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March 21, 2004
Kerry fell down and can't get up!
Roger L. Simon reflects on John Kerry's fall -- for which he not only blamed the Secret Service, but added insult to injury -- calling the guy a "son of a bitch": It won't go away for me either. By behaving like an arrogant snot, Kerry shows that he is out of touch with ordinary people, lacks the common touch, and may in fact be a genuinely mean-spirited man. When this is added to his response to the question about his foreign endorsements ("None of your business!"), I think it is fair to ask whether he has the temperament that should be expected of any public servant, especially a president."I don't fall down," the "son of a b*itch knocked me over."I don't think this is going away, at least not for me. Consider this: Kerry just treated with contempt a man who is supposed to take a bullet for him. My father has been dead for many years, but I'll never forget what he told me about evaluating powerful people. Watch how they treat the little people, he said; like the ordinary workers, servants, waiters, secretaries, etc. The kind of guy who's rude to a waiter or who yells at his secretary is the same sort who'll stab you in the back, welch on a deal, and treat you like shit if he ever has power over you. So far, Kerry has failed my dad's test, my test, and Roger L. Simon's test. I don't know how he can rehabilitate himself. Kerry's arrogance has been commented upon in a number of places, but this incident is more than just arrogant. Arrogance can be defensible, even noble, depending on where it is directed. Our founders were arrogant towards Great Britain, as was Winston Churchill towards his enemies. But to blame, belittle, and insult a Secret Service agent whose job is to protect your life -- that's outrageously petty and mean. It's like insulting a nurse taking care of you in a hospital, and there'd be no excuse for even an underprivileged, uneducated man behaving that way. With Kerry, there's less than no excuse. It's pretty arrogant of him to assume all those "little people" will vote for him, but I guess he thinks they're so stupid he can treat them with the same contempt as Secret Service agents (and doubtless he'll blame them if he loses). Power breeds unaccountability and disrespect by its nature, and power can cause even good men to become arrogant and unaccountable. That's because, in government as in life, it is elementary that shit flows downhill from the top. Even on a ski slope. posted by Eric on 03.21.04 at 02:30 PM
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TrackBack URL for this entry: http://classicalvalues.com/cgi-bin/pings.cgi/871 Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Kerry fell down and can't get up!:
» Beltway Traffic Jam from Outside the Beltway
The Monday linkfest: Cam Edwards had his first bout with D.C. traffic this morning. Donnie Hall is skeptical of DU’s claim to being a think... [Read More] Tracked on March 22, 2004 04:38 PM
» Passing (or Failing) the Test from King of Fools
Eric over at Classical Values shares some wisdom his father relayed to him: My father has been dead for many years, but I'll never forget what he told me about evaluating powerful people. Watch how they treat the little people,... [Read More] Tracked on March 22, 2004 06:44 PM
» Too Dumb to be President from Admiral Quixote's Roundtable
Imagine you are running for President. You have asked for Secret Service protection just in case some lunatic takes a shot at you. You have been campaigning hard and have wrapped up your party's nomination. So you take a much... [Read More] Tracked on March 23, 2004 12:23 PM
Comments
Steven, you have always struck me as eminently likeable! By any standard, you are more likeable than Kerry. Your comments are witty, entertaining, self-effacing, wry, and at times even cosmic! Hmmmmmm......... Have you considered running for office? (Kerry still hasn't chosen a running mate, and I'm not sure about Ralph Nader....) Eric Scheie · March 22, 2004 11:01 PM Dear Eric: Thank you! But... Have I considered running for office? As Ayn Rand said when someone asked her that question: "No. And I hope you don't hate me enough to wish such a thing on me!" As I private citizen I can speak my mind. I can say that I'm against gun control -- period. I can say that I'm against abortion -- and not merely "personally opposed but for a woman's right to choose" yaddita yaddita yaddita. I can say that I'm for homosexual marriage -- and not merely for "civil unioned domestic partnership program-related activities". I can say that I'm for Howard Stern and that it's up to the parents, not the government, to protect their children from his and my evil influence. I'm free -- precisely because I'm not looking at a Gallup poll whenever I speak. I intend to keep it that way. Syeven Malcolm Anderson the Lesbian-eating pho-loving aesthete-worshipping gun · March 23, 2004 12:50 AM |
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It continues to be a mystery to me how Kerry ever got to be front-runner. It's an un-scientific poll, I know, but the milieu I live in, my family and friends, are, for the most part, pretty committed liberals/Left-liberals/Democrats and would vote for the proverbial yellow dog rather than Bush, but not one of them voted for Kerry in the primaries. Lieberman, Dean, Edwards, but not Kerry. And of the Democratic-oriented or anti-Bush commenters in the blogs I read, I can't recall anyone who was all that enthusiastic about Kerry. So, I'm wondering who it was who pushed him over the top?
Kerry is eminently unlikable from what I read of him. I know _I'm_ unlikable, a regular King Crab as Jim Goad said about himself, but Kerry even more so! Whatever you say about Bush as a President, he is at least likable as a person. Clinton was likable. Reagan was likable. Carter was totally incompetent, but he was likable. Most people tend to vote for the more likable guy for President. That's just the way it is. At this rate, Bush is going to win.