“To those who still believe in the myth of a maverick instead of the reality of a politician, I say let’s compare Senator McCain to Candidate McCain. Candidate McCain now supports the very wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once called irresponsible. Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain’s own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote. Are you kidding me, folks? Talk about being for it before you’re against it!“
In the second of three solid orations tonight, an impassioned John Kerry laid into John McCain hard, and delivered arguably a better speech than anything he ever gave as our 2004 nominee. [Transcript.] Thanks to the Swift Boat ridiculousness of that cycle, Kerry has now taken on some of the resonance that Max Cleland had back then — that of the good patriot horribly wronged by the sheer scumminess of the Rove-wallowing GOP. Well, Kerry tapped into this costly gravitas with aplomb in tonight’s speech, using it to insist that we not let McCain and his new friends screw the nation over once again. (“How insulting to suggest that those who question the mission question the troops. How pathetic to suggest that those who question a failed policy doubt America itself. How desperate to tell the son of a single mother, who chose community service over money and privilege, that he doesn’t put America first. No one can question Barack Obama’s patriotism.“)
The anger of Kerry’s own experience seethed just below the surface in his remarks, and it lent his speech a fiery passion that seemed as AWOL as cokehead-Dubya during crucial stretches in 2004. (Not that the election should’ve come down to a question of passion anyway, but frankly every little bit would’ve helped.) In a perfect world, Kerry wouldn’t have to play the martyr right now, of course. But this isn’t a perfect world. As it is, it’s hard to think of anyone who could better remind us in 2008 that the GOP are all too often an adversary without any semblance of honor or dignity, and we’ll be damned before we let those bastards get away with their pathetic lies and hateful smears once again. Not this time.
I think Kerry sounded so good because he really believed it. Everyone is John McCain’s friend it seems, but for Kerry that’s true, or at least it was. It must disgust him to no end to see McCain resort to the swiftboating garbage that was not only used against Kerry in 2004 but used against himself in 2000.
But hey, McCain is a victim of torture who supports Bush’s torture policy, so maybe it’s a cycle of abuse kind of thing.
The swiftboat wasn’t garbage..it was true. And McCain doesn’t support torture..which is why I don’t support him. Sometimes torture is necessary when you’re dealing with people who want every american citizen dead. The American public has fallen back to sleep and it’s going to take another wake up call like 9/11 to knock some sense into people. Unfortunately, it looks like the coma period will result in the election of one of the most unqualified candidates in the history of the nation who also happens to be a socialist. Way to Go america!
K, Tom, well, I’ve got business back on Planet Earth now…so, um, thanks for stopping by.
Your comment does remind me of one of my favorite Lincoln quotes, tho: “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.“