John Kerry: Unfit for President?

Chronwatch ^ | Feb. 10, 2004 | Gordon Bloyer

[FairOpinion]

I believe that Senator John Kerry has made recent and past comments and participated in activities that make him unfit to serve as President of the United States.

He recently claimed that the threat of terrorism is being exaggerated. That statement is ridiculous. There are foreigners who are commit suicide to kill Americans. You can’t exaggerate the threat of terrorism from that kind of thinking. If Senator Kerry believes that the threat is exaggerated, he either is delusional or doesn’t understand the world situation. In either case, that would indicate that he is unfit to be president.

Sen. Kerry also recently said that he did not know the facts regarding statements about President Bush and his service in the Air National Guard. That statement is politically inspired. During the 1992 election, Kerry defended Bill Clinton from attacks on his non-service record. He said we should not be dividing the public by bringing that up. Now, Kerry, claims he doesn’t know that President Bush got an honorable discharge. Bush could not have gotten an honorable discharge if he had been AWOL. Kerry's statement proves that he is willing to play politics with the war. He is now willing to be divisive on the matter.

Although Kerry’s service in Vietnam is stellar, his actions since that service is less than honorable. Just because someone served in Vietnam does not make him an expert on foreign policy or even war strategy, and Kerry has proven he is not an expert on either. When Kerry came back from the war, he became a war protester. He sided with ''Hanoi Jane'' Fonda and other communist sympathizers, and he has not apologized for his actions. He apparently still does not recognize that he was wrong to do this.

The war protesters think that they helped to end the war in Vietnam, but they actually extended the war at a cost of millions of innocent people their lives. The Vietnam War was only one aspect of the ''Cold War.'' We won the cold war because we opposed communism everywhere that it tried to take over. As history plays out, the important of opposition to communism in Vietnam will be recognized. We were on the right side of the cold war and we won. North Vietnam had signed a peace treaty and then we pulled out. The North Vietnamese violated the treaty and our Congress did not have the guts to fund the South Vietnamese so they could defend themselves. Millions of Cambodians and Vietnamese were murdered because we abandoned them. Kerry and the other war protesters have this blood on their hands. And this is another reason that I believe that Kerry is unfit to be president.

The Gordon Bloyer Show can be seen at http://gordonbloyershow.com/ He receives e-mail at: godon.bloyer@verizon.net. The ideas expressed in this article are those of the writer, and are not necessarily those of ChronWatch.

[FairOpinion]

The first thing I would do is to remove the question mark.

Bush served honorably and has been leading the country during this critical times. Kerry had 4 months of distinguished service 30 years ago, but ever since then, he joined up with America's enemies, and don't forget he himself dihonored his own service and medals by throwing them over the fence, even if he was so hypocritical that he didn't throw his own medals.

Kerry is on record of saying that he wanted to virtually eliminate the CIA and only send US soldiers into conflict under the command of the UN, he also doesn't recognize the serious threat of terrorism. He is indeed unfit to lead in these critical times -- or any other times. Anyone, who isn't putting the security of the nation above everything is not fit to lead it.

[SAMWolf]

John Kerry: Unfit for President?

This is a trick question right?

[Kay Soze]

Yes is unfit to be the president.

He even tossed his medals over the fence!!!

[DarthVader]

John Kerry: Unfit for President?

John Kerry is unfit to head the sanitation department.

[MattMa]

You haven't been keeping up with the storyline. Those medals were someone else's, that’s his story and he is sticking to it.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

'JOHN KERRY = Enemy of Vietnam Vets'


http://www.TheAlamoFILM.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1320



Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer / Vet-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965

http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm
(IA DRANG-1965 Photos)

.

[counterpunch]

[rj45mis]

Kerry made a pact with the devil and sold his soul 3 decades ago.

[mabelkitty]

I'm not so sure Kerry's service was distinguished.
I would need to see his service records to prove it.

[FairOpinion]

[FairOpinion]

"I would need to see his service records to prove it."

==

Good point.

Are his service records released to the public?

What does someone deserve who spent 4 months serving his country, and spent 30 years tearing it down?

[MattMa]

At a rally on Jan 25, 2004, Kerry criticized President Bush for withdrawing from the Kyoto global warming treaty, saying "You don't just walk away from a treaty [negotiated by] 160 countries over 10 years," as quoted by Fred Barnes in the Weekly Standard.

As usual, Kerry’s hypocrisy is breathtaking. In 1997, Kerry voted for a resolution saying the United States "should not be a signatory" to the Kyoto treaty. The resolution passed the senate 95 to 0.

Vote On the Resolution (s.res.98 )

http://www.johnkerrytruth.com/

[rj45mis]

AR, thanks for the links. I was stationed in An Khe in 1970 with the 4th Infantry. I can't speak for all vets but I despise Kerry and his constant patting himself on the back for his Nam tour. That fool will never be my President.

[joonbug]

In 1992 the military records of the presidential candidates were considered unimportant and said to be off limits. Same in 1996. Now all of a sudden, it is the most important issue???

[cinFLA]

Kerry had 4 months of distinguished service 30 years ago,

He was a daredevil and adored JFK. JFK's PT109 was his inspiration out of a life of boredom and towards the presidency - a goal which he set early in life. If one considers that distiguished service ...

[cartoonistx]

[FairOpinion]

Talking about honorable service -- Benedict Arnold had a very distinguished service record, until he decided to become a traitor. I am not calling Kerry a traitor -- but the point is not what someone did for 4 months of his life -- one better look at what he did the past 30 years, which is nothing but trying to tear down the US defenses.

Benedict Arnold

1741-1801

American Revolutionary general and traitor, b. Norwich, Conn. As a youth he served for a time in the colonial militia in the French and Indian Wars. He later became a prosperous trader. Early in the Revolution, his expedition against Fort Ticonderoga joined that of Ethan Allen, and the joint command took the fort.

Arnold pushed on to the northern end of Lake Champlain, where he destroyed a number of ships and a British fort. In the Quebec campaign, he invaded Canada (1775) by way of the Maine forests. The march proved incredibly hard, and the force was exhausted when it reached Quebec. Richard Montgomery arrived from Montreal, and the two small armies launched the unsuccessful assault on Dec. 31, 1775. Arnold was wounded but continued the siege until spring, when Sir Guy Carleton forced him back to Lake Champlain.

There he built a small fleet that, although defeated, halted the British advance. In Feb., 1777, Congress, despite General Washington's protests and Arnold's service, promoted five brigadier generals of junior rank to major generalships over Arnold's head. This and subsequent slights by Congress embittered Arnold and may in part have motivated his later treason.

Although he soon won his promotion by his spectacular defense (1777) against William Tryon in Connecticut, his seniority was not restored. In the Saratoga campaign, his relief of Fort Stanwix and his brilliant campaigning under Horatio Gates played a decisive part in the American victory.

He became (1778) commander of Philadelphia, after the British evacuation, and there married Peggy Shippen, whose family had Loyalist sympathies. In 1779 he was court-martialed because of disputes with civil authorities. He was cleared of all except minor charges and was reprimanded by Washington; nevertheless he was given (1780) command of West Point.

He had already begun his treasonable correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton in New York City, and he arranged to betray West Point in exchange for a British commission and a sum of money.

[joesnuffy]

A better question might be ...just what the hell is he fit for?
Certainly not Senator or congresscritter?....ok maybe from Taxachute ses

[Petronski]

Unfit because he never met a weapon system he didn't vote to cut.

Unfit because he has stated his experience in Vietnam leaves him permanently changed, averse to military action except in the absolute last resort (witness the Gulf War vote).

Unfit because he testified under oath to hearsay accusations about US military atrocities in Vietnam.

Unfit because he chaired a commission and signed off on a report that accused the CIA of introducing crack to black communities in the US (the paranoid and quite mad 'Kerry' commission).

Unfit because his voting record is either as liberal or more liberal than Ted "Glub Glub" Kennedy.

[GailA]

http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Winter_Soldier/WS_45_1Infantry.html

http://avoc.info/info/article.php?article=858

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/elections/sns-2004election-kerryprofile,0,53345.story?coll=bal-election-storyutil

Some 150 sweat-soaked members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War ended their three-day trek at Valley Forge, Pa., on Sept. 7, 1970. Huddled around a flatbed truck, they listened to remarks by Jane Fonda and a reading from Donald Sutherland.

Between the main acts came a floppy-haired former Navy lieutenant who had won a fistful of medals on the bloody canals of the Mekong Delta. Tall and self-assured, 27-year-old Yale graduate John Kerry read from a rumpled sheaf of papers in the ringing voice that had commanded men on gunships.

Condemning the tactics and morality of the war, Kerry was "brilliant," Fonda says today. He looked like Abe Lincoln and sounded like John F. Kennedy. "He was our ragtag commander at Valley Forge," says veterans organizer Joe Bangert.

Over the next 14 months, Kerry became the VVAW's spokesman and a key leader. With a knack for raising money and organizing people, able to straddle the divide between angry protesters and the nation's uncertain majority, he helped transform the motley band of anti-war veterans into a potent political force. In soaring, eloquent speeches, Kerry channeled the rage of returning soldiers, pled their case before Congress and captured the attention of a war-torn nation.

http://www.tms.tribune.com/htmlmail/consumer/profiles/payne.htm

Kerry and his veterans did not desert but returned home to tell America what they had committed in the false name of national security. "We could be quiet," Kerry testified. "We could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats, but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out."
The prime indictment of the Winter Soldiers was that Vietnam was indeed a war waged under false pretenses. "There is nothing in South Vietnam, nothing which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America," Kerry said. "And to attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Vietnam, Cambodia or Laos by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom, which those misfits supposedly abuse, is to us the height of criminal hypocrisy, and it is that kind of hypocrisy which we feel has torn this country apart."

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-2004election-kerryprofile,0,4048777.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

Some 150 sweat-soaked members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War ended their three-day trek at Valley Forge, Pa., on Sept. 7, 1970. Huddled around a flatbed truck, they listened to remarks by Jane Fonda and a reading from Donald Sutherland.

Between the main acts came a floppy-haired former Navy lieutenant who had won a fistful of medals on the bloody canals of the Mekong Delta. Tall and self-assured, 27-year-old Yale graduate John Kerry read from a rumpled sheaf of papers in the ringing voice that had commanded men on gunships.

Condemning the tactics and morality of the war, Kerry was "brilliant," Fonda says today. He looked like Abe Lincoln and sounded like John F. Kennedy. "He was our ragtag commander at Valley Forge," says veterans organizer Joe Bangert.

Some 150 sweat-soaked members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War ended their three-day trek at Valley Forge, Pa., on Sept. 7, 1970. Huddled around a flatbed truck, they listened to remarks by Jane Fonda and a reading from Donald Sutherland.

Between the main acts came a floppy-haired former Navy lieutenant who had won a fistful of medals on the bloody canals of the Mekong Delta. Tall and self-assured, 27-year-old Yale graduate John Kerry read from a rumpled sheaf of papers in the ringing voice that had commanded men on gunships.
...........
Condemning the tactics and morality of the war, Kerry was "brilliant," Fonda says today. He looked like Abe Lincoln and sounded like John F. Kennedy. "He was our ragtag commander at Valley Forge," says veterans organizer Joe Bangert.

[FairOpinion]

“Americans for Democratic Action, the premier liberal rating organization, gives John Kerry a lifetime rating of 93 percent while Sen. Kennedy has a lifetime rating of 88 percent—five points less,” said Watson. “Who would have guessed, Ted Kennedy – the most conservative Senator from Massachusetts!”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1074215/posts

[LuigiBasco]

Super good one! I think I'll borry that un!

Luigi

[JasonC]

I don't like the hyperbole and I don't think this argument has any legs. Kerry is as qualified a candidate as the Democratic party could nominate. Yes I disagree with him on substance, especially on foreign policy, where he is too dovish. But he is too dovish because his whole party is too dovish and he faithfully represents their wrongheaded dovishness. This makes him wrong, it does not make him unqualified.

Many of the items advanced against him are such stretches they boomerang. It should not kill us to treat him as a fair opponent. The man commanded men in battle. That is more than being personally brave. He is criticized for marrying money, as though the rich are supposed to stay celibate, or as though the care of a large body of capital isn't sobering in its own right. Al Sharpton is not qualified to be President, in part because he doesn't know what the Federal Reserve even is or does, and if he did it would just be a political football to him. You can bet it is a practical thing to a hundred millionaire. He has been in the senate for a long time dealing with serious issues.

He is an opportunist. He did not discover his antiwar attitudes until he failed in a bid for the house running as a JFK clone war hero. He mimicked the activist left for the sake of popularity, because he has been politically ambitious since he was 12. He was used by people far worse than himself, which shows poor judgment. But a lot of people had poor judgment in their 20s, and a lot of people were wrong about the Vietnam war. He was not any better, sure, but this makes him a typical liberal, it does not make him "unqualified".

It is not his resume Republicans should be running against. He is a serious person tied in to serious money and long standing, powerful factions of both the Democratic party and upper crust society. He did what he thought would make him popular, and followed the positions of the leftist liberals who he lives with and represents. Those people are wrong on the major issue the country faces at present, and they would lead the country in a different direction than its present course. Which I think would be bad.

But they would lead the country. They would know how to run it. This is not Dennis or Sharpton or Nader. The entire New England intellectual "set" would be his to call on - from the press, academia, government, and party circles. He should not be underestimated and he is one of the few Democrats actually qualified to be President on his prior experience.

Attack his policies, or if you must go after past character his opportunism and his flip-flops (which largely show just that he is a pol to the bottom of his toes, which should be obvious). Calling him unqualified is a lousy argument, adn it won't fly. Average Americans do not think anyone who is a liberal is unqualified to hold public office. And that is all the charge amounts to.

[BossLady]

"Kerry had 4 months of distinguished service 30 years ago, but ever since then, he joined up with America's enemies, and don't forget he himself dihonored his own service and medals by throwing them over the fence"

This only enforces what I have always thought about Hanoi John......He has Vietnam Flashbacks/Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and needs to be on meds.... :o

[Your Nightmare]

To be fair, I think Kerry had more than 4 months service.

You're doing the same thing the other side is doing to Bush when you make statements like this. I don't like it from either side.

[FairOpinion]

He was only in Vietnam for 4 months -- that is what he is running on.

He requested to come back afterwards and had a very cushy job, while in the service the rest of the time.

[olliemb]

But Kerry wants to get the permission of UN, France and Germany to defend America. That too me, sir, is totally unqualifiable bit of information. Forget that he is a freakin liberal and condones aborting babies up to the last day prior to delivery.

[rj45mis]

"He had already begun his treasonable correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton in New York City"

Is there some omen here?

[rj45mis]

"He was not any better, sure, but this makes him a typical liberal, it does not make him "unqualified".

Perhaps the points you brought up don't in and of themselves render Kerry "unqualified." However,the fact that he is a bad "character", has no integrity and supports these truths with his continued lying does, in fact, disqualify him in my book.

[counterpunch]

By all means please do!
I don't make these things to keep all to myself. ;)

[Democratshavenobrains]

Although Kerry’s service in Vietnam is stellar, his actions since that service is less than honorable. Just because someone served in Vietnam does not make him an expert on foreign policy or even war strategy, and Kerry has proven he is not an expert on either.

The fact that this isn't obvious to most people is REALLY depressing.

[TheGrimReaper]

All I know for sure is that we NEVER see Mr. Ketchup and Mr. Ed in public at the same time....

Coincidence??
I think not.

[thesummerwind]

John Kerry: Unfit for President?

YES

[FairOpinion]

LOL!!! There is a certain similarity for sure.

But there is even more with the other end of the horse. ;)

[JasonC]

So does the entire Democratic party. Words mean things, people. Unqualified has a real meaning applied to Presidential candidates. It does not mean, "takes a position I disagree with". It doesn't even mean, "takes a position I am so ideologically opposed to, I think it is irresponsible when the whole other party takes it".

People try to run for President who have no business seeking the office. Who wouldn't know what to do when they got there, if they won. Who can't organize a national campaign involving a few thousand professionals, let alone run a superpower. Who've never run a business in their lives, or commanded men, or made important decisions. Or who have whacky, crackpot ideas that even their own side of the ideological spectrum rightly dismiss as tinfoil stuff (the Lyndon LaRouche types, etc).

This sort of thing is not Kerry's problem. Acknowledging that he does not have these sorts of problems does not amount to endorsing the man or voting for him or wanting him to be President. It is elementary fairness, and also maintaining a useful level of scrutiny and seriousness about the most important job there is. Kerry could function as a US President. He could form an administration. It would run the country - maybe in the wrong directions, but not haplessly flailing around, not knowing where any of the buttons are or who to call.

Disagree with the man's policies, criticize his record, attack his whole party's ideology - knock yourself out. I do too. But "unqualified" means something in the context of Presidential politics, and the charge does not fit here. It does not help politically, either, because it focuses attention on the wrong subject. His resume is not weak. His policies are.

[olliemb]

"Who've never run a business in their lives, or commanded men, or made important decisions"

What important decision has Kerry made that he did not waffle when confronted or backed out. Jason, Kerry may be qualified for senator, may be qualified to be a born again war hero, may be rich--but qualified to be president of the United States--I don't agree with you. How can a man whose culture is to accept abortion and yet be a catholic? How can a man be against the Vietnam war and join in with Hanoi Jane while there were POW in Vietnam be qualified to be president and run our business? How can a man who wants the UN to tell him when to use military might to defend you and me be qualified to be a president? Kerry supports Kyoto now but voted against it. Kerry lies--is a liar qualified to be a president of the USA?.

If you still think he is qualified, then perhaps you should then vote for him.

[JasonC]

He is qualified, I won't vote for him, and every charge you've made is true of the entire Democratic party. "Qualified" is not a synonym for "conservative". When the left "Borks" judges just for not being liberals, and pretends in means the bar association gave them a failing grade or something, we rightly go ape. Kerry is a liberal and I don't want a liberal as President, for all the reasons you mention and many more besides. But I don't pretend any of those are matters of "qualifications". They are partisan matters of ordinary ideology and politics.

I disagree with Kerry; I think he is wrong on many important issues. That is all. The "unqualified" charge won't stick, and slinging it to the general public will just make them read his resume. They will not react to your bill of particulars as Freepers do. They will just read them as "so he is a liberal, lots of people are, so what?" You are simply emptying the word "qualified" of meaning, when you say "unqualified" when all you mean is "liberal".

[South40]

There are foreigners who are commit suicide to kill Americans.

Well put.

Who does his proofreading...Ray Charles?

[Don Carlos]

Kerry had 4 months of distinguished service 30 years ago

I'll believe that when his records are on the table for public review - and then, only if they don't show that he was writing his own "Citation to Accompany The Award of...", or putting in for his own PH nominations.

Granted he did serve. But "Stellar", "Distinguished", "Heroic", etc.? Large grain of salt. Picture a cow-lick block!

[Wild Irish Rogue]

" He did not discover his antiwar attitudes until he failed in a bid for the house running as a JFK clone war hero."

No.Kerry delivered his first public anti war,anti American policy when he gave the Yale Class Oration in 1966. The text of his prepared,but,undelivered remarks is in the Yale yearbook.His office has been unable to find the text of his actual address.

From The Long War of John Kerry,by Joe Klein, The New Yorker,2002:

His brother in law said this of Kerry and 2 others - "There were four of us going to war in a matter of months. That tends to concentrate the mind. This may have been the first time we really seriously began to question Vietnam. It was: ‘Hey, what the hell is going on over there? What the hell are we in for?'"

"But the speech he gave, hastily rewritten at the last moment, was anything but traditional: it was a broad, passionate criticism of American foreign policy, including the war that he would soon be fighting."

"The speech was notable for its central thesis:
“The United States must . . . bring itself to understand that the policy of intervention”—against Communism—“that was right for Western Europe does not and cannot find the same application to the rest of the world.”

"In most emerging nations, the spectre of imperialist capitalism stirs as much fear and hatred as that of communism".
"Never in the last twenty years has the government of the United States been as isolated as it is today."

And after Kerry lost that election,he refused to speak for 3 days.
"He came to my home in New Hampshire that weekend," his friend George Butler, a documentary filmmaker who was then a freelance photographer, recalls. "He wouldn't say a word to anyone. He sat there Friday night and built an entire model ship from scratch. On Saturday, he and I climbed a mountain together. He still wasn't talking. ... He was the most despondent-looking human being I had ever seen."

[chiefqc]

What do you expect form a guy who looks more at home in a coffin than in the people's house.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Extremely unfit.

CG

[olliemb]

What is your definition of qualified? Senator Kerry was against the vietnam war and lobbied against the government during the war while fellow soldiers were in POW camps. To me that is such a cheap thing to do --allow the enemy the benefit of anti war rallies, embolding the enemy to stick it out. Many POW state that the enemy had radios playing the protests.

In my mind, any person who does that is totally unqualified to defend his country if he was ready and willing to do that to the POW> And the most important thing the president does is to protect his country his soldiers and his citizens.

[Lando Lincoln]

Thanks FO.....another great post. I'd like to come back later with some comments....domestic chores beckon! Plus, I'm gonna ping it to our FRiend, gatorbait.

Lando

[JasonC]

"What is your definition of qualified"

Actually able to carry out the responsibilities of the office. Not to my exact wishes on every policy matter, not deserving of it, not the best possible person - just plain able to carry out its actual day to day duties. If Al Sharpton were president tomorrow he'd need new pants. If Kerry were President tomorrow existing staffers leafing through existing rolodexes would smoothly transfer several thousand educated liberal academics and politicians and New England socialite cronies into each executive department, each with a policy background and position papers on every issue.

I'm not saying I'd like his policies, I wouldn't. But he would not be out of his depth, cluelessly lost level, incompetent. It would be his competence at implimenting policies I disagree with that would be the problem. Not his - not knowing what the Federal Reserve is, who to appoint to the State Department, what is to expect an intelligence briefing to consist of, who he must hear out before deciding which matters, and the like.

There is such a thing as basic qualification for the office. Kerry has it, not everyone does. Bush had it - he had been governor of Texas, run multi-million dollar businesses, seen the White House under his father and how it functioned, etc. Cheney had it - he ran the Pentagon in a major war, ran a major corporation, ran the White House as chief of staff for Ford, etc. Dennis doesn't have it, Sharpton doesn't have it, LaRouche doesn't have it, and a lot of other people who pretend they want to be President, when they really just want to be on TV.

It is a useful distinction to maintain, not something to trash for the sake of talking points in one campaign season. Kerry's problem is that he is a liberal who fully reflects the liberalism of a major political party, that is wrong on the substance of important national issues. He was wrong about the things his party was wrong about in the past, too. This amounts to saying he is a liberal democrat and liberal policies aren't good ones, particularly right now.

It does not amount to saying he is one of the clownish characters above, who are *unqualified* (ordinary English meaning of the term, which should be obvious to practically everyone regardless of party) to be President.

[olliemb]

According to you any CEO with the right connections is qualified to run the big business of the government.

I am talking about the character qualifications. Mr. Kerry betrayed the Vietnam POW and the American families who lost their children and the American government. He betrayed them inhis association with Jane Fonda and her support for the communists.

That is a character qualification---?CHARACTER? do you understand where I am going--paper shuffler, right connections, serving time in the senate--yeah, they have got him on the right rung on the ladder to "qualify" for the race of the presidency. But so was Hitler qualified to run his government. I am talking about the character, the morals of a cndidate and Mr. Kerry in my opinion does NOT have theCHARACTER qualifcations as neither did Mr. Clinton.

[Stallone]

John FRENCHIE Kerry is a piece of liberal shiite.

Hanoi John is about to take a terrible fall.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

If Senator Kerry believes that the threat is exaggerated, he either is delusional or doesn't understand the world situation. In either case, that would indicate that he is unfit to be president.

Kerry isn't delusional - he understands the world stage. His goal is nothing less than the total destruction of the United States of America. Why would anyone who gave aid and comfort to the enemy in the 1970s be any different now?

[JasonC]

"Any CEO with the right connections" - it is a start. Mack the nightwatchman may be a prince among men, but that doesn't make him ready for this particular job.

I know Kerry was an ass about the Vietnam war after he got back. So was a third of the country. I'm not going to vote for him, as I think I've already said a dozen times by now. But this means he is a liberal, not that he isn't "qualified". Nobody on the left back then was right about the war. And anybody who was on the right back then and has since moved left needs to have his head examined, because the country had moved the other way since and rightly so.

So your theorem simply amounts to, "no one on the left has the character to be President, because they are on the left, which was wrong about the war". Um, right better than left we grok. This is FR. Is the term that characterizes this: "qualified"? It is not. It is conservative. Kerry isn't a conservative. What a shocker. Name someone who could be nominated by the Democrats who is. Was Al Gore qualified? Didn't be "betray his country" over Chinagate money?

It becomes nothing more than a free floating denunciation. It is being used simply as a statement of dislike, or that you won't vote for him. Duh. That is simply not what the English word means. Qualified means fitted by training, skill, or ability for a special purpose.

When 10 men apply for a job you throw out the ones who obviously couldn't do it. Do you hire all the rest, or one of them at random? No. You pick the best out of the remainder, who you bother to look at. You don't even need to bother to look at the ones who clearly could not do the job and have no business applying for it.

Do you have any idea what I am trying to save here? It has nothing to do with Kerry. It has to do with a bipartisan standard of basic ability and seriousness, that I want respected by us, by the Dems, by people at large. Not just in this election, but in picking judges, in other elections, in executive appointments, etc. I don't want it trashed down to simple ideological bashing, "anybody I disagree with is unqualified", "Bork is not a qualified judge", "Miguel Estrada is not qualified".

We can disagree with Kerry and call him a strident liberal who doesn't deserve to be President and is wrong on foreign policy, without trashing the English language and basic standards of seriousness about the most important job there is. It is like moronic liberals calling Bush "dumb". They don't agree with his policies, that's all; the bare statement they actually make instead is transparent nonsense. Does this work, politically? It does not.

[JasonC]

And incidentally, no Hitler was not qualified for anything. He was an unemployed housepainter and former corporeal, who'd never done anything but give rabble rousing speeches, and ideologically was a tinfoil nutter in the full LaRouche variety.