February 17, 2004
ALMOST TOO EASY:
The Default Democrat from another world (Mark Steyn, 17/02/2004, Daily Telegraph)
How do you feel about "outsourcing"? John Kerry, the Default Democrat that his party's poor voters are trying hard to pretend to be excited about, is very opposed to it. His stump speech includes fierce denunciations of American corporations that export jobs overseas. He has pledged his support for a "Call Center Consumer's Right To Know", which would require that the guy at the call center identify his location at the beginning of every call. Right now, you just get vague hints – for example, if I'm in New Hampshire and dial directory inquiries and ask for a number in Woodsville and the fellow says, "Certainly, sir. What hemisphere is that in?"Unfortunately, this "Right To Know" system wasn't in place when Kerry's campaign placed calls to potential voters in Wisconsin. So it was only a few observant Democrats with "Caller ID" displays who happened to notice that the calls were coming from an Ontario area code. Ontario is not in the United States. They don't even have call centers in Ontario, only kinky misspelt call centres. Yet all those calls explaining that "John Kerry's the candidate you can count on to stand up to selfish corporations exporting American jobs to foreign countries" were coming from Canada.
At least the Howard Dean candidacy held out the prospect of being entertaining. Senator Kerry's death march will be dour and sullen, like that of his mentor, Michael Dukakis. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 17, 2004 7:48 AM
You won't hear much more on outsourcing. Heinz is too tempting a counterpunch. Much more likely is standard class warfare, but Kerry makes a real silly-looking class warrior.
He should just keep talking about how he - surprise! - served in Vietnam.
Posted by: Casey Abell at February 17, 2004 10:25 AMThat's one of the few things I've learned from STAR TREK - beware the millionaire preaching the evils of capitalism.
Posted by: John Barrett Jr. at February 17, 2004 10:44 AMCasey:
I surely hope this is the end of the outsourcing scaremongering. Last week Michigan's Consumer sentiment reversed its January gains (worse than expected) and the report quoted "that the focus of the Democratic primaries on employment and global outsourcing may have heightened apprehensions about potential job losses". Scaremongering, uncontested, can be self-fulfilling.