John Kerry Got the Shaft

Hey, remember John Kerry? Y’know, 2004 Democratic nominee for the presidency of these United States of America?

Well, the cable news networks don’t.

I was watching last night’s convention on MSNBC, and the vast majority of Kerry’s speech was ignored in favor of talking head chatter. Turns out this happened on all the cable news networks, which gave Kerry a mere half-hearted nod. Daily Kos, not my favorite blog in the world, is right about how this is really lamentable–not because John Kerry is such a giant amongst the Democratic Party, but because his speech was a real humdinger.

Why? Because Kerry did what Democrats seem to be deathly afraid of doing: acknowledging the fact that Presidential Candidate John McCain is playing dirty pool. Yeah, he was a POW–a fact that McCain is exploiting to an increasingly ludicrous degree (on Leno, McCain answered the question “how many houses do you have?” by saying “Jay, when I was a POW, I didn’t have a house, or a kitchen table, or a chair…”). But that doesn’t mean that everything the man does is noble and self-sacrificing. In fact, as the presidential contest rages on, McCain has increasingly morphed into a low-down, scare tactic GOP candidate: he works with Karl Rove, questions Obama’s “moral clarity“, aggravates the race issue, and took what should have been a powerful, moving moment–Obama’s rousing speech in Berlin–and twisted it into a supposed display of Obama’s self-aggrandizing, overly-”globalist” inclinations. His campaign is built around the cardinal principle of Rove-GOP politics: campaign discourse belongs in the gutter.

Even worse, since becoming a wannabe prez, McCain has changed his views on substantive policy issues–like immigration–in order to become more of a cookie-cutter right-wing idealogue. This is an ugly campaign, and McCain has become an ugly candidate, POW or no.

Thankfully, John Kerry called him on it. Some highlights:

I have known and been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years. But every day now I learn something new about candidate McCain. To those who still believe in the myth of a maverick instead of the reality of a politician, I say, let’s compare Senator McCain to candidate McCain.

Candidate McCain now supports the wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once denounced as immoral. Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain’s own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would now vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote. Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before you’re against it.

Let me tell you, before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself. And what’s more, Senator McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove when he was the target, has morphed into candidate McCain who is using the same “Rove” tactics and the same “Rove” staff to repeat the same old politics of fear and smear. Well, not this year, not this time. The Rove-McCain tactics are old and outworn, and America will reject them in 2008.

…

The McCain-Bush Republicans have been wrong again and again and again. And they know they will lose on the issues. So, the candidate who once promised a “contest of ideas,” now has nothing left but personal attacks. How insulting to suggest that those who question the mission, question the troops. How pathetic to suggest that those who question a failed policy doubt America itself. How desperate to tell the son of a single mother who chose community service over money and privilege that he doesn’t put America first.

This is good stuff. Kerry is saying–rightly–that POW or no, John McCain has crossed a line. He’s not the man he once was; he’s part of the Republican election machine now. The Democrats need to point this out, and forcefully, a lot more often–’cause the campaign is only going to get dirtier as November approaches.

Of course, it would help if news networks actually broadcast these criticisms.