Mark Steyn: Kerry's got a strategy: it's summit for everyone

The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 10/03/04 | Mark Steyn

[Twinkie]

SO TRUE! And we love him for it . . . HOWEVER . . . now Twinkie is ready to give him a makeover that will put Pepe Pompadour in the shade . . .

First, the next debates or town meeting . . . he will not be scheduled anything so strenuous that day. This time, HE will have the day at the spa. If he insists, he can still cut his nails with his pocketknife, but nothing else is negotiable . . . there WILL be a massage by a reputable Republican massage therapist . . there WILL be a bit more poufing and shaping his hair . . . (help me here, Laura!) . . then, there's a little whirlpool bath and an afternoon nap . . of course, the Crest Whitestrips will have been experimented with cautiously so as not to look like Pepe's Chiclet teeth . . .

Then, he, too, will be wearing the Good Feet Store's custom made arch supports which, as a bonus, add an inch to the height without using elevator shoes; thicker soles on the shoes gladly given by some Republican shoe magnate . . . of course, NO MAN TAN, just a little bit of real sun for a real man . . . but carefully, we don't want to sunburn . . .
. . Never fear, HE gets to choose the suit and tie! . . and, oh yeah, STAND UP STRAIGHT (Barbara help me here!) . . then he can just stand there and blubber, but he will look so good no one will care!!

[mylife]

stop it you guys!

The more folks that read Steyn the better.

Steyn often rewrites off the theme of his work for different papers.

;^)

[netmilsmom]

Okay, Now since Mark has stated it, it was a fact. Bush WAS off. The FReepers screamed how wonderful he was, but it is not true. His message was great! However, he did not do well..

Was it because Kerry was tipped off ahead of time about the questions and Bush knew it, or was it because he was suppose to look like a dolt to throw them off for the next debate??

[mylife]

was it because he was suppose to look like a dolt to throw them off for the next debate??

I had considered that as well.

[Dog Gone]

And one was needlessly excerpted and one was not.

[annyokie]

I have to agree that Dubya was off, and got flamed for saying so. I am unclear as to whether Kerry was tipped off. I am looking forward to the next two debates when W gets his game back (I hope!)

[tet68]

"...As he made clear on Thursday, Saddam was a growing threat so he had to be disarmed so Kerry voted for war in order to authorise Bush to go to the UN but Bush failed to pass "the global test" so we shouldn't have disarmed Saddam because he wasn't a threat so the war was a mistake so Kerry will bring the troops home by persuading France and Germany to send their troops instead because he's so much better at building alliances so he'll have no trouble talking France and Germany into sending their boys to be the last men to die for Bush's mistake.

Have I got that right?..."

My God, Steyn nails it !
Mark is such a wordsmith.

We're post-Clinton: you can't triangulate your way to victory.

<

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Speaking as a third-rate hack, I'd say that as a general rule articulacy is greatly over-rated. But, if articulacy is the measure, how come Kerry can't articulate an Iraq policy any of us can understand? By contrast, for an inarticulate man, Bush seems to communicate pretty clearly.

Steyn is too modest; he's a second-rate hack at the very least.

Kerry demonstrated that he is glib, but he doesn't have a program - for the very good reason that GWB would latch onto and implement any truly promising program the moment it was articulated.

What remains is mere criticism for the sake of criticism. Kerry is everywhere, and nowhere. As an inspection of a transcript of the "debate" would inevitably confirm.

But it is not true that we don't know what Kerry would do about Iraq. Kerry would alienate all the existing allies and not attract any new and effective ones. He would do a Mogadishu, and bug out, blaming Bush for having gotten us in in the first place. Bush may muddle for a long time in Iraq, but the casualty rate would allow is to go on indefinitely. Eventually the Iraqis will develop a government which its people respect.

[christie]

.
To understand John Kerry is to understand his dad. Richard Kerry wrote in his book, The Star-Spangled Mirror, published in 1990:

"Americans are inclined to see the world and foreign affairs in black and white. They celebrate their own form of government and denigrate all others, making them guilty of what he calls 'ethnocentric accommodation' -- everyone ought to be like us. As a result, America has committed the 'fatal error' of 'propagating democracy' and fallen prey to 'the siren's song of promoting human rights,' falsely assuming that our values and institutions are a good fit in the Third World. And, just as Americans exaggerate their own goodness, they exaggerate their enemies' badness. The Soviet Union wasn't nearly as imperialistic as American politicians warned. Seeing the Soviet Union as the aggressor in every instance, and the U.S. as only reacting defensively, relieves an American observer from the need to see any parallel between our use of military power in distant parts of the world, and the Soviet use of military power outside the Soviet Union. . . . Third world Marxist movements were autonomous national movements -- outside Moscow's orbit."

More quotes and facts on the John F. Kerry Timeline.

They connected the dots in 1998 but Senator Kerry and MSM can't seem to connect the dots in 2004.

Here is an easy to read chart of what the media was saying pre-911 (and after): Connect the Dots...Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden
.

[mylife]

yes Steyn is Modest.

Im GWB is as well.

[uncbob]

Maybe cause Bush was touring Fla and being a president for the last year and Kerry spends his time getting Botox and Tans

[Jank]

there WILL be a massage by a reputable Republican massage therapist . SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!

[goldstategop]

Newsweek and the partisan media think they can help Ketchup Boy triangulate his way to victory. It ain't over yet and Mark Steyn shouldn't underestimate the lengths to which Danron and Co. will go to put John Kerry in the White House come January.

[AndyJackson]

Summit old, summit new, summit borrowed, summit blue, he's got summit for everyone. Summit-chanted evening, you may see a stranger, you may see a stranger across a crowded room.

Ok, I fold. Next to Steyn I will never be more than a 3rd rate hack writer.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[netmilsmom]

I tried posting to agree with you that night, but my computer was so slow that I could only read.
He was off, something was up. If anything, I think Karen Hughes told him NOT to rebutt anything that Kerry stated and he was frustrated by it. Come on, the least of us could have come back on some of those!

[irv]

We're post-Clinton: you can't triangulate your way to victory.

Hope he's right...

[Ruth A.]

Summit old, summit new, summit borrowed, summit blue, he's got summit for everyone.

Steyn is so droll and he just sets me off laughing. Honestly, this man should be writing current history plays. He would rival Shakespeare's productivity and wit.

[moonhawk]

"...Dog Gone wrote: (This looks like the same article that is in the Chicago Sun-Times.) No, it's far longer than the one you posted.
The Sun-Times article is 1074 words, the one in The Telegraph is 1094 — only a 20-word difference..."

Awwwwww....

Feeling Dissed, Oh Retentive One?

So Sorry.

[moonhawk]

Once again in your debt, Pokey....

As he made clear on Thursday, Saddam was a growing threat so he had to be disarmed so Kerry voted for war in order to authorise Bush to go to the UN but Bush failed to pass "the global test" so we shouldn't have disarmed Saddam because he wasn't a threat so the war was a mistake so Kerry will bring the troops home by persuading France and Germany to send their troops instead because he's so much better at building alliances so he'll have no trouble talking France and Germany into sending their boys to be the last men to die for Bush's mistake.