Punditchick

Arnie Rocked, The Twins Shocked

The Governator was a rock star tonight.

This part of his speech stikes me as the most effective--"Now, the other party says there are two Americas. Don't believe that either. I've visited our troops in Iraq, Kuwait, Bosnia, Germany and all over the world. I've visited our troops in California, where they train before they go overseas. And I've visited our military hospitals. And I can tell you this: Our young men and women in uniform do not believe there are two Americas! They believe we are one America and they are fighting for it!" Great stuff.

Edwards' "Two America' spiel may play well in the salons of Georgetown, at Tina Brown's "serious Manhattan dinner parties" and with the Gang of 500 that run the media, but most Americans think the "Two Americas" concept is so Cuomo in '84 and so 9-10.

Is this where Edwards came up with his "Two Americas" theme?

From Kerry's hard-to -find, radically antiwar tome, "The New Soldier":

"I think that, more than anything, the New Soldier is trying to point out how there are two Americas -- the one the speeches are about and the one we really are. Rhetoric has blinded us so much that we are unable to see the realities which exist in this country."

I believe Mr. Kerry gave one of those speeches in Beantown, and he's down in the polls because the Swiftees are telling America who he really is.

About the twins: they are very pretty, much more so than the Kerry daughters. And, mercifully, unlike the daughters Kerry, they aren't Karenna Gores-- they aren't agenda pushing big mouths. That being said, they didn't do well tonight. They had a "Simple Life 2" vibe. They were definitely more Paris and Nicole than Julie and Tricia Nixon. They might not have scored in Peoria (Geraghty and the Corner and much of the after action punditry gave them a thumbs down), but it might actually have made the ticket more palatable in the Blue states.

Here's Sullivan's take:

THE GIRLS: But Jenna and Barbara really did steal the show. The word "sex" emanated from the stage. No, this wasn't an ad lib. The marketers who are promoting the policies of James Dobson and Rick Santorum were making jokes mocking the prudery of people who think "Sex and the City" is something only married people do and never talk about. Like the president's gaffe about not winning the war on terror, this could never have been uttered at a Democratic convention without the Dems being described as out-of-touch metrosexuals. But the delegates, knowing that this kind of front is necessary to win over the American middle, didn't seem to mind. Compared to the earnest, mature, almost somber Kerry daughters, these two were upper-class brats, giggling, cooing, pointing to friends in the crowd, giggling over their lines, and generally showing the maturity of the average "American Idol" contestant. I have to say I loved it - if only for its authenticity, for the sudden interruption of an actual reality into the sometimes surreal script of this convention. So we have an Austrian-American bodybuilder with a history of orgies and a couple of spoiled, hard-drinking party girls fronting for a party whose platform is inspired in large part by Biblical fundamentalism. Yep. It would be hard to convey a more vivid reflection of our fractured culture than that.

And Sully said this about the convention so far:

THE SPECTACULAR INCOHERENCE: How to convey the spectacular incoherence of last night's continuing infomercial for the re-election of George W. Bush? The evening began with a series of speeches trumpeting vast increases in federal spending: on education, healthcare, AIDS, medical research, and on and on. No, these were not Democrats. They were Bush Republicans, extolling the capacity of government to help people, to cure the sick, educate the young, save Africans from HIV, subsidize religious charities, prevent or cure breast cancer, and any other number of worthy causes. The speakers were designed to target certain demographic and interest groups, just as the Democrats used to. The notion that these things are best left to the private sector, or that spending needs to be slashed in the wake of rising debt, or that the race of a speaker is irrelevant: all these are now Republican heterodoxy. The highpoint of this section was the speech of Bill Frist. I've never really listened to him give a speech before and this one was frighteningly bad. He has a cadaverous face and a terrifying smile. His first anecdote made no sense at all. His denunication of trial lawyers - the one moment when he didn't look like a funeral director - left him wild-eyed and awkward-gestured. He spoke as if to a bunch of seven year olds in their second language. How did this guy ever get to a position of leadership? He's the Senate Majority Leader and, on a bad day, he'd give small kids nightmares. His speech was a mishmash of comic cliches, pathetically contrived hand movements, that robotic swivel from teleprompter screen to teleprompTer screen, and crude demagoguery. When you see who really runs the GOP (funny Tom DeLay isn't in prime time, isn't it?), you begin to realize why a cross-dressing ex-mayor (Rudy puts on a dress for a goof and suddenly he's a cross-dresser? --CD), a dissident Californian and an unelected ex-librarian are among its major spokespeople.

No he's not seething over the FMA or anything...

All in all, the RNC convention has been mostly very good, but the prospect of a barely perceptible bounce looms. The GOP Bigs should have made sure that McCain and Giuliani got on the networks-- they were wonderfully effective and only the junkies watched it on cable. If Cheney and Bush deliver and the Swiftees
continue their flood the zone strategy in the swing states, Kerry will join the "Band of Losers" with Mondale, Dukakis and McGovern.

The Great Unraveling

After many months of running as Lieutenant j.G. Kerry and four preposterously Vietcentric days in Boston, Kerry is imploding.

The Swifties have made Nam an overwhelming negative for KE04, and the electorate is in the process of being introduced to Lieutenant Governor Kerry who served with Mike Dukakis and Senator Kerry who flirted with the Sandinistas and voted to slash our intelligence and military budgets.

Rudy Giuliani took Kerry apart last night in a very Un-Gingrich way. And McCain couldn't have been better. His takedown of Moore was executed beautifully. It was done so well, Moore has chosen not to return to the Garden for the rest of the Convention.

Kerry could make a comeback (maybe he'll do to Bush what he did to Weld in the debates) but it's hard to see how he'll do it. Kerry's electoral success and reputation in the Bay State as a "strong closer" isn't that impressive when you consider that Massachsetts is so overwhlemingly Democratic. Democrats in Massachussets don't have to be really good pols. Similarly, Republicans in Utah and Idaho don't have to be political wizards. Orrin Hatch is no Gipper and Kerry is no Clinton.

Kaus Miles

On the road to the GOP Convention with the Mickster:

Road Trip Report, 8/04--Drive-by journalism in its purest form: Kausfiles drives from L.A. to New York so you don't have to! Executive Summary of major findings:

It's getting smaller: I started late and still spent only three nights on the road, one less than usual. I'm not sure why. I didn't go illegally fast. True, they've improved the roads and raised the speed limits to 70 or 75 across the plains.

Crappiest Interstate Experience: Missouri, the perennial winner. Choppy, narrow highway flanked by tacky commerical billboards. Some of them--e.g. "Got Bra Problems?" or "Yucko's Poop Scoop Service"--may have been subtle, NEA-funded performance art.

Distressing evidence of the Coarsening of American Culture I: Even big Interstate highways are no longer decent, family-friendly places, thanks to the proliferation of giant lighted signs advertising the "Adult" and "XXX" bookstores along the side of the road in several Heartland states. "Mom, what does three X-es mean?"

Distressing evidence of the Coarsening of American Culture II: Country music, traditionally thought to be on the right-wing side of the culture war, has begun to incorporate hip hop elements--or, rather, to self-consciously and somewhat pathetically ape the corrosive, materialistic playa' machismo of the imagined ghetto while pretending to maintain an adversarial stance. Sample lyric from "Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy", currently #11 on Billboard's Country chart:

Well I don't give a dang about nothing
I'm singing and Bling-Blanging
While the girls are drinking
Long necks down!
And I wouldn't trade ol' Leroy
or my Chevrolet for your Escalade ... [snip]

I'm a thorough-bred
that's what she said
in the back of my truck bed

Please. ... I guess it all comes down to which General Motors SUV you drive, and whether you show off the bling-bling or the bling-blang. (How did Anne Kornblut miss that?)

It's a lousy song too.

Strangest architectural encounter: A prison along I-70 in Greenville, Illinois featuring all the cheap, hack post-modern cues now associated with upscale shopping centers--red and beige brick stripings, triangular pediments, etc. It looked like a Best Buy surrounded by barbed wire--Bed, Shower & Beyond.

Favorite exit name: Little Point.

Kansas in August is not as corny as you'd think!

Bill O'Reilly Award for Least Convincing Claim of Persecution by Snobs: To John Michael Montgomery, whose otherwise effective country hit "Letters From Home," told in the voice of a U.S. soldier in Iraq who's received a letter from his parents, contains these lines:

I hold it up and show my buddies,
Like we ain't scared and our boots ain't muddy, and they all laugh,
Like there's something funny bout' the way I talk,
When I say: "Mama sends her best y'all."

Hello? Aren't Southerners a plurality of the U.S. Army? Isn't it shot through with Southern military culture? I don't think they make fun of people who say "y'all"!

Most Disappointing Sign: Any of the ones around Colby, Kansas advertising "Post Rock Country." After 1000 miles of heavy metal, oldies and Nashville schlock, I was ready for post rock country. But the signs were only publicizing a form of stone once used to make fenceposts.

Best music station: Tie between KRCC in Colorado Springs ("Late Evening Freeform") and WOUB in Athens, Ohio ("Crossing Boundaries"). Both were much better, music-wise, than L.A.'s vaunted KCRW--perhaps because they are less influenced by record-industry people.

Trend I most need explained to me: Airsoft guns. They shoot plastic pellets, not BBs, right? Who buys them? Adults? Children? What damage can they do? Are they somehow an artifact of gun control laws? Don't the people who use them risk getting shot by cops who think they are regular guns? Instapundit will know ...

P.S.: Rob Long, who claims to have also driven across the country, nevertheless says he doesn't know who Lee Ann Womack is. I guess he didn't listen to my mix CD after all. ... Update: Long now claims in an email that he listened to the CD "somewhere in the watery border between Missouri and Kansas." ..

Swift Storm

Kerry's self-indulgent, divisive decison to refight the Vietnam War during a hot, complicated global WOT is why we should all be glad that the Swifties are kicking him in the nuts.

The Left would have us believe that the Swifty ads are dirty pool. In truth, Kerry's relentless humping of his four controversial months in the Nam and the hideous Brinkley bio caused it all to happen.

Kerry the Effete Liberal Douche Bag Episode 9 Million

How do you get this out of touch?

On Wednesday, Kerry made his third visit to Green Bay, Wis., this year and made it a point to focus on the main thing the city revolves around: football and the Green Bay Packers.

En route to a front-porch event (which, incidentally, took place in a backyard), Kerry stopped off at West High School and spent about an hour with its football team, which was practicing for this week's game. Eventually, he lined up at quarterback and ran a few plays, with his final play turning into a bit of a disaster.

Kerry described it later saying, "I got to run through a couple of plays and on one, my pitch-off sort of got fumbled ... so I grabbed the ball as fast as I could, fell on it and rolled over."

During the front-porch event, he spoke to a crowd of about 100 local residents in the yard of supporter Susan Laabs and, fully realizing where he was, strategically referenced Hall of Fame Packers coach Vince Lombardi three separate times during his remarks.

"Vince Lombardi said that who we are is really measured by what you do with what you have. And we can do more with what we have in this country," said Kerry.

Unfortunately, during the event, Kerry fumbled for a second time, though this one didn't involve a football.

As he was taking questions from the audience, he referred to the legendary Packers stadium, Lambeau Field (which has been called that for 39 years) as "Lambert Field."
If the voters catch wind of that gaffe, it could take Kerry another three visits to Green Bay to make up for it.

I submit that this is Kerry's latest George H.W. grocery scanner moment-- he's had so many and his "Band of Reporters" haven't given them much oxygen.

Kerry Lied

Glen Reynolds has got to be thrilled-- the Old Media has finally decided to take on Kerry's Cambodia tales.

From WaPo:

Kerry's Cambodia Whopper

By Joshua Muravchik
Tuesday, August 24, 2004; Page A17

Most of the debate between the former shipmates who swear by John Kerry and the group of other Swift boat veterans who are attacking his military record focuses on matters that few of us have the experience or the moral standing to judge. But one issue, having nothing to do with medals, wounds or bravery under fire, goes to the heart of Kerry's qualifications for the presidency and is therefore something that each of us must consider. That is Kerry's apparently fabricated claim that he fought in Cambodia.

It is an assertion he made first, insofar as the written record reveals, in 1979 (I'm sure it's just a coincidence that "Apocalypse Now" came out in '79--Ed.) in a letter to the Boston Herald. Since then he has repeated it on at least eight occasions during Senate debate or in news interviews, most recently to The Post this year (an interview posted on Kerry's Web site). The most dramatic iteration came on the floor of the Senate in 1986, when he made it the centerpiece of a carefully prepared 20-minute oration against aid to the Nicaraguan contras.

Kerry argued that contra aid could put the United States on the path to deeper involvement despite denials by the Reagan administration of any such intent. Kerry began by reading out similar denials regarding Vietnam from presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Then he offered this devastating riposte:

"I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me."

However seared he was, Kerry's spokesmen now say his memory was faulty. When the Swift boat veterans who oppose Kerry presented statements from his commanders and members of his unit denying that his boat entered Cambodia, none of Kerry's shipmates came forward, as they had on other issues, to corroborate his account. Two weeks ago Kerry's spokesmen began to backtrack. First, one campaign aide explained that Kerry had patrolled the Mekong Delta somewhere "between" Cambodia and Vietnam. But there is no between; there is a border. Then another spokesman told reporters that Kerry had been "near Cambodia." But the point of Kerry's 1986 speech was that he personally had taken part in a secret and illegal war in a neutral country. That was only true if he was "in Cambodia," as he had often said he was. If he was merely "near," then his deliberate misstatement falsified the entire speech.

Next, the campaign leaked a new version through the medium of historian Douglas Brinkley, author of "Tour of Duty," a laudatory book on Kerry's military service. Last week Brinkley told the London Telegraph that while Kerry had been 50 miles from the border on Christmas, he "went into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions." Oddly, though, while Brinkley devotes nearly 100 pages of his book to Kerry's activities that January and February, pinpointing the locations of various battles and often placing Kerry near Cambodia, he nowhere mentions Kerry's crossing into Cambodia, an inconceivable omission if it were true.

Now a new official statement from the campaign undercuts Brinkley. It offers a minimal (thus harder to impeach) claim: that Kerry "on one occasion crossed into Cambodia," on an unspecified date. But at least two of the shipmates who are supporting Kerry's campaign (and one who is not) deny their boat ever crossed the border, and their testimony on this score is corroborated by Kerry's own journal, kept while on duty. One passage reproduced in Brinkley's book says: "The banks of the [Rach Giang Thanh River] whistled by as we churned out mile after mile at full speed. On my left were occasional open fields that allowed us a clear view into Cambodia. At some points, the border was only fifty yards away and it then would meander out to several hundred or even as much as a thousand yards away, always making one wonder what lay on the other side." His curiosity was never satisfied, because this entry was from Kerry's final mission.

After his discharge, Kerry became the leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Once, he presented to Congress the accounts by his VVAW comrades of having "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires . . . to human genitals . . . razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan . . . poisoned foodstocks." Later it was shown that many of the stories on which Kerry based this testimony were false, some told by impostors who had stolen the identities of real GIs, but Kerry himself was not implicated in the fraud. And his own over-the-top generalization that such "crimes [were] committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command" could be charged up to youthfulness and the fevers of the times.

But Kerry has repeated his Cambodia tale throughout his adult life. He has claimed that the epiphany he had that Christmas of 1968 was about truthfulness. "One of the things that most struck me about Vietnam was how people were lied to," he explained in a subsequent interview. If -- as seems almost surely the case -- Kerry himself has lied about what he did in Vietnam, and has done so not merely to spice his biography but to influence national policy, then he is surely not the kind of man we want as our president.

The writer is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Kerry was never in Cambodia and it matters. Kerry has said fifty separate times that Dick Nixon sent him to Cambodia on Christmas Eve of '68. And that while in the Big C, drunken South Vietnamese (Shit-talking the allies-- typical Kerry!!!) getting their Christmas on (Hello??!!! Do they do that?) shot at him and a CIA Spook gave him a magic hat. He even carries around the hat on the campaign trail to turn on his media bitches (think Mike Barnicle, Chris Matthews and Laurence O'Donnell).

God Bless the Swifties for forcing the WaPO to concede that Kerry's a lying shitbag-- if this is all they accomplish, they'll have been wildly successful.

Adieu Grab Ass

Looks like there is going to be a lot less John on John action to mock in the coming months. KE04's strategic decision to politick like faux homos in a lame attempt to appeal to Metrosexual hipsters and Soccer Moms nervous with Bush-Cheney's muscular foreign policy is so pre Cipel-McGreevy.

There's even a juicy Beltway rumor that KE04 uber-operatives, Michael Meehan and Tad Devine, are telling reporters that the wounded, fleeing Vietcong --who the anti-Kerry Swift Vets say was wearing a loincloth when Kerry shot him in the back to poach a Silver Star--was actually wearing pleather hot pants.

The Bushies are reportedly worried that Kerry's latest flip flop-- from bi-curious exhibitionism to overt homophobia-- could eat into its lead among NASCAR Dads.

Developing...

Bush Can't Win

No shock here-- the hand-wringing Lefties who decry American hegemony think Bush's troop realignment plan is an unwise retreat from the world..

Issue Two: Rassman

In "Tour of Duty," Douglass Brinkley includes excerpts from Kerry's war journal. It seems Kerry's story and Rassman's WSJ Op-Ed differ on a significant fact.

In Brinkley's book, which relies on excerpts from Kerry's war journal, Rassman isn't on Kerry Swift Boat. Brinkley says Rassman fell of PCF-35, while Kerry was OIC of PCF-94 on that day.

On Kerry's campaign website, a press release maintains the Brinkley line:

January 17, 2004

Kerry Reunites with Fellow Veteran in Iowa
Veteran says Kerry saved his life in combat; has not seen him since 1969

For Immediate Release

Des Moines, IA - Former Lieutenant John Kerry was reunited today with fellow Vietnam veteran Jim Rassmann, who says Kerry saved his life during combat.

On March 13, 1969, Rassmann, a Green Beret, was traveling down the Bay Hap river in a boat behind Kerry’s when both were ambushed by exploding land mines and enemy fire coming from the shore. Kerry was hit in the arm, while a mine blew Rassmann’s boat out of the water. With enemy fire coming from both sides of the river and swift boats evacuating from the area, Kerry’s crew chose to turn their boat toward the ambush to save Rassmann.

“We were still under fire, and he was wounded at the time…,” recalled Rassmann. And with his boat’s gunners providing suppressing fire, Kerry extended his wounded arm into the water and the two lieutenants locked arms.

Kerry and Rassmann have not seen each other since 1969. Yesterday, Jim Rassmann called John Kerry’s campaign headquarters and said: “I saw that John is in another tough fight, and I want to lend a hand.”

Rassmann, a retired Los Angeles county sheriff who now lives in Florence, Oregon, flew to Iowa this morning to reunite with Kerry. Kerry, with fellow veterans around him, said he was moved by Rassmann’s decision to come to Iowa.

“I remember the day and the moment we last met; the lingering bond between us comes from the shared experience of our service,” Kerry said. “I told Jim what I tell the thousands of veterans I have met in Iowa: As president, I will never—ever—forget your service.” Kerry added.

For Kerry’s bravery, Rassmann recommended that he be recognized, and Kerry was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat V. The citation that followed the award read as follows:

“The man was receiving sniper fire from both banks. Lt. Kerry directed his gunners to provide suppressing fire, while from an exposed position on the bow, his arm bleeding and in pain, with disregard for his personal safety, he pulled the man aboard.

Lt. Kerry then directed his boat to return and assist the other damaged craft and towed the boat to safety. Lt. Kerry's calmness, professionalism and great personal courage under fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the US Naval Service.”

Rassman, in response to the Swift Boats for truth, penned an Op-Ed for the WSJ. Rassman like the anti-Kerry Swifties place Rassman on Kerry's boat:

On March 13, 1969, John Kerry's courage and leadership saved my life.

While returning from a SEA LORDS operation along the Bay Hap River, a mine detonated under another swift boat. Machine-gun fire erupted from both banks of the river, and a second explosion followed moments later. The second blast blew me off John's swift boat, PCF-94, throwing me into the river. Fearing that the other boats would run me over, I swam to the bottom of the river and stayed there as long as I could hold my breath.

Interesting, no?

This Strikes Me As Significant

Drudge is reporting that KE04 has settled on a strategy to deal with Cambodia.

I'll admit that Kerry can do little right in my book, but this Cambodia move strikes me as especially horrific. Dispatching Brinkley to claim Kerry was in Cambodia some time in January of '69 (not Christmas of '68) seems like a recipe for damage amplification.

Kerry went on the record fifty times with his Christmas in Cambodia tale. Kerry said this to the Boston Herald in '79:

On more than one occasion, I, like Martin Sheen in "Apocalypse Now," took my patrol boat into Cambodia.

In fact, I remember spending Christmas Day of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese Allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which President Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real. But nowhere in "Apocalypse Now" did I sense that kind of absurdity.

I'd say that bite completely ruins the "modification."