QandO

August 22, 2004

Lack of Substance
Posted by Dale Franks

Joe Klein, writing in Newsweek opines that John Kerry's campaign is suffering from a lack of substance about issues that matter in the here and now.

Actually, Kerry's best moments in this saga have come when he challenged the President's foreign and defense policies. Kerry distinguished himself two years ago by criticizing Bush for not using U.S. troops to attack the trapped al-Qaeda leadership at Tora Bora.

That sort of detailed, sophisticated critique has vanished from Kerry's repertoire. He hasn't had anything of interest to say about the humiliating American retreat from Fallujah—a city that has subsequently become a miniature rogue state within Iraq—or about the mystifying, flip-floppy U.S. attitude toward the Shi'ite revolutionary Muqtada al-Sadr. Kerry hasn't said whether he thinks Bush Administration policy was responsible for the torture at Abu Ghraib. He has mentioned—but hasn't really exploited—the growing sense in the military and intelligence communities that the war has strengthened Islamist radicalism, overburdened the U.S. military, and made it far more difficult to rally the world against the nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran.

Kerry does not have to be specific about what he would do in Iraq—the situation on the ground changes daily, so how can he know?—but I suspect the public needs to hear, in plain and forceful language, Kerry's opinion of what Bush has done and whether it has been good for America. Instead, Kerry has offered only vague criticisms and an increasingly implausible promise to lure our allies into the chaos.

Kerry made the mistake of showcasing his Vietnam service prominently. That makes the Swiftvets charges all the more damaging, and is putting Kerry's campaign on the defensive.

It's interesting how Klein minimizes the Swiftvets problem Kerry faces:

[The voters] have obviously responded to the scurrilous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign against Kerry's war record, which is why he was forced, finally, to counterattack last week. The Swifties' ability to dominate the news with incendiary nonsense is, I believe, a direct result of Kerry's unwillingness to dominate the news with tart, controversial substance by challenging the President on Iraq.

There it is in a nutshell: scurrilous, incendiary nonsense. That's the talking point, and Klien isn't gonna deviate, even though, as a result, Kerry has already had to backtrack on the Cambodia claim. But, even if we grant, arguendo, that all the Swiftvet claims are nonsense, the simple fact is that it was Kerry himself who chose to make his Vietnam experience the sine qua non of his candidacy. Had Kerry projected the attitude he did in 1992 when Bill Clinton's service was being questioned, none of this would've happened. Kerry would merely have said, "35 years ago, I went to Vietnam. I'm proud of my service there, but it was 35 years ago. It is the challenges we face today that are the important issues of the campaign."

But, that he didn't is his fault, and no one else's.

There are a number of ways, as Klein points out, for Kerry to strike at Bush directly on the War on Terror, and the War in Iraq, if Kerry were willing to do so. But, even there it isn't quite as simple as Klein claims. Opposing Bush in the War on Terror, or on Iraq isn't enough; Kerry has to provide a road map of how to correct those perceived deficiencies. And that's where it gets a bit tricky.

Kerry cannot strike from the right of President Bush on these issues by using policies from the left, like a unilateral withdrawal from Iraq, or more fully subjugating US foreign policy to the judgment of the UN. At the same time, he can't turn off the anti-war crowd by implementing proposals that come from too far to the right, at least, not if he expects them to actually come to the polls and vote for him on Election Day.

It is, as Klein terms it, a straightjacket, but it isn't imposed on Kerry, as Klein believes, by political operatives, but the nature of the constituency he needs to be elected.

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