Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Stumping...

I can count on one foot the number of times I have agreed with something William Safire wrote, and I still disagree with the premise of today's column that Howard Dean should drop out of the Democratic nomination race to give John Edwards a fighting chance at John Kerry, but he did write one thing that crystallized for me the reason I grow increasingly less fond of John Kerry.

"He has offered only a high-carb diet of populist platitudes in stump speeches. For a serious man running for a serious job, Kerry has not made a policy speech since December, when he was nobody. " Click here for the entire NYT column.

Every time I see Kerry on CNN, which is pretty much constantly now that he's "the presumptive nominee," he says the same thing: nothing. If college students haven't made a drinking game out of Kerry speeches, it's a matter of time. A shot every time you hear the phrases "band of brothers," "I know something about aircraft carriers for real," or "Benedict Arnold CEOs." Two shots for "Bring it on."

Soundbytes, not substance. I thought he just has the charisma of cauliflower without all the flavor, but it's more than that. He doesn't have solutions.

No comments: