Time to go fishing the Fat Lady is singing. :p


http://www.washtimes.com/national/pruden.htm

Paying the price for padding a resume

By Wesley Pruden

A distinguished politician down South recalls an incident from his past illustrating the risks of campaigning on your biography.

"It was my first statewide race, for state attorney general," he recalls, "and I thought everything was going pretty well. I was young and still had all my hair, and everywhere I went people smiled, eager to shake my hand, and promised to vote for me. Then my opponent accused me of having flunked the bar exam three times.

"It wasn't a lie, exactly, but it wasn't quite correct. I had failed the bar exam twice, which is not rare, as any lawyer will tell you. But all I could say to defend myself was, 'I didn't flunk it three times, I only failed it twice.' That was not very persuasive to the average voter, and I knew my goose was cooked." John Kerry is learning the very same lesson, that once you're put on the defensive about something that you had rather not talk about it's difficult to change the subject: Not all of his Purple Hearts are suspect, only two of them are. Or maybe it's only one. Or was that the Silver Star? Voters, who don't always pay close attention to the nuances or even the details, are likely to remember only that questions were raised about his medals. (Were those the medals he threw away?)

A politician's reputation for telling the truth, particularly about how he won combat decorations, is a lot like a woman's reputation for virtue. Once veracity and virtue are subjects for public discussion, both pols in trouble and careless damsels can only suffer. Close only counts if you're pitching horseshoes.

Monsieur Kerry brought up the subject of his war heroics himself, and politicians of both parties can't imagine why. His bizarre salute and his goofy greeting ("I'm John Kerry, reporting for duty") at the Democratic National Convention was an invitation to the Swift Boat skeptics, and there are apparently a lot of them among the men he served with in Vietnam.

Bringing up the subject was risky enough, but by taking on the skeptical veterans — the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth — the Kerry campaign surely knew it would transform a story with limited exposure to the kind of press feeding frenzy that, once begun, is impossible to contain. "They've turned this into a raging national press story," William Carrick, a sometime Democratic strategist, told the New York Times. "It's certainly keeping Kerry from discussing his own issues and agenda and getting on the offensive." Another Democrat "close to the campaign," otherwise unidentified, sees it in an even grimmer light: "When you're basically running on your biography and there are ongoing attacks that are undermining the credibility of your biography, you have a really big problem."

Monsieur Kerry and his wise men (and women) may figure that once challenged they had no choice but to engage the argument, risks and all. Their internal polling is showing them that the veterans' skepticism of Monsieur Kerry's Purple Hearts, which seemed to fall on him like stars on Alabama, is sowing growing public doubts.

The demand that George W. Bush denounce the veterans' television commercials and "make" them cut it out (it's not at all clear how this could be done, short of calling in an air strike), will inevitably shift the focus to the $60 million worth of smear commercials, a lot of them paid for by the billionaire George Soros, aimed at the president over the past month.

John Kerry treated the podium in Boston as if it were a movie set, surrounding himself with friendly Vietnam veterans and devoting nearly a quarter of his acceptance speech to his service in Vietnam, for which President Bush has been generous with his praise, repeated yesterday.

Presidential candidates who run as war heroes have to be very careful that their heroics were actually and unquestionably heroic. Otherwise, like Monsieur Kerry, unwary candidates invite unwelcome scrutiny. Authentic heroes never indulge in braggadocio and rarely even want to talk about their medals and how they won them. Harry Truman was a veteran of the brutal trench warfare of World War I but never boasted of it. John F. Kennedy, whose heroics as skipper of PT-109 were definitely the right stuff, mocked the idea that he was a hero: "I'm a hero only if you think getting your boat shot out from under you is heroic."

Monsieur Kerry figured that his tales from South Vietnam would insulate himself from all questions. He figured wrong. Feeding frenzies can devour the unlikeliest people. A late education is always the most expensive kind.

Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Times.

Sorry King, I disagree. He is not done yet and this will be a very close election.....imho

I had very intention of reading this until I came to 'Monsieur Kerry'....

....then I printed it out and wiped my ass with it.

Mau10man,

Every down hill slide starts with a big push and Kerrys started at the convention. Close is realative and this one has to be close but not Al Gore close. BTW pop changes shifted more electoral votes to pro Bush states since the last election. Kerry will come undone in the next 60 days.

Oh, trust me, I want Bush to win but I think it is going to be closer than you think....I hope you are right though...

Mau10,

Lots of back room YAk about how the big wigs in the Democratic party have been concerned since the convention. If you really look deep at Kerrys platform you seee Jimmy Carters influence all over it. Had it had Clintons he would not be in this pickle. One thing people fail to consider is that Clinton still controls the democratic show. They want him in the whitehouse as the first man and feel Hillary is electable in 08 beacuse of him. Impossible if Kerry wins.

Sorry but that is just too conspiratorial for me.... I'll stay worried... If anything, it allows me to drink more beer....

M10,

Did not mean to imply conspiracy I hate them. Just saying Clinton did not put any of his considerable political weight behind Kerry. There had to be a reason.

Aunty, the fat lady is deaf.

Sorry AM the world is not yours.

It’s usually taken to be a reference to opera, so many performances of which seem to end with a set-piece aria by a well-built soprano, but its recent links are mainly with sport, so much so that some people think that is the origin.
Commentators do often say the phrase to remind people that it’s the final result that matters, often in a spirit of reassurance to the supporters of the losing team. It has been suggested that it was the brainchild of the San Antonio TV sports editor Dan Cook. It’s probably not one of Yogi Berra’s phrases, though it has the same sense and much of the style of his “It ain’t over till it’s over”, which he is said to have coined in 1973.
These comparatively recent sports’ associations disguise the fact that it is actually a rather older expression, which occurs in several forms: “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings”, “The opera isn’t over until the fat lady sings”, or “Church ain’t out ’till the fat lady sings”.
This last version appears in a 1976 booklet entitled Southern Words and Sayings. Ralph Keyes wrote a book with the title Nice Guys Finish Seventh in which he says that several informants recalled hearing the expression for decades before it suddenly became nationally known in 1978. The use of church here suggests that its origin wasn’t tied to opera, either, but to church-going.

I caught that, too. Dyslexics, untie!!

I suppose if someone typing skills are all you have then run with it. We call that small thinking here.

"We," is in you and all the little voices in your head?

Put a fork in who????

There are some basic benchmarks by which an incumbent's success can be measured as the campaign heads into the fall:

The average winning incumbent has had a job approval rating of 60%. Indeed, every incumbent who has won reelection has had his job approval in the mid-50's or higher at this point. In recent polling, Bush's average approval rating has been 48%. President Bush must emerge from his convention having dramatically altered public perception of his performance in office.

In recent years, when incumbents have gone on to victory, 52% of voters, on average, said the country was on the right track. Now, just 37% think things are moving in the right direction. Thus, President Bush must convince the electorate that the nation is in much better shape than voters now believe to be the case.

Every incumbent who has gone on to be reelected has had a double-digit lead at this point. Following their conventions, the average elected incumbent has held a 16-point lead, while winning incumbents have led by an average of 27 points. Bush will need a very substantial bounce to reach the mark set by his successful predecessors.

Incumbents have enjoyed an average bounce in the vote margin of 8 points.

On average, incumbents' share of the two-party vote has declined by 4 points between their convention and Election Day.

The law of permutation shows you can draw no parallel from one to the other meaning they are just numbers and numbers do not vote.

This is what makes people vote what they know from their real life. GW gets to spend the next few months discussing basic issues that touch our lives.

1. Average earnings of rank-and-file private-sector workers have increased since Bush took office, though modestly. Even after adjusting for inflation -- including the rising price of gasoline --those earnings are up just over 1% since January 2001, despite the recession and the initially slow recovery.

2. Solid growth in employment in relatively higher -paying occupations including construction workers, health-care professionals, business managers, and teachers.

3. Comparing the most recent 12 months employment has increased by more than 1 million in categories that on average paid above the median earnings of $541 per week, while employment was virtually unchanged in categories paying below the median.

4. The budget for the Department of Education has grown 58% under Bush, and he's proposing another 5% increase next year, including sizeable increases in spending for children from low-income families and for special education for disabled children.

5. Spending for veterans benefits has grown 27% since Bush took office, and the ranks of veterans drawing benefits have increased by more than 1 million.

6. Kicked the snot out of and ousted the Taliban.

7. Freed the people of Iraq from a repressive murderer who if given the chance would have also murdered innocent American citizens.

8. Has kept our streets here safer by sending thousands of terrorist to met their 72 virgins on their land not ours.

Kerry will spend the remainder of the campaign fighting the Swfitboat issue and trying to convince people that he is trustworthy not on the issues. Simply because he built his campaign around 4 months 34 years ago in which a big chunk of his resume on that matter is suspect.

The flood gates are open and the dam is about to burst! :p :p :p


Nothing quite like watching a turd circle the bowl before it heads down the pipe.


Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Letter to John Kerry

August 25, 2004

Senator John Kerry
304 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Kerry,

We are pleased to welcome your campaign representatives to Texas today. We honor all our veterans, all whom have worn the uniform and served our country. We also honor the military and National Guard troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan today. We are very proud of all of them and believe they deserve our full support.

That’s why so many veterans are troubled by your vote AGAINST funding for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, after you voted FOR sending them into battle. And that’s why we are so concerned about the comments you made AFTER you came home from Vietnam. You accused your fellow veterans of terrible atrocities – and, to this day, you have never apologized. Even last night, you claimed to be proud of your post-war condemnation of our actions.

We’re proud of our service in Vietnam. We served honorably in Vietnam and we were deeply hurt and offended by your comments when you came home.

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t build your convention and much of your campaign around your service in Vietnam, and then try to say that only those veterans who agree with you have a right to speak up. There is no double standard for our right to free speech. We all earned it.

You said in 1992 “we do not need to divide America over who served and how.” Yet you and your surrogates continue to criticize President Bush for his service as a fighter pilot in the National Guard.

We are veterans too – and proud to support President Bush. He’s been a strong leader, with a record of outstanding support for our veterans and for our troops in combat. He’s made sure that our troops in combat have the equipment and support they need to accomplish their mission.

He has increased the VA health care budget more than 40% since 2001 – in fact, during his four years in office, President Bush has increased veterans funding twice as much as the previous administration did in eight years ($22 billion over 4 years compared to $10 billion over 8.) And he’s praised the service of all who served our country, including your service in Vietnam.

We urge you to condemn the double standard that you and your campaign have enforced regarding a veteran’s right to openly express their feelings about your activities on return from Vietnam.

Sincerely,

Texas State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson
Rep. Duke Cunningham
Rep. Duncan Hunter
Rep. Sam Johnson
Lt. General David Palmer
Robert O'Malley, Medal of Honor Recipient
James Fleming, Medal of Honor Recipient
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Castle (Ret.)

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That reminds me of the story about the Dyslexic-Insomniac that would stay up all night wondering if there was a doG?

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I heard a little birdie say that Hanoi John is going to to a little cameo on 60 minutes this weekend to offer an apology to his new found 'brothers in arms' that he has referred to as 'BABY KILLERS and RAPISTS' for the last 33 YEARS.

He's doing this in attempt to negate any condemnation Vietnam Veterans may voice in or around the RNC next week.

Apologies are nice, especially when they're offered from the heart and not from a political expediency motivation.

However, some major 33 year old wounds require more than a small band-aid to heal.