A governor? Probably not. Oh, but if he lied to his wife he’ll lie to us! Trust me: many a faithful politician has lied to his constituency without first bedding a chippie to see how this lying stuff worked for him. But it matters in a President, for one reason: I just don’t want a guy who’s thinks a lot about whether his dowsing rod will find a new stream, okay? Yes, yes, as Glenn put it, I have to say that, to me, how Kerry would do on the war is a lot more important than what (er, or who) he's doing in the sack."

True enough. But what I want is focus. Serial philanderers lack focus. (If that’s what he is, and I have no idea.) I want a guy who keeps his jacket on when he’s in the Oval Office, to say nothing of his trousers. I don’t want a guy who gets The Itch now and then, and finds the portion of the day devoted to scratching that itch getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until once again we get an intern scandal right about the time we’re supposed to be concentrating on Iranian nuclear tests.

Kerry denied the story on Imus, so until another shoe drops, it's a non-story.

Which segues into this Krauthammer piece and review by Dale Franks , who remarks:

"Maybe it's because the Bush Administration has done such a bang-up job at securing the country. But,even if that's true, they can't really claim credit for it."

Dick Morris said much the same thing...that Bush has been too successful in the WoT.

Venomous Kate has a thoughtful piece on why she's still on the fence, while I agree in the main, I don't think we can begin to make a decision until the Dem nominee is a done deal and we consider his possible team roster.

Who would Kerry appoint to SecDef, SecState, SecTreasury? Who will be on his National Security team? We need to know the depth of his bench before we compare it to Bush's team stats. We don't need another Les Aspin in Defense or Albright at State.

On a humorous note: Timothy Noah offers Ten ways to rationalize the publication of infidelity rumors (with a disturbing advert for the GWB action figure...is Slate sending subliminal messages?)

Mining a similar vein Michael Wiliams posts this gem How to Tell If You're an Idiot, and Graumagus, of Frizzen Sparks reveals 100 Falsehoods About Me.

Moe Lane closes this post out with Centrism's Hue and Cry and raspberries a nitpicking commenter...which has a pleasing symmetry.


Posted by feste at February 13, 2004 09:11 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Thanks for the link :)

Posted by: Michael Williams at February 13, 2004 10:28 AM
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