Kerry's Speech

[Dr Dave]

"I will appoint an Attorney General who will respect the Constitution of the United States."

[Monte Smith]

"I was born in the West Wing."

[Dennis Gonzalez]

"I will appoint an Attorney General who will respect the Constitution of the United States."

Amén.

[Dr Dave]

Paraphrased: "My wife will say whatever she wants to say."

"Our band of brothers...fought for this nation because we loved it..."

"Proclaiming 'Missioned Accomplished' doesn't make it so."

"We never go to war because we want to; we go to war because we have to."

"Before you go to battle, you need to be able to look a parent in the eye and say we had no choice."

"You will never be asked to go to war without a plan to win the peace."

"We will end the back-door draft of National Guard and reservists."

"I will fight a smarter, more effective war on terrorists...There is a right and a wrong way to be strong...We need to make America looked up to, not just feared...The future doesn't belong to fear, it belongs to freedom."

[Monte Smith]

"What does it mean when 28% of our children in Harlem have asthma because of hair pollution?"

[Dr Dave]

Yeah, he said that. Imagine what George W. Bush might have said.

In the meantime, Monte, click here.

"Let's not misuse for political purposes the Constitution of the United States." Right on, right, Monte?

"I don't wear my religion on my sleeve...I don't want to claim that God is on our side...I want to claim, as Abraham Lincoln said, that we are on God's side...What ever our faith: The measure of our character is our willingness to sacrifice for others..."

"What if we have a President who believes in science."

[moneyp]

"Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me... (long pause)... you can't get fooled again."

[crawjo]

"I will double the size of our special forces, who will conduct terrorist operations...ANTI-terrorist operations..."

[crawjo]

Personally, I think it would have been cooler if he had left it at terrorist operations. Fight fire with fire. That would have made some nice headlines, if Kerry vowed to use special forces to conduct terrorist operations...

[RBS]

Fantastic, fantastic speech.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by crawjo

Personally, I think it would have been cooler if he had left it at terrorist operations. Fight fire with fire. That would have made some nice headlines, if Kerry vowed to use special forces to conduct terrorist operations...

You know, I am kind of with you there, crawjo. I mean blowing some of those fuckers up where they worship, or gather to chat, or eat pizza, or whatever. But aside from the immorality of being as shitty as the jihadis, there is this: once you license a terrorism by Americans, you cannot control that terrorism and you cannot stop it. Look at the mess in Gaza, with that geez fag Arafat trying to gather again the seeds of hate and violence that he first cast in Jordan in the 60s. I never want my country to devolve into that kind of retarded Muslim miasma with a cloth-headed old fuck calling the shots on kabooms.

So please. Let us keep our Special Forces pure. Like Kerry says, let's keep them ANTI-terrorist. Them and our missile-equipped CIA Predator drones, yes haw.

[crawjo]

You do know that I was being facetious, yes? I thought it was a funny slip-of-the-tongue by Kerry.

[Monte Smith]

Originally Posted by crawjo

You do know that I was being facetious, yes? I thought it was a funny slip-of-the-tongue by Kerry.

Absolutely. Let's just never rule out ruthlessness in defeating terror. That could be funny, too.

[Dr Dave]

Thin, Monte. Very thin.

[Enforcer]

What I think would be really funny, and I think about this all the time, is a newly elected President going gradually crazy during his inaugural address. Start out with some really normal stuff about how the country will move forward, jobs will be increased, terrorism will be fought, etc. Then, slowly, introduce some kind of hateful diatribe, including threats to "blow the f**kers to Kingdom come!" and such. The applause, almost reflexive at first, soon turns to horror and disbelief.

Hopefully it will happen one day in my lifetime.

Larry

Are the grapes that sour, Monte?

[crawjo]

Originally Posted by Larry Nagel

What I think would be really funny, and I think about this all the time, is a newly elected President going gradually crazy during his inaugural address. Start out with some really normal stuff about how the country will move forward, jobs will be increased, terrorism will be fought, etc. Then, slowly, introduce some kind of hateful diatribe, including threats to "blow the f**kers to Kingdom come!" and such. The applause, almost reflexive at first, soon turns to horror and disbelief.

Hopefully it will happen one day in my lifetime.

Larry

I've thought about that. I think it would also be fun to secure your party's nomination, and then proceed to piss it all away during the campaign, by saying all sorts of outlandish things, swearing during the debates, speaking really HONESTLY (such as saying) "I've got to tell you, Jim, that's about the dumbest question I've heard all year. Blah blah blah blah blah." Insulting voters, etc. etc. You could really have a blast.

They are taking phone calls on C-Span and it is encouraging how many callers are saying that the Kerry speech has persuaded them to switch their vote away from Bush. It is also interesting that the Bush supporters who call seem too bitter to speak coherently--some of them are coming up with absolutely ludicrous criticisms. One pathetic Bush woman could only say that she thought it odd that Mr. Edwards joined the Kerry's on the podium, but she didn't see John Edwards. That sort of thing reminds me of some of the nonsense we are currently hearing from our JC Bush crowd (did I say crowd? )

[pollo loco]

What's your game, Crawjo?
PL

[crawjo]

Originally Posted by pollo loco

What's your game, Crawjo?
PL

Uhm, what do you mean by that question?

[pollo loco]

What's your game, Crawjo?
PL

[crawjo]

Baseball.

Originally Posted by Finch

"We never go to war because we want to; we go to war because we have to."

Oh my.


"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force-- if necessary-- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."

Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002.


"[W]ithout question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real ..."

Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003.



Sweetness!!

[stonemonkts]

Scott - He was pro-war and duped by the same misinformation as Bush. I'd think you'd dig him for it.

I will double the size of our special forces,

Now THAT, I've got to see.

Originally Posted by stonemonkts

Scott - He was pro-war and duped by the same misinformation as Bush. I'd think you'd dig him for it.

You're missing my point, Stone.

Yes, he WAS misinformed, just like our President. A fact completely ignored by most here. Finch quoted that line as if to show that Kerry would have acted differently than President Bush. I posted my quotes to show him what I feel is the more accurate representation.

Kerry likely wouldn't have acted differently at all.

It reminds me of the very first thread I ever read here in the Alley. Everyone sitting around hugging and crying and talking about how much better off this country would have been under Gore. How differently he would have done things. Yeah, right.

It must be so comforting to sit around and speculate on something that you have no clue about.

[pollo loco]

Originally Posted by pollo loco

What's your game, Crawjo?
PL

Then talk about baseball.
PL

Apropos being clueless, Dolan.

[Ron Thorne]

Sorry that I missed John Kerry's speech. Our home was invaded, and our cellular phone and car were stolen today, so we've been talking with the police and our insurance carrier for much of the day.

Sounds like Mr. Kerry must have said enough to piss off or worry certain Republicans, and that's a good thing!

[crawjo]

I've got one question after his speech. He said that before his administration would go to war, he would ask the hard questions, demand the best evidence, etc. etc.

If this is his approach, why didn't he use it in his vote for the Iraq war? Why didn't he ask the hard questions or demand the best evidence prior to casting his vote? I think the answer to that question is that, for political reasons, he feared opposing the war at that time. If this is the case, why should we believe him now when he is singing a different tune about asking the hard questions and making the tough decisions? Will he ask hard questions or will he go with the prevailing political winds? I ask this question in all seriousness. As someone who is considering voting for Kerry, he's going to have to explain that vote for the Iraq war to me. Simply saying "I was duped" is not good enough in my book. If he was duped by Bush, what does that say about his leadership abilities? Something to ponder. I am not convinced that Kerry is a man who "sees complexity." He's been in the Senate a long time, but I honestly don't know of any major bills or initiatives that he has championed. He seems to be trying to cast himself as a tough centrist in this election, which is politically the smart thing to do, but I am still left wondering who he really is and what he really stands for.

I thought Andrew Sullivan's take on the speech was interesting. Throughout the week, Sullivan has been a big cheerleader for this convention, but he found the speech uninspiring, and said he liked Kerry less after it than before it. He gave it a B minus grade.

As for me, I thought the speech had too many words, and that Kerry was rushing through it too fast. At times, I thought he was going to break down from sheer exhaustion. I thought back to Edwards's speech the night before, and how he had a glass of water with him at the podium. I wished that Kerry had a glass of water with him, because he looked like he needed it desperately. His speechwriters should have cut out some of the excess material, and that way Kerry could have gotten through it at a more comfortable pace and still have finished by 11 p.m.