I imagine mine is a partisan viewpoint but I thought John Kerry looked damned good on "Meet the Press" this morning. What's more, in the inevitable comparison with George Bush, Kerry was a long chalk better.
I have little doubt that he would be a better leader--surely his ability to think on his feet marks the largest difference. I imagine the right-wing demagogues will claim that all his answers were prepared (I'm sure they were) but what was impressive to me was the quality of his answers.
What I especially liked is that the most significant criticisms of the Republican party were centered about Kerry's criticisms of Bush and his lack of positive offerings to the American people. Both sets of criticisms have a lot of validity and I was very happy to see that he offers a number of "big ideas" that I would expect to see some substance behind in the next few months.
I think he has to be a visionary in addition to his criticisms on the economy, the conduct of the war, and the scandals plaguing the Bush administration (ignoring the priority of terrorism prior to September 11, the Plame affair, the obsession with going to war with Iraq, the conduct of the war in Iraq, the veritable destruction of US credibility with allies and friends, the evident corruption in giving cost-plus -cost contracts to firms like Halliburton).
(The list seems endless, doesn't it?)
I thought one telling comment from Kerry yesterday was that we need to replace the president in order to fix our foreign policy gaffes and have a valid exit strategy for Iraq.
Posted by artandscience at April 18, 2004 11:31 AM