Well, it's been a while since the first debate--and Kerry's closed the gap for a while. The media is just hot to trot about it, making it sound like it was the very surge I predicted! Was Senator Kerry's performance THAT good?
No, it was not.
Now, I missed about half of the debate in the interior. From what I gather, what I missed was a constant assault upon the president keeping him on the defensive.
So how do I know Kerry
didn't do that well? Well, I know the media
, I know the sound they'd make if there was really a blowout. But more importantly, I know what I
did see.
So I'm now going to argue against myself in my very own thread! (You can't say it was inappropriately titled.)
I prefer a close race, and am glad Kerry has pulled the race back close. But what I was looking from him as a candidate was to do something new to create THE Mother Of All Surges...and that was stick to a story.
And he didn't do that. And it seems to me he expects to get elected without having to do so. And I'm here to tell you so long as he's under that impression, I can call this race right now.
Iraq was a great and terrible diversion from the War on Terror, unforgivably incompetent...well ok fine: if THAT'S the story...then why did he vote for it? He picked the Wrong Story to stick to. That's the Howard Dean story...and unfortunately he doesn't have the voting record of Howard Dean's preference. That's the story where he would have had to answer "yes" soldiers are dying for a mistake--and maybe demonstrate a little bit of leadership skill in sumarilly acknowledging "everyone in government shares in that mistake" instead of 'This president misled me!! That's why I voted your kids to war!!' (I know the pitch of that sound if it were true, too.)
I like Senator Kerry. I like his career, I like his performance in the Senate. I was glad to have him in the Democratic field, and content with the Democratic wisdom of choosing him. And if he gets the job, I think he'll be competent and determined to serve to the best of his formidable abilities.
But I've been about as patient with Senator Kerry as possible, and my patience is running out. You don't fingerpaint foreign policy positions with selective "quantum logic." There comes a day when you pick the ground to drive a stake, and you take the heat of defending that ground no matter what. He may have improved in that respect in the debate...but it sure wasn't in the half I saw, and regardless it sure wasn't ENOUGH.
As of now, it may be officially too late for him. I'm not talking about the whimsical winds of polls that flutter like that plastic bag in "American Beauty"---I'm talking about those furrowed brows in New Hampshire who have the cosmic antennae with regard to where to plant the flag at crunch time---they're guts may have already been steeled for the decision on 11/2. I'm tellin' ya straight...if it came down to last Thursday, then they're stickin' with Bush.
I'm still undecided...but basically I know what I need to see from the man to decide this is still a race.
