At 1:52 PM -0500 1/31/05, OpinionJournal wrote: >The Bullet America Dodged >One question that's been bouncing around the blogosphere is why the media >gave October's election in Afghanistan so much less prominent coverage >than they gave the Iraqi election. One reason, at least here in the U.S., >is that the Afghan election was competing for attention with our own >election campaign. A look at our Monday, Oct. 11 >http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110005743 , column (the first one >after the Afghan election Oct. 9), shows that at the time the main topic >of conversation was the second presidential debate, which occurred the >previous Friday. Does anyone remember anything about that debate? > >Yet as ephemeral as much of the campaign was, the stakes could hardly have >been higher. Would Iraq even have had elections had John Kerry* defeated >President Bush? We are not at all confident. Kerry showed up yesterday on >"Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, in an act of political timing as bad Al >Gore's "global warming" speech >http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110004568 in the middle of winter. >Kerry agreed with Ted Kennedy's anti-American analysis of the situation in >Iraq: "I agree with Sen. Kennedy that we have become the target and part >of the problem today, if not the problem." > >Kerry also seemed to flip-flop on the Iraqi elections: > >*** QUOTE *** > >Kerry: It is significant that there is a vote in Iraq. But no one in the >United States or in the world--and I'm confident of what the world >response will be. No one in the United States should try to overhype this >election. . . . > >Russert: Do you believe this election will be seen by the world community >as legitimate? > >Kerry: A kind of legitimacy--I mean, it's hard to say that something is >legitimate when a whole portion of the country can't vote and doesn't >vote. I think this election was important. I was for the election taking >place. > >*** END QUOTE *** > >Is Kerry saying that he was for the election before he was against it, or >that he was against it before he was for it? And are we to understand that >he's "confident" that the world will see the election as less than fully >legitimate? Apparently his confidence was misplaced; the BBC >http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4220551.stm reports that "world >leaders have praised the conduct of Iraq's first multi-party elections for >more than 50 years." > >One supposes Kerry isn't wild about elections in general, given his own >recent track record in them. Though at times during the Russert interview, >Kerry seemed to think he was still a candidate for president: > >*** QUOTE *** > >Kerry: You may recall that back in--well, there's no reason you would--but >back in Fulton, Missouri, during the campaign, I laid out four steps, and >I said at the time, "This may be the president's last chance to get it >right." . . . > >And I will say unequivocally today that what the administration does in >these next few days will decide the outcome of Iraq, and this is--not >maybe--this is the last chance for the president to get it right. > >*** END QUOTE *** > >As National Review's Jim Geraghty >http://www.nationalreview.com/tks/054681.html points out, John Kerry is >"just the junior senator from Massachusetts." It takes a degree of >effrontery for him to lecture the president of the United States in this >manner. Doesn't he know he lost the election? Well, yes, but he insists he >covered the spread: > >*** QUOTE *** > >Kerry: We did some unbelievable things. We raised more money than any >Democratic campaign in history. We involved more volunteers than any >campaign in history. I won more votes than any candidate on the Democratic >side has ever won in history. I lost, Tim, to an incumbent president by a >closer margin than an incumbent president has ever won re-election before >in the history of the country, and if you add up the popular vote in the >battleground states, I won the popular vote in the battleground states by >two percentage points. We just didn't distribute it correctly in Ohio. . . >. > >I think it's remarkable we came as close as we did as a campaign. Many >Republicans say we beat their models by four or five points as to what >they thought we could achieve. > >I am proud of the campaign, Tim. And I think if you look at what we did in >states, I mean, millions of new voters came into this process. I won the >youth vote. I won the independent vote. I won the moderate vote. If you >take half the people at an Ohio State football game on Saturday afternoon >and they were to have voted the other way, you and I would be having a >discussion today about my State of the Union speech. > >*** END QUOTE *** > >Leave it to Ananova.com >http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1261997.html to come up with the >perfect headline for all this: "Man Peed Way Out of Avalanche." > >* The haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat, who by the way >served in Vietnam. >
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