Tim Blair

Since Kerry refuses to tell us who exactly is whispering sweet nothings in his ear, the GOP is referring to him as the "International Man of Mystery".

What do you expect from someone with a lower jaw like the leading edge of a malibu surfboard?

'Sides which, y'all wanna check out this site; that ol' boy is electable, y'know?

You have to be pretty tone-deaf as a politician to publicly say this kind of stuff in an election campaign. There aren't many Americans, even in the Democratic party who like the idea of foreign governments influencing US elections.
Besides, in the 2000 election, a lot of European leaders really wanted a Gore victory, mostly for continuity's sake and because Bush's foreign policy views were mostly unknown. Didn't do Gore much good, did it?

Well, we know one of Kerry's fans, anyway--remember the Financial Times article of March 4-5 about how eager Kim Jung Il is to see kerry in office?

Lets see, Kim Jong Il, Aristide, Hussien, the Iranian Mullahs,etc. I'm sure they all want Kerry to win- not to mention the French. Practically anyone who wants to see the US either A) Destroyed or B) Reduced to UN lapdogs want Kerry to win- he's their guy!

Maybe Kerry was reminiscing back on the days of his meetings with foreign leaders like the Viet Cong in Paris.

I think Kerry may have finally been cured of all his flip-flopping, though.

The Dissident Frogman was way out ahead on this one.

The Universal John Kerry policy statement:

'As a Vietnam Veteran I served in Vietnam. By the way I was in Vietnam.'

Kerry doesn't need Republican help in tearing down his reputation.

Tim implies that Kerry spoke admiringly of Arafat in 1997. In context, it is clear that he was anything but. Here is the full sentence:

"Terrorist organizations with specific political agendas may be encouraged and emboldened by Yasser Arafat's transformation from outlaw to statesman."

Maureen Dowd has nothing on Tim Blair when it comes to dishonest quotation.

It is clear that Kerry thought at the time Arafat had transformed into a statesman even by the 'full' quote from the link. It was the Indiana Gazette that provided the shortened version not Tim.

Mork--Grasping at straws and providing fanciful attributions since 1998.

So here's me watching CNN and that clueless political 'expert' Bill Schneider is trying to spin Kerry's "everyone likes me better" gaffe by saying that (paraphrase): "only [Tony]Blair wants Bush reelected because his own political future is tied to Bush's". Even the anchor, to her credit, looked a little skeptical.

I'm thinking of Howard, Aznar, Berlusconi, Sharon, the Eastern European heads of state, the other Coalition countries' heads of state, and I can't believe the Democratic Party that I supported most of my adult life has come to be this delusional.

This election will be close but more like Bush-Dukakis close than Bush-Gore close.

Kerry wakes up in the morning,potters outdoors sticks his thumb in the air to find which way the wind blows then sticks said direction finder up his rectum to fix the co-ordinates.

Oh, having done that, sticks direction finder in mouth and speaks and lo, shit spews forth.

"John Kerry says he no longer considers Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to be a statesman, but rather "an outlaw to the peace process" in the Middle East who has been rightly shuffled aside."

Translated that means "OMG I need the Jewish vote / money for my campaign, time to denounce Arafat!"

Michael Totten has a good post up about the Kerry/Arafat quote. I don't think this is a big deal in the grand scheme of Kerry reversals unless someone comes up with a photo of Kerry and Arafat in bed.

But the part of this post about the "foreign leaders" is illuminating.

One would think Dubya could take the 200-odd million in the campaign war chest and "stimulate the ecomnomy" since Kerry seems determined to self-destruct.

Except that there's a large percentage of the American population for whom this stuff is appealing - the "anyone but Bush" crowd, the "blame America first-ers", various hate groups... for all of them this stuff resonates deeply.

Given there was a time a few years back when Arafat really did seem to be warming to the idea of the peace process, followed by his dumber than dumb knock back of Baraks offer at Camp David, I think Kerry's opinion-reversal is entirely reasonable.

Orson calling Mork, Orson calling Mork, come in Mork.

This will probably carry little weight with you because it comes from RWDB of renown Mark Steyn, and may not fit with your drinking-straw worldview, but anyways:

On January 22, 1991, [Kerry] wrote to Wallace Carter of Newton Centre, Massachusetts:

"Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to the early use of military force by the US against Iraq. I share your concerns. On January 11, I voted in favour of a resolution that would have insisted that economic sanctions be given more time to work and against a resolution giving the president the immediate authority to go to war."

Nine days later, he wrote to the same Mr Carter in Newton Centre:

"Thank you very much for contacting me to express your support for the actions of President Bush in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. From the outset of the invasion, I have strongly and unequivocally supported President Bush's response to the crisis and the policy goals he has established with our military deployment in the Persian Gulf."

Decisiveness is a longstanding Kerry hallmark, eh? Or was this just an administrative oversight?