THE MAN OF THE MOMENT

And hopefully for not too much longer than that

Email from Wayne Lusvardi: "From the just released excerpts of John Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention in Boston on July 29, 2004: "I defended this country as a young man and I will defend it as President. Let there be no mistake: I will never hesitate to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and certain response. I will never give any nation or international institution a veto over our national security. And I will build a stronger American military." From the above can be deduced what might be called The Kerry Doctrine: Once the U.S. is clobbered, he will figure out a way to strike back. Call this the Kerry's Klobbered Policy. Contrast this with the Bush Doctrine: Pre-emptive actions to prevent further attacks. The Bush Doctrine is not some reckless policy of a wild cowboy. It is the reluctant intervention after decades of provoking attacks on U.S. embassies, military barracks, navy ships, diplomats, tourists, FBI agents, and civilian aircraft. Which one would you choose? Which one do you believe the U.S. public is going to vote for?"

A rather nauseating story here. Apparently John Kerry took a portable movie camera with him to Vietnam and kept filming himself there to generate proof of how heoic he was.

Sowell lands some heavy hits: "Much of what is being said and done at the Democratic convention in Boston is so 1960s. The old favorite songs of the left, the old rhetoric, the old gestures, the delegates swaying together, all take you back to a time 40 years ago when the liberal vision seized the imagination of so many who were young then -- and who are now old enough to know better. After all, we now know with hindsight what the heady ideas of the 1960s actually led to in practice -- declining test scores and rising rates of teenage pregnancy and venereal disease, while rates of crime in general and murder in particular skyrocketed, along with unprecedented waves of riots that devastated city after city across the country, while families began a disintegration from which they may never fully recover in our lifetime".

When Lee Harvey Oswald shot John Kennedy, where was Oswald's Russian wife living? You won't believe it -- At John Forbes Kerry's place. What a happy little Leftist family!

"The Democrats have traditionally relied on a simple technique: appeal to the values of American individualism, while actually selling the American people the virtues of the all-powerful collective. That is the theme that emerges from the first three nights of speeches at the Democratic convention. Note the pattern of this bait-and-switch philosophy... The man who made this technique most explicit was Ted Kennedy. Speaking Tuesday night, he freely invoked Boston's Revolutionary War heritage. But what, in his view, is that heritage? "Ideals like freedom and equality and opportunity and fairness and common decency for all-ideals that all Americans yearn to reclaim." .. Equality" had a specific meaning to the Founders: equality of rights. It meant that no class of aristocrats possessed special rights at the expense of other citizens. They never endorsed egalitarianism. But you wouldn't know that by listening to Ted Kennedy... In fact, the Constitution exists to protect our rights and to limit the power of government. But Kennedy believes it exists to "bind us together" to collect our "common wealth" for the "common good." This is not an appeal to American values, but a total inversion of them".

Outspoken Left frustrated: "So far, the Democratic National Convention has been a gathering to drive the ideologues to distraction. Since Howard Dean's candidacy collapsed, the Democrats' angry left wing has contented itself with the notion that Dean had breathed fire into a moribund party. And that he had proved that what was important was not courting swing voters but rather energizing the party's base. (No matter that, as consultant Bill Carrick quips, any more energy and the left might well have a collective heart attack.)"

The media know what side they are on: "During live coverage of tonight's speech by Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards, Dan Rather referred to Vice President Dick Cheney as "a hitman for their side." Here's the full quote: "Question, Bob Schieffer. We know after considerable consideration, the Bush-Cheney campaign decided to send Vice President Cheney out this week as a kind of hitman for their side, believing it was time to frontally assault the Kerry-Edwards ticket."

And you would never know it from John Kerry's advertisements but only 2 out of 23 of his fellow Swift boat commanders from Vietnam support his candidacy. See here for the details.

Dick McDonald has blanket coverage of Kerry's failings.

*********************************