Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Ghosts
John Kerry's recent gaff once again makes the Dems look like the gang that can't shoot straight. The Democrats are finally about to make some gains, not because of anything they said or did, but because Republican ineptness on multiple levels has led to a potential mother-lode of disaffected voters looking for something else; so Kerry not only misspeaks, providing a gift of deflection for the Republicans, he complicates the issue by not apologizing quickly. This refusal to quickly assert his regret at a mistake is familiar territory, a Democratic syndrome involving post election rage — Al Gore had a similar dysfunction, if not in the same way — but I think out of the same logic. Gore gave an over the top speech that made him sound unbalanced after his own run — trying to make up for all the missed opportunities to reply to the misdirections of the Republican campaign, but Gore was swinging at ghosts.
Kerry didn't get angry enough when he ran for president; as he said today, “I'm sick and tired…” of unfair attacks, thinking more about the past than the present. You can't get angry now John about past failures and ignore current ones.