{"id":339,"date":"2004-02-12T02:20:49","date_gmt":"2004-02-12T02:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2006-09-28T12:08:30","modified_gmt":"2006-09-28T12:08:30","slug":"apocolypse_soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=339","title":{"rendered":"Apocolypse Soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since – by the way – he was in Vietnam, I’ll use one of my<\/a> touchstone Vietnam experiences to comment.<\/p>\n

ARMED LIBERAL WAKES UP, STAGGERS TO WINDOW, PULLS CURTAIN ASIDE, LOOKS OUT.<\/p>\n

“Kerry. Shit, it’s going to be Kerry.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At this point, Clark is out, Dean is running so that he doesn’t disappoint his supporters (except that Joe Trippi is already starting<\/a> a new organizing effort that will suck what oxygen is left out of his room), Edwards is doing “OK”, and were there other candidates? I forget.<\/p>\n

I was almost in a brutally tough position on this one, but Kerry’s impending coronation makes it somewhat easier. While Bush’s domestic policies aren’t criminal, exactly, they are amazingly stupid in almost every dimension in which I can think to measure them. But he is doing the war thing sort of right. Unless he’s planning to pull out too soon in the face of domestic political pressure. Now my head really hurts.<\/p>\n

And if the Democrats had a candidate who had a strong track record on foreign policy and had some kind of remotely consistent plan for what to do now that we’re here (see some of my ideas<\/a>, as examples of what I’d like to see), I’d have to weigh the cost of switching teams mid-game against the net advantages of domestic policies I liked better against the likely effect of the proposed foreign policies against the fact that I’ve always supported Democrats, and that a strong Democratic Presidential showing would have coattails in local races that I value a lot.
\nI’d been watching and reading about Edwards, and had pretty much set myself to actually do some work on his behalf in the event it was close come the California primary. <\/p>\n

I can rebudget that time elsewhere, it appears.<\/p>\n

And, to be frank, I think that I can dodge the tough issue of whether I’d rather support a Republican – for the first time in my life – or someone whose foreign policy makes me all itchy and nervous. It won’t matter who I support, Kerry is going to get tubed.<\/p>\n

Why do I say that? Glad you asked!<\/p>\n

He’s being supported because people believe he can be elected, not because of any deep attachment to him or his policies, which are almost as variable as Boston weather.<\/p>\n

On every issue where Kerry ought to be able to just nail Bush, there is a strong and obvious counter. <\/p>\n

* Unlike Bush, Kerry served in Vietnam<\/a>, while Bush did (something<\/a>) in Texas [Wrote an antiwar book featuring radically unkempt demonstrators, threw (someone’s) medals over the White House fence, was on stage with Jane Fonda, gave testimony to the Senate that certainly challenged the notion that he supported the troops, appeared in a photo in front of the NVA flag];<\/p>\n

* Unlike Bush, Kerry didn’t trade on his father’s position to get bailed out of bad businesses [married his way to wealth];<\/p>\n

* Unlike Bush, Kerry didn’t use his political connections to reward campaign investors<\/a> [well, OK, skip that one<\/a>];<\/p>\n

* Unlike Bush, Kerry isn’t guilty of malapropisms<\/a> [Unlike Bush, is perceived as an arrogant ass<\/a> by many who come in contact with him]<\/p>\n

Look, there is nothing in the world I’d like more than a serious debate about our national ends and the means we intend to use to get from here to there. If there were a Democratic candidate who combined some rational domestic policy with a serious foreign policy, I’d take out a HELOC and spend three or four months helping out.<\/p>\n

This is arguably the most serious election in my adult life. I believe that the Communists would have collapsed sooner or later even if Reagan hadn’t spent them into the ground (although he certainly made a difference). I think that Clinton did some good stuff in refocusing our domestic social-welfare programs.<\/p>\n

But there’s a big-ass hole in lower Manhattan, and our people are being beheaded on home video. It’s not going to get better by itself, and we need to have a coherent set of policies and the resources and will to carry them out. Kerry’s actions and statements to date don’t give me an ounce of confidence that he’s the guy to do this.<\/p>\n

Bush is challengeable on that front, and I’d like to see him challenged in order, if nothing else, to get him to better articulate and defend what he’s doing.<\/p>\n

I’m not going to stay up late seeing if Kerry can make that challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since – by the way – he was in Vietnam, I’ll use one of my touchstone Vietnam experiences to comment. ARMED LIBERAL WAKES UP, STAGGERS TO WINDOW, PULLS CURTAIN ASIDE, LOOKS OUT. “Kerry. Shit, it’s going to be Kerry.” At this point, Clark is out, Dean is running so that he doesn’t disappoint his supporters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}