Mark,
I don't think I said anything at all about Mr. Kerry's altruism. In fact, I
know nothing of what he has given to others other than the fact that he
spent his life in public service from the first day he joined the USN right
out of college. What I did say is that he puts his own money where his
mouth is. But now that you mention it, I do think he has more years of such
"altruism" than Mr. Bush. Just what did Mr. Bush do between the ages of 20
and 40?
I have no expectations that Mr. Kerry is anything other than a fallible
human being. What I do know is that Mr. Bush has chosen his benchmarks and
then failed to achieve them; and that Mr. Bush has chosen to emphasize fear
of unthinkable events that may occur in the future while doing nothing to
educate Americans on what to expect should the unthinkable occur.
While the first leads only to questions of his ability as an executive able
to deliver, the latter demonstrates a failure of leadership and vision.
While Mr. Kerry has not faced the same tests as Mr. Bush, in my book Mr.
Bush's Administration looks like Global Crossing and it is time to readjust
the portfolio. And it makes no sense to belabor Mr. Kerry's lack of
opportunity to face the same tests which Mr. Bush failed. There was no way
to predict Mr. Bush's performance on these tests when he was running. There
is no way to predict ANY potential President's performance in these areas.
While Mr. Kerry lacks a track record on those challenges, Mr. Bush HAS a
track record. And for whatever reasons, he failed to meet the very
benchmarks he set for himself. Given that the best predictor of future
performance is past performance, we CAN predict Mr. Bush's effectiveness in
the future.
Who is to blame when Cabinet members and senior appointees, life long
Republicans, leave Mr. Bush because they no longer believe he is up to the
challenge? Is it that Mr. Bush isn't meeting his benchmarks? Or, is it
that Mr. Bush is not the judge of character he prides himself on when he
looks Mr. Putin in the eye and knows he has a friend and ally? What MAKES
lifelong Republicans take such drastic action? Was Mr. Simon looking to
become a movie star? He expected the few bucks he would make on book
royalties was worth the tradeoff of alienating himself from a life time's
worth of friends?
Even Mr. McNamara decided not to resign over Vietnam because he knew it
would
call Johnson's leadership into question. I think you have to go back to
Hoover to find such desertions.
Mr. Kerry has been talking about the same issues I have mulled in the last 3
years, many of them on this list. He is hitting the issues and talking
about the values that are of importance to me. Mr. Bush is bereft of vision
and consistently latches onto themes that Mr. Kerry shows resonate. Mr.
Bush talks of what we have to fear rather than how we can face those fears.
Mr. Kerry talks of the future and of making the choice in the favor of
families when there is no compelling reason to decide for business. His
appointments will NOT lead to an FCC that Courts and Congress must overrule
on allowing media monopoly, his appointments will NOT lead to a FERC
(Federal Electricity Reg. Comm) that allows an environment in which Enron
traders can gleefully trade exchanges on how they just "f***" grandma in
California. MR. Kerry will NOT appoint an FDA Administrator who blocks
Americans from buying pharmaceuticals formulated here in the US via Canadian
pharmacies. This only protects the profits of the pharmaceuticals at the
expense of families. Given that virtually all new drug research is
subsidized by taxpayers via the fact that this research is conducted in US
Medical Schools, how IS it that Americans wind up paying a higher cost for
drugs than Canadians? If those companies can make a profit selling at low
prices in Canada, they sure as Hell can make a profit here in the US at the
lower price. Instead, what does Mr. Bush do? He created aprogram that
simply made it easier for drug makers and pharmacies to increase their
prices. Mr. Bush TALKS about family values; but like the politics of family
finance and the politics of morality, you need a comparison. And when you
compare business and families, it is clear that Mr. Bush values Corporations
before families.
So, is it surprising Mr. Kerry draws crowds when he makes it clear that by
family values, he means putting family interests ahead of Corporate
interests?
And at the same time, with all this ideological vitriol from the Republican
party, no one has been able to identify a single "back room" deal that Mr.
Kerry made with any interest group. Not corporate, not union, not AARP,
nothing. Dear God, by Mr. Bush's own words Mr. Kerry has made no meaningful
promises to the NAACP. Which is why, I think, some move on to the thin ice
of delving into financial politics.
I think Mr. Gingrich's comparison of Mr. Bush to Mr. Truman is going to
haunt Mr. Bush. As many of you know, Mr. Truman was a failed haberdasher
and lived with his mother before entering politics in his late 30s. Nor was
he
considered a very effective Senator. It was Mr. Truman who introduced this
Country
to the horror of a world on the brink of nuclear destruction. How
differently Mr. Truman and
Mr. Bush approached their tasks. How poorly Mr. Truman's lack of a record
predicted
his Presidential leadership.
--
Regards,
Dewey Clark
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