[goldstategop]

Bwahahahaha!!! Another Mark Steyn classic! He's really killing Baron John F. Munchausen with his rapier wit. Humor and some clever asides are deadly to a politician whose mangled syntax and absence of charisma are all too obvious. Liberals have always charged President Bush with not being an inspired speaker and coming across as wooden. One look at Baron Munchausen and he's in a league all to himself. The guy will no doubt provide material over the coming months for several SNL episodes. If Kerry can't have the likes of Mark Steyn take him seriously, why should foreign leaders? All you can reasonably conclude is he's just not ready to serve as President.

[Dog]

This would make a heck of a Freep...

Weird. And, just to round out a weird week, John Kerry, accompanied by the press, went into a sporting goods store and bought a jock strap. Even for a campaign marked by a strangely insecure macho exhibitionism, this was a little too self-parodic. Next time he shouts ''Bring it on!'' I want to see that VC puppy trot out with the jock strap between his teeth so Jacques Chirac can ceremonially drape it round the senator's neck.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

All you can reasonably conclude is he's just not ready to serve as President.

. . . and after 30 years in the public eye and 20 years in statewide office - NOT including the governorship, for which he was defeated - all you can reasonably conclude is that he never will be ready for national office.

He would be a has-been, but then, he never was.

Someone indicated that he has been hectoring for a series of debates, and I have a serious suggestion: if Kerry needs debates then he should have them - but they should

1. be moderated only by a chess timer to equalize the speaking time,
2. be with no notes barred, and
3. be of at least two hours' duration.

Given that journalism is an anticonservative profession, that first requirement would be fairer to the Republican in any contest, since a journalist moderator will always subtly inhibit the Republican and help the Democrat. Rules against notes obviously increase the need for preparation time and increase the likelihood that one or both candidates will publically embarass himself, to the detriment of the United States. And short, moderator-controlled media access positions the future POTUS as being inferior to the moderator and makes the candidates pretend to answer the moderator's questions when in fact they are making prepared speeches. The time required to prepare to make a point is inversely proportional to the time available to actually deliver the message.

If Kerry is asking for debates, I say agree to them when you can get favorable conditions - and set precedents to the benefit of Republican presidential candidates of the future. Then use them to attack the Democrats' filibuster of honest judicial appointments. And to drive home the point that there has not been a good Democratic Secretary of Defense in a very long time - Les Aspen was replaced by Republican Senator Cohen after he took responsibility for Black Hawk Down and resigned.