Andrew Sullivan talks about the speech that John Kerry needs to make at the Democratic convention.
“…Do not even begin to interpret a Democratic victory as some sign that we will acquiesce to your murderous intent and nihilist politics. In the war against Jihadism, there is no Democrat or Republican. There is simply American. We will unite to defeat you and to secure our country.”
He’s right there, and to be honest if Kerry did make that speech I’d be happy to declare my fantasy vote for him (hey, I’m entitled to have a fantasy vote - after all less than half of the people who have a real vote exercise it).
The problem is of course that I don’t see him making that speech, I see him floundering on and boring the crap out of that convention hall about the staple Liberal issues which pad such conferences (ask me how much of the Labour party conference I can be bothered to listen to - Blairite reforms although vitally important, don’t make for the most interesting aspects of discussion) and passing by the matter of Terrorism with a bit of waffle about internationalizing the War on Terror.
It’s not that those matters aren’t important, it’s just that the War on Terrorism is the single most important matter facing the western world today. It would be akin to Ronald Reagan standing to take office and not mentioning the USSR in his speech. The sad thing is that a lot of people to my left honestly don’t think it is - Kerry needs to tell them in no uncertain terms how dangerously naive such a mindset is.
Hell, there’s still time! Switch the ticket! Bring in Hillary!
As a friend of mine put it, in an IRC channel:
<Asmodeus> “Kerry, that’s enough, return”
<John> lol
<Asmodeus> ^kerry gets sucked into a Pokeball^
<John> Kerry: “Kerry! Kerry! Kerry! Puuuuurple Heart!”
<Asmodeus> lol!
Yeah that’s a big fat geeky Pokémon joke. If you need me I’ll be in the corner salvaging what I can of my credibility.
I leave you with a section of Tim Blair’s pre-convention post that had me laughing so hard I almost fell off my swivel chair.
“I’m heading into town now to set a trap for Michael Moore. I can’t reveal too much, but it involves a long piece of string, an empty cardboard box (extra large), a stick, and a cheeseburger.”
Later
John
Posted by John Swaine at July 26, 2004 04:58 PM | TrackBack