National Leadership

Investor's Business Daily in an editorial yesterday pointed out a number of quotes from John Kerry including this one from 2003 - "I fear that in the run-up to the 2004 election the administration is considering what is tantamount to a cut-and-run strategy," Kerry told the Council on Foreign Relations. He said it would be "a disaster and a disgraceful betrayal of principle" to allow "a politically expedient withdrawal of American troops."- which does not exactly square with his stance this week on the resolution to pull us out in one year from Iraq. The editorial also highlights his admiration for Jane Fonda at the height of the Vietnam war and his support of the Sandinistas.

Every politician is guilty of some flip flops. Kerry just happens to be a bit more guilty than almost any other politician in America. The conclusion of the editorial just about sums it up "So when Kerry isn't flip-flopping for the sake of politics, he's serving the purposes of our adversaries — from Vietnam to the War on Terror. Whether it's poor judgment, or something more sinister that animates John Kerry, it's remarkable that someone so dangerous could have come so close to occupying the Oval Office."

But there is one other piece of history that does not get covered enough from my perspective. When Kerry came back and worked on Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) he got a pretty large contingent to come to Washington during the early part of the year - when DC is cold and miserable. This bonus army encamped around the Washington monument and the poor soldiers got mired in the cold and mud. Kerry was their leader and the Washington Post covered him in depth - including a Style section piece on where he was camping at the time (the Watergate). Each morning, after partying with the glitterati of the DC left, he would put on his fatigues and smear on a bit of mud and then go down to spend some time with the suckers who were carrying his message. Some leader, huh?