Three Perils for Kerry's 'Honeymoon' by Robert Kuttner

[Classical_Liberal]

Three Perils for Kerry's 'Honeymoon'
by Robert Kuttner


SENATOR JOHN Kerry has enjoyed more party unity than any Democratic challenger in memory. Democrats are so eager to oust George Bush that the normally fractious party of the people is willing to cut Kerry immense amounts of slack. On the whole, that shift reflects overdue maturity.

However, Kerry's honeymoon could founder on three key questions -- his budget strategy, Iraq, and his choice of running mate.

Kerry-nomics. The Kerry camp, to the consternation of liberals, has now embraced deficit reduction as its economic centerpiece. The policy is sensible as far as it goes. But will it go too far and moot social investment?

As economics, the premise is that a repeat of Clinton's performance in reducing the deficits accumulated by Reagan and Bush I will reassure money markets and restore high growth. As politics, the idea is: First, keep it simple. The Clinton era is associated with prosperity. Clinton turned deficits to surpluses. Ergo, Kerry should do likewise.

Second, Kerry is being blasted as a big spending Massachusetts liberal. Therefore, bend over backwards to demonstrate that Kerry is more fiscally responsible than Bush.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0414-02.htm

[bluestateguy]

1. If elected, I will not criticize Kerry for at least a year

He will have enormous messes to clean up, especially in Iraq. This will always be Bush's war, even long after he is gone. Even if Kerry has to send in more troops, it will still be Bush's war as far as I am concerned. If the casualties continue, they will be because Bush put them there. There will be plenty of people criticizing him on Fox News, as well as the professional whiners in the Green Party. I will not be one of those people. I will support the new president, and not criticize him.

[Classical_Liberal]

2. If I see signs that he is following Will Marshall's lead I will criticize

sorry. I believe we have dangerous neocons in both parties and I don't want them rewarded. I am not a green, and i won't vote green, but I won't give any president a pass on criticism. If you can make generalizations about anyone criticizing being a green then I will make an observation that most people who don't want me criticizing Kerry are people who supported the war and beleive the WMD lies one year ago.