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MAY 12, 2004 – It’s back.
Yes, according to the non-Moderate
Independent media, this campaign is a replay of the Gore/Bush
campaign, a boring, lifeless loser against a charming, boldly
leading nincompoop. One has convictions, even if they are a bit off
kilter, the other simply says whatever he feels the people want to
hear this week. One people will vote for because they like him, the
other they will vote for only begrudgingly, if at all, even though
they agree with his policies, since he’s so unlikable.
Yes, the same story line is playing out
in the newspapers and on TV, but is this the true story? Is Kerry
really a lifeless, poll-following loser who no one would like to
hang out with and who wouldn’t provide leadership but only wandering
fits and starts in a great time of need for the nation?
It is hard to imagine people calling
John Kerry a poll-following hack who doesn’t have the confidence to
set a plan and follow it. Just take this past week for example.
John had mapped out as part of an
overall campaign strategy a massive rollout of the issue of
healthcare this week. As luck would have it, the Iraqi prisoner
abuse scandal has appeared and dominated the nation’s attention.
So, did John Kerry scrap his plan and
switch to the topic of the moment in the media and nation’s eye, as
a poll-driven, weak-willed waffler would?
No. Instead Kerry, infuriatingly to many
– including our own John Ashton – decided the abuse scandal was
something to sit back on as the facts unfold, to be dealt with
rather than made part of a campaign – at least for the moment – and
that he would stick to his plan of defining what issue he would
address rather than having it defined for him.
This is not, by any measure, the mark of
a wishy-washy poll-follower.
The single biggest problem that
Democrats have faced in the past elections is that they have let
polls and their opponents define what issues will be the top
priority rather than doing what any truly principled person would –
define what the important issues are for the nation and address
them, regardless of what polls or the media or your opponents say
people want to talk about this week.
On Monday, Kerry seemed entirely out of
touch. But he stuck to his guns, and as the week dragged on, abuse,
abuse, and abuse dominating the news, finally his message about
healthcare – which he hammered away at with great focus – began to
get through to people who wanted to hear about something else
besides the disgusting photos and beheadings. Because of Kerry’s
sticktoitiveness, there was a fresh story – one of hope and
direction – to shift the nation’s minds to.
Unlike Gore, who took whatever advice
his advisors – or alpha-male consultants – gave him and reinvented
himself each day, Kerry, without question, has done the opposite.
People are still defining him in similar shade to Gore because they
don’t know him well enough. But if anything, Kerry is the anti-Gore;
he is a man who infuriates his supporters and advisers by not being
open to their advice and not changing direction based on their
fears, polls, and whims.
There is no question that John Kerry is
not a highly engaging public speaker. He does well enough, but he is
an old-style pontificator. His speeches are more the stuff of a
deeply sullen Abraham Lincoln than the fiery bluster of a Teddy
Roosevelt, more in the vein of a highly intellectual Thomas
Jefferson than in the attractive styles of a JFK (the original,)
Reagan, or Clinton.
John Kerry does not ignite a room, he is
not a man of a million words. But don’t mistake that for meaning he
is uncharismatic and unappealing. He is not someone who is going to
jump up when a situation like the prisoner abuse scandal arises and
shoot off his mouth with rapid-fire advisor-fed quips and snide
remarks.
Kerry is a man in a different vein than
President Bush and, unlike Howard Dean and others in the Democratic
Party, he is not of the mind that he has to become more like his
enemy in order to beat him. In fact, the very notion of "becoming"
anything new would go against the very basis of John Kerry’s
greatest strength: self-confidence.
To define John Kerry’s appeal and what
has been the key to his repeated success in his political career,
you have to think of a word not usually associated with politics:
cool.
While many politicians are constantly
blathering away, John Kerry comes from the old vein of talk softly
and carry a big stick. To put it simply, he isn’t so concerned with
coming up with the right phrases, the most highly marketable buzz
words or best crafted one-liners or comebacks. John Kerry is not
concerned with such superficial things because, in his mind – and to
those who have known him for a while and believe in him – he is, as
his campaign slogan states, The Real Deal.
The idea that a slogan is more important
than what a man is made of is not something Kerry believes in, and
no one is going to convince him of it. In the end, Kerry believes –
and has seen time and time again – that people choose the best man,
not the best buzz phrase, and he truly believes he is that man.
These are all not things that the media
gets – yet, and perhaps they never will.
In effect, the media and campaign
advisors are Ralph and Potsy from Happy Days. They come charging in
to Al’s Diner shooting off their mouths, blathering on and on and
on, and there in the corner is John Kerry – The Fonz – just off of
his Harley, looking quietly at the jukebox, and the campaign
advisors come running up behind him and say, like Ralph Mouth, "Hey
John, the Bush gang says this and that and this and that and what
are you gonna do?" And then the media comes up like Potsy and says,
"Yeah, they’re out there talking real mean – aren’t you gonna
respond? What are you gonna do? Huh? Huh? Huh?"
And Kerry keeps staring down at the
jukebox, finally selects a song, then turns back slowly to look at
them and says, "Hey, be cool," and walks away.
That is what John Kerry is.
No, John Kerry’s appeal is not that of
the sweet talking charmer who walks into a bar and strolls right up
to a girl sitting alone and starts dishing out one liners and buying
drinks. John is the guy who walks into a bar and doesn’t seem to
notice there are even women in the joint. He simply sits down,
starts reading something he is interested in. It drives the women
crazy. They start walking by him seductively. Nothing. One squeezes
up to the bar next to him to order a drink, looks his way. Nothing.
She says hi. He briefly looks up, nods, goes back to reading his
book. The women go insane. And what do they start to call him?
That’s right: aloof, distant, just as
the media calls Kerry.
These women would call him aloof, claim
they are put off by his distant, arrogant nature, but in reality
they are intrigued – especially since in the end he is a tall,
attractive, Harley-driving, highly intelligent war hero.
That is charm, northern style. While
President Bush’s southern-style charm is well known, this sort of
"talk softly/carry big stick," Arthur Fonzarelli northerner charm is
one the media has forgotten about. And, in reality, it is not the
most common one among politicians, who tend to be the extroverted
type.
So while to the media and his fellow
Democrats he may appear as an even quieter version of Gore, in fact
they simply don’t get it yet. John will not be reinventing himself,
and his relative quiet is a reflection of his confidence. And yes,
at first people can be put off by such a demeanor, see the person as
arrogant, cocky, or aloof, but in the end, this is the most
appealing type of man. It is the Dirty Harry, the quiet man of
action, the focused, unshakable leader.
In fact, this is what John Kerry says
again and again, but the media and many Democrats are not ready to
hear it. He frequently attacks Bush’s foreign policy, saying we need
more than just "bravado" and "bluster." In other words, stop
shooting off your mouth so much, kid, and do something right. Put up
or shut up, and in the meantime, stop yapping so much.
There are those who think that to win
this election John Kerry must become a Bush/Limbaughian-type rapid
responder. In reality, to win this election the Democrats need
someone who will define the issues and the agenda rather than run a
reactive campaign.
Health care is an enormous issue, and
one the media will never focus on, as it is boring – unless one
candidate hammers away at it so vastly that they are forced to make
it a front and center issue. And make no mistake, to John Kerry the
state of the nation’s health care system is a 9/11 waiting to happen
and he is not about sit by idly and let that occur.
John Kerry can react to the prisoner
abuse scandal, or he can put front and center issues like Global
Warming – yet another 9/11 waiting to happen.
John Kerry is a deeply principled man
who feels strongly about what needs to be done for the nation, and
is confident enough to believe he knows what the important issues
are. He is not going to be shaped by the nation's conversation but
shape it. He is not going to become a big-mouthed, petulant Bush/Limbaughian
but treat the Bush/Limbaughians like the blathering, dorky Ralph
Mouths and Potsy Webbers that they are. He is not going to come out
of his shell, he is going to draw the nation into it. He is, in
short, not going to lose his "cool," but simply talk softly, because
he is, in his own estimation, the "Real Deal."
There are absolutely valid criticisms of
John. Does he try to have it both ways? Absolutely. Does he
sometimes take one side then the other? Certainly. He is, without
question, a politician's politician. He likes to keep his bases
covered and cover his butt when he has been off base on a particular
issue.
But while President Bush’s doublespeak
is the doublespeak of intentional, amoral deceit, John’s is the
utterances of a somewhat shifty diplomat. Kerry never has – nor
likely would – claim to provide "Clean Air" while making the air
dirtier. He would not call something a "PATRIOT Act" that attacks
the Constitution. He would, however, claim that even though he voted
for the "PATRIOT Act" he is largely opposed to it. He would claim
that even though he voted for "No Child Left Behind," he sees it as
a bad thing.
He will try to talk his way out of
mistakes he made, he will shift his positions, and he won’t simply
say, "I took the wrong stand on this issue." With this he is also
like The Fonz, unable to quite utter the phrase, "I was wrrroonn…. I
was wrrroo…" as Fonzie used to suffer with it, unable to complete
the word wrong.
In Kerry, the nation has a confident,
quiet man, a man whose method of charm is to allure rather than
sweet talk, a proud man who believes he knows in which direction the
nation needs to be led and that he’s only going to say it once or
twice, and if you’re not listening, it’s your loss – ask your friend
what he said later. He’s not going to vie for your attention like a
cheap harlot, he’s going to wait for you to approach like any
dignified person would. And he’s not going to admit he was wrong but
simply say that he didn’t say what you say he did or that he changed
his mind.
In the end, John Kerry is a leader of a
stock the nation has not seen in a long time. In an age where even
average citizens are accustomed to squealing and rambling on cue
anytime a camera is pointed their way, John Kerry is old school
cool. So while now Democrats and advisers and the media will say he
is too cocky, aloof, arrogant, and so they dislike him, would never
consider him, in the end the nation will come to understand Kerry's
brand of northern charm. They will realize that the reason this guy
doesn’t talk so much, isn’t leering over their shoulders at the bar,
buying a round and bragging on and on about how he is the real deal
is because John Kerry is, in fact, the Real Deal, and that speaks
for itself. |
