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Responsible: markscha@hact.org
Editorial: Learning from our past
Posted GMT
Democratic golden boy John Kerry was dealt a stinging public relations blow on Sunday when New York Times reporter Elizabeth Bumiller asked him, "Is God on America's side?" Such tests of one's rhetoric are part and parcel of being a presidential hopeful. They're never fair, and they always come at just the wrong time.
Kerry's disappointingly stuttering response is going to lose him some points with the simple-minded folks for whom the answer has to be a resounding "Yes!", but that's not what I find sad. What's sad is the lack of passion and of rhetorical skill evident, to everyone's embarrassment, in the only people who have any chance of unseating Mr. Bush, the Democratic Party. Regrettable. In the year 2004 there is no longer an excuse for not knowing that the battle is won or lost with rhetoric.
Not to mention that there was low-hanging fruit Kerry could have plucked, if only he had studied the great rhetoricians of our sometimes actually illustrious past. Abraham Lincoln wisely and deftly deflected this very question, and at a time when, from a religious standpoint, it almost had to be answered straight: "Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my great concern is to be on God's side."
Kerry could have reached higher as well -- he passed up the chance to call into doubt the very appropriateness of such a question. In fact, a skilled orator could finally show Bush for the simpering warmonger he is, but skilled orators are nowhere to be found on the Left, leaving the ring open for a big crew of dirty fighters who, in the absence of a challenge, can make brutality look like skill.
But I would have settled for the golden quote, or, in a pinch, meaningful silence. After all, it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.
But you knew that.
-- Editor §
(The HACT team produces humor and opinion articles, not official news. Any resemblance to actual news is just a matter of style.)