I was pleasantly surprised at Ted Kennedy's performance on Meet The Press on Sunday - I just got the chance to watch it and though he became (as he is typically) a bit muddled at times, he made some points that we don't hear from the Democratic leadership too often.
One of the proudest moments that President Kennedy had is at the time of the Cuban missile crisis when Dean Acheson went to France and told Charles de Gaulle that we were going to face the Cuban missile crisis and told him that President Kennedy needed his help and assistance, and then after he told him that he said to Charles de Gaulle, "Let me show you the
charts." And the president of France says, "The word of the United States is all that I need."
That kind of credibility in terms of the world community has been fractured, and the only way we're going to do that is to have a new president, and we're going to have to change that. And that's why I believe so strongly that John Kerry is the man.
First, there was this quote:
What we have to recognize as a nation and as a leader, really of the Free World is that after 9/11 we had the whole world working with the United States to deal with the problems of terror all over the world. They were supporting us militarily, they were supporting us with intelligence, they were supporting us to deal with the financial links of al-Qaeda. Then this president made a unilateral decision to bring this country to war, and as a result of that unilateral decision that basically thumbed its nose at the world and community, we have seen that alliance in shambles.
One just doesn't hear this nature of Historical Context placed around the bumblings - the war is often characterized as a lie and a pretext for colonialism but it is rarely portrayed as the betrayal on a global scale as Kennedy has done here. Kudos to him for it.
He did a fine job at staying on focus:
MR. RUSSERT: John Kerry is now taking some heat for these words: "I've met more leaders who can't go out and say it"--"pubicly, but boy they look at you and say, you gotta win this, you gotta beat this guy, we need a new policy."
Senator Kerry is unable or unwilling to identify one foreign leader that he has met with and who has said such a thing.
SEN. KENNEDY: You know, I watched the vice president make that statement. And you know what--all I could think of: When is the vice president going to give us the names of those peoples on his task force in energy that jacked up the price for consumers and provided windfall profits for the energy industry? When is he going to do that? When is the White House going to give us the name of the person that leaked the name to the newspapers endangering the life of Valerie Plame, who was a CIA agent? When are they going to do that? Come on, Tim. All we have to do is go down the list of members of the United Nations and find out where the support is. The CIA knows it. They work for the president. They can give them the names of all of those countries. And all you had to do was look at what happened yesterday in the demonstrations all over the world. This is not a mystery to them. Let's get the names of those people that were on Dick Cheney's task force. That can make a real difference in terms of the consumers.
Also it is refreshing that he doesn't duck the L-word when, as typical, Russert tries to apply labels as it is so much easier than actually exploring viewpoints. Not only doesn't he duck it, but he deftly uses the question as a hammer against the most ideologically confused presidency in memory.
MR. RUSSERT: President Bush says he's a proud conservative. Are you a proud liberal?
SEN. KENNEDY: Yes. But I think...
MR. RUSSERT: Is John...
SEN. KENNEDY: Let me ask you about the proud conservative. Let me ask you.
MR. RUSSERT: But this is important.
SEN. KENNEDY: OK.
MR. RUSSERT: Is John Kerry a liberal?
SEN. KENNEDY: John Kerry believes, as I do, that labels don't make a lot of sense. Listen to
this.
MR. RUSSERT: But you're...
SEN. KENNEDY: Just let me finish an answer.
MR. RUSSERT: You just said you're a proud liberal.
SEN. KENNEDY: Let me just say--let me just give you--this administration, this president says he's a proud conservative. He has taken a budget, a budget that had the greatest surpluses in the history of this country, and now we have the greatest deficits in the history of this country, and he calls himself a proud conservative. I call that irresponsible. Now, is that liberal or conservative?
MR. RUSSERT: But in terms of the label "liberal"...
SEN. KENNEDY: Well, here it is. This is what we live with, Tim. It isn't label. I'm just asking you, when you have that kind of surplus and you go to this def--is that liberal or conservative? If you answer that question, I'll tell you where John is.
I think in retrospect he'd have made a damn lot better president than Carter, and a better candidate than Kerry. Chappaquidick is old news by now isn't it? I supose he does have this public image (largely unfounded IMO) of loutishness - is that beyond repair?
I just hearken back to my grandmother's kitchen, with the pictures of FDR and JFK hanging side by side. Are we ever again going to see a Democratic party that we can be passionate about?