Cos is the senior business columnist for the Herald and he's usually pretty sharp. This will not get him invited to any of the innumerable beautiful people cocktail parties up here this week.
By Cosmo Macero Jr.
It's been quite a ride for John Kerry.Left for political dead seven months ago, Kerry kick-started his campaign in time to squelch Dick Gephardt in Iowa and stun Howard Dean in New Hampshire.Collecting delegates, from then on, was a mere formality. And so it is that John Kerry has well earned the Democrats' coronation Thursday night as their candidate for president in 2004. He has earned it. He should enjoy it. But then let it end there.
Because John Kerry must not be president. Not now. Not ever.
1. He serves a constituency of one: Himself.
Kerry's behavior in the run-up to the Democratic National Convention has been disgraceful. Where Gov. Mitt Romney showed courage in helping Mayor Thomas M. Menino navigate a fierce contract dispute with Boston police, Kerry showed zero leadership by weakly dancing the middle ground. His flirtation with not accepting the nomination as a money ploy was an insult. His insistence on a concert that will squander precious safety resources? Selfish.
2. He promises U.S. acquiescence to foreign interests.
Kerry has pledged to give us ``a new era of alliances.'' Never has the dilution of U.S. sovereignty been so boldly forecast. After all, it was Kerry who boasted that foreign leaders want him to win the presidency. To Kerry - who once told the Harvard Crimson that U.S. troops should be dispersed ``only at the directive of the United Nations'' - America is but a sliver in some grand, global pie.
3. His wife most certainly hopes to heavily influence the American health-care system.
Teresa Heinz Kerry has used Massachusetts, Vermont, Mississippi and other states as her personal laboratories for health-care policy. That her ``HOPE'' plan for prescription drugs has gone wildly overbudget apparently doesn't matter. Meanwhile, John Kerry's own health-care plan is littered with ideas and influence drawn from Teresa's hobby-time handiwork. Consider: First lady Teresa Kerry and U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Together.For the first time.On a mission.
4. He will punish companies such as Microsoft for returning huge reserves of cash to investors.
The record Microsoft dividend payout of $32 billion may be large enough to be felt by the U.S. economy. But John Kerry's inclination to repeal the preferential rate on dividends would cause companies to think twice about such action. Dividends are more important than ever to everyday investors. Betting on stock appreciation alone went out with the Internet bubble. Much like the last Democratic president.
5. He has shirked his responsibilities as a U.S. senator.
Kerry missed 64 percent of Senate roll call votes in 2003, according to Congressional Quarterly, and 87 percent of Senate roll calls through June 2 of this year. Real leaders, quite simply, show up for work. Or get great freebie seats for Yankee- Red Sox games.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
07/26/2004 9:22:39 AM ||
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#1
Tu, do you know who you're talking about?
Posted by: Matt ||
07/26/2004 11:00 Comments ||
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#2
For fun I visited his official website and looked at some of his proposals. Most of them are a matter of policy at this time with the exception of kissing Chiracâs ass. He proposals are so broad that you canât really pin down a position on even one issue.
For Example:
- âThe threat of terrorism demands alliances on a global scale - to utilize every available resource to get the terrorists before they can strike at us.â This would be our policy of âPre-emptionâ and is already in place.
- âWhen John Kerry is president, middle-class taxes will go down.â Under Bush they already have.
- âJohn Kerry and John Edwards will cut family premiums by up to $1,000.â There is no where and how to this statement. I guess maybe Edwards would return the money he earned suing the HMOs and thereby lowering our rates by this amount?
- âTogether, Americans will be freer and stronger when we break our dependence on foreign oil.â Like maybe opening up the UNINHABITED parts of Alaska to oil exploration? No he wants to develop new energy sources. Nice idea, but there are TONS of projects already in the works by the private sector. FYI the government RARELY invents anything worthwhile.
- âJohn Kerry and John Edwards have a vision for American education: every child should be held to high standards, and every school should have the resources and the responsibility to meet those standards.â Sounds like the exact proposal made by Bush (with Kennedy at his side) and the Democrats torpedoed it for the Teachers Union.
After reading his proposals I am reminded of the story The Emperors New Clothes. You canât see his position because you are not smart enough to understand it.
#6
geezer - You hit an important point: the spread.
No matter who wins, if the spread is small, or if there are enough "disputable" (and in an LLLer's mind who knows what that means...) individual states to make the difference, the gloves will come off...
Pro;;y / maybe even the wheels...
I don't think the LLLers look like this and this by accident...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
