Kerry
Kerry's March To Destruction
By Daniel G. Jennings
John Kerry's presidential campaign seems to be going down in flames and Kerry has only himself to blame for his dismal failure. More precisely Kerry will have only his own mouth and the mouths of some of his more prominent supporters to blame for loosing such a close race.
In American politics a very bad choice of words by a candidate or his supporters can destroy any political campaign. Particularly if the other party and the news media pick up on something ridiculous or offensive that the politician or somebody around him says.
Last week John Kerry speaking to the Unity Conference of Minority Journalists said he would among other things wage "a more sensitive war on terror." This lame-brained utterance was ignored at the time but quickly picked up on by that old political attack dog Vice President Dick Cheney. This week, Cheney told a large gathering of veterans of Kerry's stupid remark in a speech sure to be chopped into sound bites and replayed endlessly by the TV networks.
In a few days or weeks every American will know of Kerry's sensitive war on terror and every stand up comic will be using it in his or her act. Every radio talk personality will comment upon them and there's a good possibility that Saturday Night Live or some other TV show will produce a sketch lampooning Kerry's sensitive war on terror. The result is that Kerry will look like a complete fool.
The week before that failed presidential candidate and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, supposedly a high advisor to Kerry, made the moronic assertion that the terror alerts were being cooked up by the Bush administration to divert attention from Kerry's campaign. Naturally, Dr. Dean presented no evidence to back up his claims but he went on several TV shows to defend them. Kerry and other Democrats were forced to come out and distance themselves from Dean. Fortunately for Kerry, the Bush attack machine hasn't picked up on Dean's lunacy yet but it's only a matter of time before Bush takes notice of the good doctor's ravings and rams them down our throats.
American history is full of politicians whose careers were destroyed by such guffaws. The most interesting example was James G. Blaine. Way back in 1884, Republican presidential candidate James G. Blaine met with a group of clergymen at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City. One of the clergymen, a blowhard named Samuel Burchard, gave a short speech in which he condemned the Democrats as the party of "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion." Rum referred to drunkenness, Romanism to Catholicism which some Protestants saw as unpatriotic, and Rebellion to support of the Confederate rebels in the Civil War.
The words Rum, Romanism and Rebellion aren't very offensive to us today but in 1884 they were a vicious slur upon Irish Americans, one of the nation's largest ethnic groups. Burchard had called the Irish drunks and traitors to the country. Irish American men, who were devout Catholics and extremely patriotic Americans, were a key Democratic constituency. To add insult to injury a great many Irish American men had served in the Union Army during the Civil War and many Irish Americans had died fighting the Confederacy. Burchard's remarks were the equivalent of a modern politician talking of the racial inferiority of African Americans.
Reporters and Republicans didn't take notice of Burchard's bombast but Democratic spinmeister Alexander Pue Gorman did. Since tape recorders hadn't been invented yet, Gorman had hired a stenographer to record the Republican speeches. When he heard the transcript of Burchard's words read back to him, Gorman knew he had struck gold.
Within hours Burchard's remark, Democratic operatives were handing out thousands of pamphlets with the words Rum, Romanism and Rebellion prominently displayed in Irish neighborhoods and Democrats with signs mocking Burchard's words were turning up at Blaine's campaign appearances. Democratic newspapers from coast to coast published the remarks and many of them ran cartoons showing fat rich Republicans including Blaine sitting around sipping champagne and mocking hardworking Irish patriots. Blaine was successfully labeled an anti Irish bigot because of remarks he didn't even make.
The ploy worked Irish voters offended by Blaine's remarks flocked to the polls and sent Democrat Grover Cleveland to the White House. Even without modern mass media a poor choice of words sank a campaign.
With electronic media the effect can be even more devastating. Back in 1976, incumbent President Gerald Ford was running against Jimmy Carter. During a televised debate Ford said that Poland wasn't behind the Iron Curtain, that is under Soviet occupation. Poland, was under Soviet occupation as every fourth grader in the United States knew. Ford looked like a complete fool and like Blaine lost the election because of a stupid statement.
Since a foot in the mouth can sink a campaign, Kerry's campaign looks dead in the water unless he can control the words that come out of his mouth and the mouths of those around him.