March 15, 2004
WHAT HE LEARNED FROM HOWARD DEAN:
Kerry Remark on Foreign Leaders Faulted (JODI WILGOREN, 3/15/04, NY Times)
A Republican business owner here in this November battleground state and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had the same questions Sunday for Senator John Kerry: Which foreign leaders told you they support your campaign, and when did you meet with them?The questions, in a volatile exchange at a forum here and in an interview on Fox News Sunday, stemmed from a comment that Mr. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, made last Monday at a Florida fund-raiser. It was the second time in recent days that stray comments by Mr. Kerry diverted attention from his themes of creating jobs and providing health insurance.
"I just want an honest answer," Cedric Brown, 52, who owns a small sign company, told Mr. Kerry.
"Were they people like Blair or were they people like the president of North Korea?" he asked, referring to the British prime minister, Tony Blair. "Why not tell us who it was? Senator, you're making yourself sound like a liar."
Mr. Brown's repeated questions came hours after Mr. Powell said on television that Mr. Kerry's vague claim to have the backing of unnamed foreign leaders was "an easy charge."
"If he feels it is that important an assertion to make, he ought to list some names," Mr. Powell said. "If he can't list names, then perhaps he should find something else to talk about."
Mr. Powell also challenged Mr. Kerry's recent assertions that Mr. Powell had been undermined in foreign policy debates in the Bush administration.
"Name a specific issue where it looks like I have been marginalized," Mr. Powell said.
That exchange with Mr. Brown should be a Bush campaign ad. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 15, 2004 5:08 PM
After 18 months of drum-pounding about how "Words Mean Things . . . " from the likes of Mr. Kerry, it's deliciously ironic to yank the sticks out their hands and see how they like to dance to the beat.
Posted by: John Resnick at March 15, 2004 6:06 PMThe best part of course is the "It's none of your business" response, that the Times doesn't dare print...
Posted by: brian at March 15, 2004 6:38 PMFind me a member of the GOP (candidate or otherwise) who could claim that a black Democrat had been "marginalized" and politically live to fight another day.
Posted by: at March 15, 2004 6:57 PMThis whole exchange makes Kerry seem incredibly small for the office he seeks.
This excerpt also leave out the part where Kerry questions the guy on his party affliation and his voting records. So it's okay for Kerry to question other people voting records or the veracity of their statements, but not okay for people to question his record or veracity.
The Times left out the nut graph that the AP used (though the later version of the story left out the "murmuring and booing" part, but at least the Times did catch the tone of the confrontation.
Compare that to this take on the incident from the Washington Post's Paul Farhi. Unlike the Times' story, which leaves out Kerry's remark but does portray Brown as a rational questioner, Farhi's story makes Brown out to be about as wacky as your average LaRouchite heckler who pesters Democratic candidates.
And of course, the "none of your business" line was nowhere to be seen, which if you think the questioner is a borderline lunatic, as the Post appears to believe, seems a perfectly logical response.
Posted by: John at March 15, 2004 7:05 PM
The best part was Kerry saying he had just spoken with them by telephone, and denying that he had ever said he met with foreign leaders. Of course, not only did he say that he met with them, but that they looked at him as they said that he just hadda win.
Of course, what makes this masterful, especially from Powell, is that we all know Kerry's right.
Posted by: David Cohen at March 15, 2004 8:09 PMIt gets even better -- according to Drudge, the pool reporter from the Boston Globe is now saying he misquoted Kerry off an audio tape and that he didn't say "foreign" leaders, he said "more" leaders.
This would make an interesting "oohps" except that Kerry's spent the last four days defending the comment about foreign leaders supporting him while steadfastly refusing to name those foreign leaders. So instead of been seen as either a liar who made up a story or a courageous candidate standing up to the Republican attack machine, he now is seen as defending a quote he never said, which is pretty bizzaro in its own right, or the Boston Globe reporter is lying along with Kerry (and must have a Heinz ketchup Jones on his back like nobody's business to make a fool of himself in public this way...)
Posted by: John at March 15, 2004 10:03 PMCan you imagine how proletarian it sounds to most
people like Kerry and Theresa that this guy "owns a small sign business." Not a consulting firm.
Not a boutique wine shop, not a spa, but a lowly
sign shop that probably does jobs for proletarian
hangouts like Dunkin Donuts.
How working class.
Posted by: J.H. at March 16, 2004 9:26 AMThis is really something else.
Powell is the one man in the Bush administration respected by Liberals and Euroweenies. So Kerry disses him and provokes a public fight?!
And all the fuss about whether he lied about getting foreign endorsements misses what I (and I can't be alone) consider the main issue, which is that his claim is worse if it's true! Isn't the fact that he even thought that the opinion of non-Americans is or should be a reccomendation rather frightening?
50-0 is starting to look more possible.
Posted by: Ralph Phelan at March 16, 2004 10:34 AM