ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT:

CHRONICLE OF A LIFE UNTOLD: While Bush's life story is widely known, follies and all, in
the public imagination Kerry's life appears to start at Vietnam -- although his choices before that moment speak to his character. (Michael Shellenberger, Ted Nordhaus, 9/14/04, AlterNet)

By now George W.'s story is fairly well known. It goes like this:

As a young man he was a prankster and goofball. Never the brightest of Daddy's kids, George fell into drinking and maybe even drugs. His business deals always fell apart. And, because of his drinking, his marriage was on the rocks.

And then he found God. He became a family man. He became close to the evangelical community in Texas. And he helped his father politically. Just as he made the cut-and-dried decision to quit drinking cold turkey, George Bush is decisive about what's right and what's wrong because he's a man of principle. His decisiveness and moral vision has been especially important post 9/11.

At the center of it is a moment of redemption – a surrender to God. Being born again anchors Bush's appeal to the solid third of the country that self-identify as fundamentalist or evangelical Christian. And for voters who don't pay much attention to "the issues" – that is to say, the swing voters who may determine the election - George Bush's story appeals because it positions Bush as a man of principle.

Swing voters pick candidates based not on their position on Medicare or prescription drugs and but rather on whether or not they identify with – or look up to – their values. These voters decide which values candidates hold not just by their catch phrases and slogans but also by the stories their lives tell.

The Kerry campaign isn't so much telling a story about Kerry as it is making a 30 second TV ad. There is no narrative arc, there's just imagery of Kerry in Vietnam winning medals.

Where is the evidence that the Senator's life has an arc? that he's a different man today than the one who opposed his own country and supported the North Vietnamese in the early 70s? especially in light of the way he's trying to discredit America and the war on terror in the same way now as he did America and the war on communism then?

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 15, 2004 6:50 AM