Tweety, obsessed with the "BBQ" question re Bush and Kerry, take this...

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.observer.com/pages/story.asp?ID=8121

That’s why USA Today political columnist Walter Shapiro decided to begin his coverage of the 2004 Presidential campaign earlier than ever, in 2002 and early 2003, when the candidates launched their bids for the White House. Before the frenzy of the Boys on the Bus, Mr. Shapiro elected to be the solitary Man in the Van, riding along through Iowa and New Hampshire to enjoy the "enforced intimacy" that a long car ride permits between two men—even two men as wary as a Presidential candidate and a journalist. The result is One-Car Caravan, a slender, breezy, entertaining account of Mr. Shapiro’s travels with the Men Who Would Beat Bush (and they are all men—Carol Moseley Braun has been left out of the picture) and his impression of them.


John Kerry is the candidate whose up-close persona contradicts his media caricature, Mr. Shapiro writes. Rather than a "haughty, overly ambitious patrician who is a bit too slick in his eagerness to exploit his heroism in Vietnam," the Massachusetts Senator turns out to be the candidate Mr. Shapiro personally likes best—the one "with whom I would most enjoy going out for a beer." Although it’s true that Mr. Kerry can be "tense, defensive, and curiously tone-deaf," he’s also "a hands-on candidate, a toucher." Most important, the wistful and cerebral Mr. Kerry seems "just depressed enough to be interesting."

(And, as a bonus, Shapiro discusses Kerry's position on the Iraq War--which remains utterly consistent)

His position on the Iraq war turns out to be not quite as tortured and shifting as it’s frequently made out to be, though it is difficult to sum up in a sound bite. Mr. Kerry himself may have put it best when he tried to explain his vote for the Congressional war resolution in October 2002: "My vote was cast in a way that made it very clear, Mr. President, I’m voting for you to do what you said you’re going to do, which is to go through the U.N. and do this through an international process. If you go unilaterally, without having exhausted these remedies, I’m not supporting you. And if you decide that this is just a matter of straight pre-emptive doctrine for regime-change purposes without regard to the imminence of the threat, I’m not going to support you."

[phantom power]

1. this country won't make any progress

until the day people stop worrying about which candidate they imagine they'd prefer having a beer with.


I mean, goddammit. We've gone halfway to Armageddon in the last 3.5 years, and reporters are *still* wasting ink pondering about who would make the best drinking companion???

I want to shake these people.

[spooky3]

2. my brother reminded me that 1/2 of the public is below average

in intelligence. That's *'s base. Many of them just can't process that drinking buddies don't necessarily make good Presidents.

[phantom power]

4. true, but it's even worse than that.

I recall discussing the (then upcoming) 2000 election with a friend of mine who's got a freaking PhD in organic chemistry, and the phrase "Gore the Bore" actually passed his lips.

It was then that I knew we were doomed.

[spooky3]

5. Yep, dumb doesn't account for all of it, but it's a lot of it.

[cap]

3. tweety get over it...

that remark is so 2000 ... been there done that...

don't you think people have more things on their minds these days than who they'd like to hang out with... people want someone with some stature.

[The empressof all]

6. I am just sick and tired

I am just sick and tired of hearing about what a great guy Georgie is-one every one just wants to hang out with.

He is a damn murder-The little prick You may just as well hang with Charles Manson.

Can you tell this pisses me off a wee bit