John Kerry looks more like a president than Martin Sheen, but the blogosphere isn’t buying him. Andrew Sullivan admits that the “Massachusetts bore” may be unstoppable but describes him as a “pompous, do nothing, faux populist.” Sullivan touts Mickey Kaus, who already has investigative pieces on Kerry’s funding, etc. as the blog to watch during the election. Though always worth reading, Mickey has stuff that, at this point, seems a bit insider. We’ll want to know how Kerry doublecrossed Weld over spending agreements later, though.
The real indictment came from Jack Beatty of the Atlantic Monthly. A certified Edwards swooner, Beatty predicts that Kerry will simply bore us to death. He is afflicted by “terminal senatitis.” Wrote Beatty: “Senators speak to themselves. Their colleages don’t listen to each other. They can’t see a single face in the gallery.” This, says Beatty, promotes the kind of annoying prolixity for which Kerry is famous.
Nevertheless, I smell fear in Republican ranks. For one thing, it is tricky to attack a genuine war hero, even if that hero wants to take us back into a Vietnam mindset that should have ended once and for all on Sept. 11. Let’s hope this election is the last one about Vietnam’and that the voters, unlike the intellectuals, realize that Iraq is not Vietnam.