BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
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See the World Through My Daughter's Eyes (Rodale, October 2003),
click
here.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
McCAIN THROWS BUSH A
LIFE-PRESERVER. Rudy Giuliani spoke to the delegates. John McCain
spoke to the country. That's why - despite the gushing you hear over
Giuliani's funny, serious, nasty, and at times eloquent speech last
night - McCain actually did Bush more good, and got a leg up on his
New York rival in (God help us) the 2008 presidential
campaign.
I can't find it online this
morning, but I'm pretty sure it was Fox News nitwit Morton Kondracke
who called McCain's speech "self-serving" in comparison to
Giuliani's. What Kondracke liked about Rudy was the way he slashed at
Kerry. Later, Kondracke amended his remarks to allow that, well,
McCain did offer a rationale with the war in Iraq, and that
was useful to Bush.
Well, duh. In fact, McCain - who'd
wanted to go to war with Iraq for years - put forth a far more
effective argument than George W. Bush has ever managed to muster. If
Bush can figure out a way to incorporate McCain's case into his own
stump speech, he'll be a lot better off. McCain was wrong, but he was
wrong in a way that was so much more palatable than Bush. Here's the
heart of what
McCain said:
The years of keeping
Saddam in a box were coming to a close. The international
consensus that he be kept isolated and unarmed had eroded to the
point that many critics of military action had decided the time
had come again to do business with Saddam, despite his near daily
attacks on our pilots, and his refusal, until his last day in
power, to allow the unrestricted inspection of his arsenal. Our
choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of
war.
It was between war and a graver
threat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics
abroad. Not our political opponents.
He followed that immediately with
his memorable attack on Michael Moore.
Now, of course, there is much in
McCain's assessment with which to disagree. He failed to mention that
Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic
Energy Agency, had already concluded that Saddam Hussein did not have
nukes. McCain also left out the fact that UN weapons inspectors were
swarming around Iraq, and that they actually had to leave so that
Bush could commence bombing. And, of course, there is the matter of
Bush's giving the finger to the world rather than building a genuine
international coalition - a tragic mistake given the horrors that are
taking place in Iraq today.
Still, McCain was right when he
argued that sanctions had pretty much run their course, and that
something had to be done. (After all, that's why John Kerry voted to
grant war-authorization powers to Bush.) It's just that the
"something" Bush chose has turned out to be a widely predicted
disaster.
As for McCain's failure to rip into
Kerry, a failure that Kondracke found so distasteful - well, everyone
who follows politics knows that McCain likes and respects Kerry on a
personal level and detests Bush. (The depth of McCain's distaste for
the lying Swiftie ads is revealed in this
R.W. Apple piece today.)
Would anyone have found it even remotely credible if McCain had
suddenly gone after Kerry as a flip-flopping weasel?
Rather than coming off as a
Republican partisan, McCain projected an image as a truly independent
politician who's chosen a man he dislikes over one he likes strictly
as a matter of principle. Just as Giuliani thanked God for Bush, Bush
ought to thank God for McCain. If McCain managed to help himself in
the process, well, what of it?
THE REST OF THE STORY. It's
not online, unfortunately, but there's a hilarious omission in
today's Boston Globe. The "Names" column includes a photo of
Vanessa and Alexandra Kerry with this caption:
POP AND POLITICS - Vanessa
(left) and Alexandra Kerry ask for quiet while urging the crowd to
vote this fall at the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday in
Miami.
The discerning will note that the
reason they were asking quiet was that they were getting
booed
(and cheered) by the
crowd.
"HOPE NOT FEAR." You can
watch the Log Cabin Republicans' 30-second commercial
here.
Pretty slick move, drafting
Ronald Reagan: I'm not sure
he'd agree, but he's not going to complain. Rudy Giuliani and John
McCain appear in a positive context, too.
I also like the narrator talking
about "the politics of intolerance and fear that only lead to hate"
while images of Pat Buchanan, Jerry Falwell, and Rick "Man on Dog"
Santorum flash by on the screen.
JUST ANOTHER WORKING HACK.
Here is Michael Moore's debut
column on the RNC for
USA Today.
posted at 11:14 AM |
1 comments
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1 Comments:
One thing non-New Yorkers don't realize about Rudy Giuliani is this: On Sept. 10, 2001, Rudy's political career was dead in the water. He'd carried on a open and long-running extramarital affair that had alienated conservatives who backed him; he'd butted heads with numerous officials in his own administration, including Police Commissioner William Bratton, and alienated them; his harsh and combative style had alienated many less conservative New Yorkers who had nonetheless supported his efforts to reduce crime; he spent two years trying every possible subtrefuge to weaken or eliminate term limits rules so that he could run for mayor again; and of course Wall Street had never forgiven him for his often contemptuous handling of Wall Street scandals when he was a federal prosecutor. I'm not trying to denigrate his performance in the wake of 9/11, which really was outstanding. But only one day before the attacks occurred, he was virtually washed up politically. Now people look at him as presidential timber in 2008. Talk about ironic!
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
