QandO

April 27, 2004

It doesn't get any better than this...
Posted by McQ

John Podhoretz articulates one of the reasons I continue to say "Kerry has peaked". He's just a bad candidate:

THE conventional wisdom is that the presidential election will be close. It's a 50-50 country, so the CW goes, just as it was in the year 2000.

The problem is that the conventional wisdom hasn't taken a proper accounting of John Kerry. Here's the truth that Democrats don't want to admit and that Republicans are fearful of speaking openly because they don't want to jinx things:

Kerry is a terrible, terrible, terrible candidate.

It's not so much the policies he proposes, although they don't add up to all that much. The problem is Kerry himself. He no sooner opens his mouth than he sticks first one foot and then the other right in there.

He just doesn't have what it takes for a national campaign. Sure he's been reelected in Mass. But so has Teddy Kennedy, who probably wouldn't have a snow-ball's chance in hell outside the north east. Same with Kerry.

Couple that with a message which is essentially "I'm not Bush" (much like Dole's "I'm not Clinton" message) and the whole campaign doesn't add up to much.

Now add this tendency and you've got a candidate who, at some point, will complete his own self-destruction:

And that is Kerry's great weakness as a candidate - a weakness that will be hard for him to overcome, because it appears to be a character trait. The man who said "I voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it" is a man filled with the conviction that he can talk himself out of a tough situation.

Sometimes, it's better just to be silent, take the hit and move on. But Kerry seems constitutionally incapable of doing that.

The example in question has to do with his appearance on ABC yesterday concerning his medals. Instead of just blowing it off, he became "Clintonesqe" in his answer. Ribbons, medals, yatta, yatta, Bush, Guard. Instead of just moving on he let himself literally be baited into not looking very good. It doesn't matter that the subject was essentially irrelevant, it was how he HANDLED it which was telling.

And I don't see it getting any better. As Podhoretz points out he seems incapable of knowing when to shut up and supremely confident that he can talk his way out of anything. That's when you see the arrogance come through, and its also when you hear such gems as "I voted for the 87 billion before I voted against it."

Expect more of that because despite evidence to the contrary he hasn't learned to keep quiet. He still arrogantly believes he can talk his way out of things.

Which brings me to agree with Podhoretz. My gut tells me its not going to be close at all come November.

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