Ted Kennedy's Lesson for Kerry

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19108-2004Sep13.html

Ted Kennedy's Lesson for Kerry

By Richard Cohen

Tuesday, September 14, 2004; Page A27

<snip>I was sorry that I had not listened to him about George W. Bush and even sorrier that I had not listened to him about the war in Iraq, which he had opposed. If it is not too late, I recommend that John Kerry do what I am now doing: Pay attention to Teddy Kennedy and what he has to say.

On Friday Kennedy delivered a Senate speech that's worth a gaggle of campaign consultants of the sort Kerry has been hiring in lieu of plumbing his own gut. Kennedy accused the Bush administration of "arrogant ideological incompetence."

It's hard to be either more succinct or more on target. The little phrase sums up all that ails both Bush and his administration -- everything from a misguided crusade to liberate Iraq (and the Middle East) from despotism to the strut of the president himself. It fingers the reason why Bush and his boys went to war in Iraq, expecting what Kennedy called "a cakewalk." This was the triumph of ideology over common sense, a belief propounded by neoconservatives within and without the administration that beneath every Iraqi lurked the Music Man, and U.S. troops would be greeted by, at a minimum, 76 trombones. A predisposition to believe your own fantasies makes a very sweet sound indeed.

In his speech, Kennedy several times mentioned Bush's "mission accomplished" mentality, which "left our armed forces in Iraq underprepared, understaffed and underled for the mission that was only just beginning." Kennedy quotes Don Rumsfeld, who, with his characteristic bluntness, refused to say precisely how long the war might last. But it would not, he assured us, be more than "six months." As for Vice President Cheney, Kennedy has him on the record, too. American troops would "be greeted as liberators," Cheney said. This is the man Bush took on his ticket for his wisdom.<snip>

[UNION.JACK]

1. What a loser he turned out to be.

Every time I hear or read about Teddy Kennedy I automatically think of Mary Jo Kopechne, I simply can't help it.

[papau]

2. Nonsense - he lost the Presidency because he could not say why he wanted

it - Mary Jo was not the cause of much good or bad to Kennedy - which in itself is sad since her death should have had an effect.

But he has been the most creative - getting things past that actually work to help the middle class and poor - of any politician in the past 30 years.

[Stanchetalarooni]

3. Now I understand why Freepers just don't get it.

Rather than listen to and analyze the message they immediately, "automatically", think of something else.
Try again UNION JACK to read the article without thinking about Mary Jo Kopechne and then repost your comments about the article.