Kerry Must Be Back In the Lead....

The ankle-biters of the right seem to be shifting into anti-Kerry attack mode, suggesting that they now believe he is the likely Democratic nominee.

Representing the shift from "let's bash Dean" to "let's bash Kerry" is Kathleen Parker, who first swoons over Bush's "State of the Campaign" address, then proceeds to bash Dean for the weird yell at the end of the motivational speech he gave to his supporters - which, of course, means that he is nuts and unfit for office. (Why look at his record - he yelled once, and that's all a "deep thinker" like Kathleen requires.) She then proceeds to Bash Kerry for criticizing Bush's showboating aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, by contrasting it with his own bona fide war record. In Kathleen's mind, apparently, that's not "talking like grownups". She apparently prefers the grown-up "Bush-Cheney" approach to campaigning.

Meanwhile, William Buckley complains that, after returning from combat duty, Kerry opposed the war in Vietnam - and that this somehow makes it internally inconsistent that he voted to authorize the war in Iraq. Buckley does point out that the "differences between Iraq and Vietnam are considerable," - but the similarities are such that he can ignore the differences when constructing his attack on Kerry. (Perhaps Kerry should have followed a model for engagement in Vietnam which would seemingly be more revered in Buckley's eyes - such as avoiding service through a Naitonal Guard appointment, and rather than becoming politically engaged after the war, spending a decade or two in a drunken stupor. Now that's Presidential behavior.)

David Brooks gets into the act by accusing Kerry of having a long history of speaking about difficult social and political issues, but rarely following up on his thoughts. He then compares Kerry to, of all people, John McCain:

The difference is that once McCain latches onto an issue, like campaign finance reform, he sticks with it year after year.

John Kerry doesn't. He will momentarily embrace daring ideas, but if they threaten core constituencies, he often abandons them, returning meekly to the Democratic choir.

That is the difference between speechifying and leadership.

Is it just me, or did I somehow overlook the election of President McCain - I thought Kerry would be running against George W. "Let's Go To Mars" Bush. Perhaps Brooks believes that McCain would have been a better president than the one we have, but surely he can see that it would be far more relevant to compare Kerry's track record to GW's. Or would that somehow defeat his argument?

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