John Kerry says that his loss in the election of November 2004 was because of events that took place in September 2001.
In other words, he lost the race more than three years before the election was held.
That his defeat was in the bag before he won the nomination, before the first primary, before he announced his candidacy, before he even decided to run.
That is absolutely typical of John Kerry. One of his defining characteristics has always been hindsight — his whole platform was based on either “I would have done just the opposite of what President Bush did” or “I would have done the same as President Bush did, but better” — and often it was both, depending on when he was asked.
I am surprised he admitted it, but I have to say I shouldn’t have been. John Kerry spends so much time talking out of his ass, it’s no surprise he’d finally slip and say he looks out of it, too.
John Kerry gave away the election. Specifically when he took a wishy-washy position on the ‘War in Iraq’. He gave the public the impression he was do a worse job finishing the effort in Iraq than George Bush would.
Jay Tea:
I don’t think that President Bush could have won re-election against a ham sandwich in 2004, except that 9/11 put the terrorism on the public’s mind, and the Bush campaign was able to build its case on “who handled 9/11 and terrorism” rather than on domestic issues.
–|PW|–
…and even a ham sandwich is more attractive to voters than John Kerry.
Holy shinkies, I’m agreeing with Pennywit! Though before anyone starts yelling about the final seal being broken or angelic horn solos, I’m sure we do still differ on if Bush deserved re-election on those grounds…
Five months ago Kerry was screaming we needed more troops now he’s screaming get out.
Even France (DeVillepin) has stated that American should NOT leave Iraq too quickly.
Hey, Kerry, your buddies the French say we should stay…do you still believe in global consensus?
Trying to follow Kerry’s twisted logic makes my brain hurt, but isn’t he saying, in essence, that he shouldn’t have bothered to run? First thing he’s said that I can agree with.
It really amazes me that kerry can be taken even remotely serious. He is an asshole and a bad joke!
What really pisses me off today is that even our so called “conservatives” are just about as bad.
I am so dam frusrated with politics today I really do not know where to turn. There is really no one out there who deserves a vote from either party.
Seems like none of them have read the constitution. If they have they only want to pervert it!!
I’m about to the point of becomming a recluse and if you bother me I will react accordingly!
I realy do not know what to think anymore!
Since 9-11 Bush has been self-defined by that event, as have almost all Americans; after 9-11, his poll numbers shot up and even in his 2004 victory speech the president vowed to continue to put the fight against terrorism at the forefront of his agenda, saying, “With good allies at our side, we will fight this war on terror with every resource of our national power so our children can live in freedom and in peace.. Bush at every opportunity as sought to keep 9-11 in the public consciousness lest we forget. Kerry gives a terse 9-11 sound bite reply “and is criticized for revealing one of his defining characteristics… hindsight.. One of Bush’s defining characteriticsis one must admit, by his admirerers and foes, is that unlike Kerry, he lacks hindsight, never second-guesses himself, never seems troubled by the uanttended consequences of his decisions. Which do you prefer in a man or leader?
Which do I prefer? Someone who doesn’t second guess himself to the point that he stands dithering as events go past him; someone who will actually make a decision.
You know, someone who is decisive and leads, not someone who has his finger to the breeze so much he becomes a weathervane.
If he “knew” that he’d already lost the election, why did he run? 😉
Pennywit is still overpriced, he didn’t notice that Kerry only alluded to having plans on domestic isssues too and he was the best the Democrats had to offer. The sum total of the Dems offerings in 2004 was “we can do it better” but never once were we told how they intended to do it.
Mickey..It is easy to be decisive when you don’t appear to troubled by the consequences of your actions…I’m sure the worst tyrants in history went to sleep easily. ( By the way, I’m not putting Bush in that category)..Kerry became well-known in the eary 70″s, because he had gave witness to the brutalities that were sufferred on Vietnamese civilians by American soldiers, while Bush was skylarking in Texas and New Orleans, when he wasn’t showing up for the National Air Guard. I know this is ancient history, but as character is destiny, people like 6 draft deferrals Cheney(“I had other priorities”) and Bush (“I certainly didn’t what to go to Vietnam)” seem to have gotten off a lot better than Kerry or (McCain or Hagel) the only two other Veterans of Vietnam in the US Senate and seem very conflicted by the war in Iraq, and use their personal war experience as hindsight.
I think you may be overstating Kerry’s off-the-cuff remarks. An argument can be made that Kerry’s presidential hopes were finished off when the Osama Bin Laden tape showed up as an October surprise. OBL’s appearance put 9-11 back on the front burner despite the MSM’s best efforts. Does anyone else find it strange that OBL disappears at Tora Bora, isn’t heard from for two years, does a single Bush campaign ad, and then is never heard from again? It’s a coincidence, I’m sure.
Bush’s actual words were “We’ll smoke him out of his cave and we’ll get him eventually”..However, the time frame was unclear. “It may happen tomorrow,” he said. “It may happen a month from now. It may take a year or two.” (or 4), from an October 2001 press conference…but it got him a relection victory.
the americans are currently loosing this so called war on terror because everything they have done thus far
has only helped to swell the number of people willing to die for their god. This quick fix, drop a couple bombs,
your either with us or against us crap is the same stuff that al qaeda is spewing out.
What no one seems to notice in Kerry’s remarks is that *it’s never his fault* when something goes wrong. The Secret Service man knocked me down. They sandbagged me by having me put on a stupid bunny suit.
He is ever perfect. And the MSM keeps harping on why ‘Bush won’t admit his mistakes.’
Oh and datsun: You’re wrong.
Kerry became well-known in the eary 70″s, because he had gave witness to the brutalities that were sufferred on Vietnamese civilians by American soldiers
Well, his “witness” turned out to be a bunch of unsubstantiated lies, but I’ll say one thing, it did allow Kerry to wrap himself in the flag of sanctimonious morality, which he takes off and hides only when he speaks before veterans groups.
‘ignorance is bliss.’
p.s. manufacture better/bigger bombs, that will definatly help going forward. and while you’re at it demand that no one else try manufacture any.
yee-haaa!
god bless america
I know this is going to shock some of you…but I read something online yesterday where, when asked about pulling troops from Iraq, John Kerry claims to have a ‘plan’. I know, it’s shocking, Kerry saying he has a secret plan to solve Iraq.
I am not too concerned about Kerry..There was always a not too subtle hint about him that he was yesterday’s man..But as for Bush being decisive? Cheney was always the driving force behind Bush’s war on Iraq, and maybe the real voice of authority in the White House for this issue and the war on terror..Why else for example would Bush insist that Cheney appear with him when he was grilled by the 9-11 Commission? Now that they have had had a bad falling out(apparently) There have been many such reports recently…Will the ‘chimperor’ take some real decisive action and fire ‘the organgrinder’.. It is been obvious for some time that Bush is loath to fire or release anyone? This would be a great test.
‘Kerry became well-known in the eary 70″s, because he had gave witness to the brutalities that were sufferred on Vietnamese civilians by American soldiers’
Well, actually, he made that shit up.
datsun:
Where do I start? Let’s see…
We now have a constitutional democray in Afghanistan and Iraq, Syria pulled out of Lebanon, last week hundreds of thousands were protesting terrorism in Syria and Jordan, and there are dozens of other signs of change for the better.
Yeah, we’re losing alright.
‘mission accomplished’
head in the sand
datsun,
That was a well-reasoned and informative retort, and I’m sure we all are much better enlightened after having read it. I can’t wait for your next nugget of wisdom.
“Ignorance is bliss.” Datsun, you sound like someone who speaks from experience.
enlighten you? – impossible.
let me illustrate my point.
you say things are getting ‘better’
i say hogwash.
you point to a democratic iraq
i say the people of iraq cant go to the local market/recruitment station with out fear of being blow up.
then you say it’s not america’s fault that these ‘evil terrorist’ are blowing themselves up in public.
however the fact remains that iraq is a fuken mess
its more of a mess than it was under Saddam
then you say Saddam was a bad dude
then i say there are many many evil dictators in the world, hell half of africa is ruled by one.
then you say they didnt/dont pose a ‘threat’
then i ask are they more of a threat now?
back and forth we go.
to be enlightened i suggest you try compromise.
that is the problem with the political leaders of our day, the bush administration pushes ahead with their (ruthless)agenda regardless of consequence, similarly so does al-Zarqawi and co.
the majority are stuck in the middle, urged to take sides. Talk about a no win situation.
Thats just my opinion though, i could be overly negative. The way i see it is that its gonna take something a whole lot smarter (and with less casualties) than democratizing the world before we can reduce the amount of people that are willing to blow themselves up.
simple?
“i could be overly negative”
Could be…
“its gonna take something a whole lot smarter (and with less casualties) than democratizing the world before we can reduce the amount of people that are willing to blow themselves up”
That statement is a perfect example of ignorance of the GWOT. Getting people to not blow themselves up, without causing any casualties. Hmmmmm. Well, as long as we’re only looking to REDUCE the amount of people willing to blow themselves up, maybe we should give them the explosives. THEN will they be our friends?
datsun:
It’s impossible to enlighten me? Do you know me? Do you know anything about my education or experience or intellect or ability to learn? Nope.
You also put lots of words in my mouth, with no basis for doing so. By pretending to already know what I would say in response to your drivel, you have proven it is you who lacks the capacity to listen and rationally analyze relevant information.
Your most revealing comment is about compromise. Do you really think it is possible to compromise with people who are willing to strap bombs on their daughters and blow them up? With people who are hell-bent on creating a global islamo-fascist state after killing all the Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims? Have they ever once hinted that they seek “compromise?” Please direct me to even one of their pleas for compromise!
Ok, you can’t. So I suppose you would like the U.S. to compromise, while the fanatical Islamists continue their quest to conquer the world. In other words, we should just roll over and play dead, until we are dead. Is that your view of peace? RIP?
Please correct me, datsun, and I would appreciate it if you would propose a concrete and workable solution rather than criticizing the efforts of others. If you really have a good, helpful, positive idea, I’m willing to listen. Until then, I’m writing you off as the fucking moron your comments reveal you to be.
I have to agree with pennywit’s basic assesment, too. Of course, Bush “used” 9/11 to win. (Reminder, though: the economic recovery was in full swing by this time last year, so the ham sandwich analogy might be more than a tad inaccurate.) Moreover, Roosevelt “used” Pearl Harbor as a major platform of his campaign in ’42. Naturally, Democrats are offended they couldn’t “use” 9/11 without sounding like monday morning quarterbacks (they obviously tried to by nominating Kerry, but failed).
But the really twisted part is that you can almost hear Kerry whining, “Oh darn it, no fair. I wanted a 9/11-like event on my watch…I could’ve showed them all then.” And what kind of f-ed up logic is that?
if you people cant see that the bush admin’s ‘your either with us or against us’ rhetoric being very similar to the ‘all muslims have a duty to kill americans’ horaa that spills from binlandens mouth, then i’m afraid that i’m not making my point clear enough.
both agendas are extremist. can we agree on that?
perhaps this is the way to deal with extremism?
(wouldn’t want to put words into your mouth, i know you dont appreciate that)
Many on the left would argue that these muslim extremists were ‘created’ by american foreign policy..while i dont wholeheartedly agree, i think there are valid points to be made there.
america has a habit in the past of supporting their own interests when it suits them i.e. Saudi, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and most currently Sudan.
My workable (semi)solution to this mess:
Force Israel to honor the 1949 borders
now i dont know an awful lot about this conflict, but it is clear that muslim anger stems from here.
Israel were not given this land by democratically elected government, they should recognize that. i’m not saying this land belongs to the palastinians, but i think Israel should be forced to compromise a whole lot more. Condolezzaa Rice’s recent trip there was important but much much more needs to be done here. There will be no peace until this conflict is sorted.
lead by example – i.e. stop making better/more nuclear weapons but demand that no one else does.
I also believe that the west share her wealth more effectively. Poverty breeds hatred.
i’m not sure how workable these solutions seems to you, but i maintain that the current course of action seeks only to increase the number of people willing to blow themselves up (in public)
every innocent person killed makes it that much harder to forgive/forget and move forward. 911 was cause by a couple hundred people with a crazy hatefull agenda, you have punished hundreds of
thousands for thier mistakes. violence breeds violence.
datsun:
“Both agendas are extremist. can we agree on that?”
Not at all.
“Force Israel to honor the 1949 borders
now i dont know an awful lot about this conflict, but it is clear that muslim anger stems from here.”
You’re right. You don’t seem to know an awful lot about it.
“911 was cause by a couple hundred people with a crazy hatefull agenda…”
Your counting skills are not very good, either.
Denny Crane – your playing yourself.
get your head out the sand and step off the moral high ground.
911 was perpetrated by a handful of people accept it.
Peace in Palestine is crucial to quell anti Americanism
and lastly if you think declaring war on Iraq was not an extremist position, well then
you are like i said before playing yourself.
i hope you feel enlightened here, hanging with all those who agree with you, must be real fun.
god bless america
Poverty breeds hatred.
datsun finally said something not only coherent, but demonstrably true. Give a man a fish, he eats for day…. Ever heard that one, little d?
We’ve been giving fish to the middle east for generations, and where has it gotten us? The old saying that “yes, he’s a murdering sonavabitch dictator but at least he’s OUR murdering sonavabitch dictator” no longer applies. There’s a new sherrif in town, and we’re gonna teach these people to fish so the poverty and hatred dry up.
If datsun can’t wrap his brain around a liberal philosophy such as our current one, then just get the hell out of the way and watch what happens. You’ve had your turn, and you failed.
Datsun,
Drive by catchphrases aren’t contributing to anything other than your childish attempt at playing at the adult thinker’s table.
Now that said, I want to ask you a question: In the coming years, do you think that the governments and regimes in the middle east will act the same as they did before 9/11 and the Iraq/Afghanistan wars or will they act differently? Sure, you’re focusing on such a small part of “America the occupier” and “America the aggressor”. Sure we occupied Iraq, and more aggressively than any other country in the world in the history of human beings, too. We went in there in a matter of days and occupied it; you’re right. We used guns, bombs, and troops; that’s right, too. We occupied it so we could give it back to them. W. said this before we went there, senators voted on this, The people reaffirmed it (via a re-election) and this is what is happening in Iraq right now. Do you have any idea that this is going on?
datsun: U R an asshat
“Cheney was always the driving force behind Bush’s war on Iraq, and maybe the real voice of authority in the White House for this issue and the war on terror..Why else for example would Bush insist that Cheney appear with him when he was grilled by the 9-11 Commission?” – Steve Crickmore
Steve Crickmore-Whitehouse Insider. I am continually amazed about how much folks like this clown actually know about the inner thoughts of the President and VP, as well as what goes on inside the WH.
“if you people cant see that the bush admin’s ‘your either with us or against us’ rhetoric being very similar to the ‘all muslims have a duty to kill americans’ horaa that spills from binlandens mouth, then i’m afraid that i’m not making my point clear enough.” – No we just disagree with you meathead.
both agendas are extremist. can we agree on that? – No. One says we will kill you because you are Americans, the other says we will kill you because you have attacked us, and have sworn to continue your attacks against us. If you support those that attack us, we will treat you in the same manner… there is no longer a distinction between actor and abettor
Many on the left would argue that these muslim extremists were ‘created’ by american foreign policy.. – No one forced them into targeting civilians. They made that decision on their own. If you think that Moslem extremism is the fault of the US you are A) ignorant of history B) a leftie apologist C) a dumbass or D) All of the above.
america has a habit in the past of supporting their own interests when it suits them i.e. Saudi, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and most currently Sudan. – Name me a single nation that acts AGAINST its own interests, numbnuts. In fact name me a nation that does more in the interests of other nations than we do. When the Tsunamis hit Asia… whose CV’s were there? That’s right ours. They sure as shit didn’t go to China or France for aid.
My workable (semi)solution to this mess: – Not
Force Israel to honor the 1949 borders – It was Jordan along with Syria and Egypt that originally violated those borders… why should the Israelis reward their actions by returning land used to launch an attack on Israel? If the Moslems don’t like getting their asses handed to them, perhaps they ought to try a route other than violence next time.
now i dont know an awful lot about this conflict – First accurate statement you’ve made.
Israel were not given this land by democratically elected government, they should recognize that. – Here’s a piece of news for you… America was not handed to the colonists by a democratically elected body either. Tough shit..that has nothing to do with it.
i’m not saying this land belongs to the palastinians, but i think Israel should be forced to compromise a whole lot more. – Yeah, no incentive to compromise could be better than Pals blowing themselves up on buses and in Pizza parlors is there?
Condolezzaa Rice’s recent trip there was important but much much more needs to be done here. There will be no peace until this conflict is sorted. – Or until the Pals are systematically crushed, the way the Nazis had to be. The only incentive for violence the Pals have is the RESTRAINT the Israelis have shown. Nothing will take the piss and vinegar out of those clowns like a good beaat down.
lead by example – i.e. stop making better/more nuclear weapons but demand that no one else does. – Do you think we care if the British make Nukes? the French? the Japanese? No. We only care that nations the have basically called us mortl enemies are trying to make with the A-bombs.Are you stupid enough to believe that if we disposed of every nuke we have today that the Iranians would halt development? If not then this argument is just as worthless as the rest of your statements.
I also believe that the west share her wealth more effectively. Poverty breeds hatred. – Yes, that’s right, lets just give it to the bastards huh? Nevermind that we actually WORKED for this wealth. God I love liberals…the answer to the worlds problems is cash. Explain to me why all the 9-11 pig-humpers and al-Queerda leaders were upper or middle class until they decided to go live in caves….
i maintain that the current course of action seeks only to increase the number of people willing to blow themselves up (in public) – Wrong…the current policy seeks only to kill those bastards.
every innocent person killed makes it that much harder to forgive/forget and move forward. – But we’re Americans…should we just forgive and forget 9-11? you know like we did with the first WTC bombing, like the African embassy attacks, like Khobar Towers, Like the USS Cole… I could go on but you’re too dense to get it, I expect.
911 was cause by a couple hundred people with a crazy hatefull agenda, you have punished hundreds of
thousands for thier mistakes. – Aw poor little babies… Well perhaps if thousands stopped funding or supporting a couple hundred crazies this wouldn’t be an issue.
violence breeds violence. – Yes, and that’s something Al-Queerda wasn’t counting on.. us being violent right back… well they were hoping, they just didn’t think we’d be so damn good at violence. Toppling two Countries for less than 3000 US Deaths… you do remember the days of the forcasted 100,000 US deaths, the door to door fighting? Al-Queerda was actually hoping for a response like yours…you know, turn the other cheek so that they could put the shiv into your Kidneys…
Go back to school, kid…you don’t belong out here in the world with the rest of us men.
datsun,
I have to agree with the people who disagree with you, especially John:
“We’ve been giving fish to the middle east for generations, and where has it gotten us? The old saying that “yes, he’s a murdering sonavabitch dictator but at least he’s OUR murdering sonavabitch dictator” no longer applies. There’s a new sherrif in town, and we’re gonna teach these people to fish so the poverty and hatred dry up.
If datsun can’t wrap his brain around a liberal philosophy such as our current one, then just get the hell out of the way and watch what happens. You’ve had your turn, and you failed.”
For how many decades have we watched Democratic and Republican presidents try to negotiate peace in the Middle East? Carter came away with an agreement. It fell apart. Clinton came away with an agreement. It fell apart.
I’ll give the Democrats credit: They accomplished what they set out to do. Except that it didn’t work. Unfortunately, the Arabs don’t respect diplomatic negotiation.
Until you’re willing to back up your carrot with a large stick, don’t expect the Arabs to change their ways.
The large stick approach might take longer, and cost a lot of lives, but I think it will prove to be the more successful approach to the problems of the Middle East.
And Cro gets the Saddam Hussien “Grind Your Opponent Into Powder and Sell Him As a Laxative” award.
Sweet beatdown, Cro.