Kerry's made more mistakes. Oh no!

News Source: ABC News
Title: Presidential Sweet
John Kerry Closes Tough

It would surprise no one who reads The Note to suggest that they don’t seem to be particularly fond of John Kerry. Even after his stunning upset victories in Iowa and New Hampshire they made little reference to any positive attributes Kerry might posses as a candidate and only occasionally referred to his being “presidential” and “electable” – both rather vague terms – when describing his unprecedented success throughout the primaries.

In our “worldview” (to borrow a Note term), fair treatment by the media – and in this case The Note – should compel journalists to talk equally about both the good and the bad aspects of a candidate. However, in The Note, Kerry is often subjected to a litany of criticism. On March 18, just two weeks after Kerry had effectively sewn up the nomination in one of the most successful primary campaigns ever, The Note had this to say about Kerry:

As John Kerry begins his own (semi-)private Idaho vacation, here are the mistakes his campaign has made of late, allowing an aggressive Bush-Cheney operation to win a series of news cycles, during this (ALL TOGETHER NOW!!!) critical period in defining John Kerry for America.

They then proceeded to happily catalogue all of Kerry’s presumed “mistakes” including who the campaign put on a conference call with reporters and Kerry’s decision to take a vacation.

Have they ever, EVER, written anything like this about Bush? No. Isn’t Kerry running the most competitive race a challenger has ever run against an incumbent President? Yes. Is Bush being dragged down by a long list of policy failures, including the not so insignificant decision to send troops to war in Iraq? Yes.

So, it comes as no surprise that even now, with polls showing Bush’s approval rating at the lowest point of his presidency, The Note would seek to defend his chances of becoming President and continue their assault on Kerry.

But before anyone goes Galluping off and says "Pew ew" about the president's chances, remember all the advantages he has:

[Advantage number four] John Kerry keeps making mistakes, including and especially speaking very pessimistically about America. (In the fall, people besides Jodi, Glen, and Ed will Notice, and the errors will matter more … )

There is that dreaded word again, “mistakes.” Presumably they are referring to some of the same mistakes they listed on March 18 and their view that Kerry has continued to make these kinds of errors. Even if you were to believe them, how do Kerry’s supposed “mistakes” - or our other favorite, “gaffes” - even compare in importance to the recent blunders by the Bush Administration?

In a race as competitive as this, it’s certainly worth noting the relative seriousness of the issues/scandals swirling around Bush at this point in comparison to Kerry’s “mistakes.” (We did Note that Jodi Wilgoren from the New York Times, Glen Johnson from the Boston Globe and Ed Gillespie, the head of the RNC were all neatly lumped together – making them one and the same. This confirms our suspicions all along and one could certainly add ABC News to that list. Remember that medals controversy thingy? Well, guess who leaked the decades old interview of Kerry to the New York Times and ABC News? Yep, you guessed it, the RNC.)

Sounding like a stuttering Karl Rove, The Note adds to it’s list:

10. The war on terror threshold — mostly missing from Kerry campaign polling memos, we notice — remains Bush's trump card.

A majority of Americans now view the war in Iraq as not worth fighting in the first place. Bush has said that it is part of the war on terror and the troubles in Iraq are threatening to sink his presidency. In a new CNN/Time Magazine poll released today, Bush leads Kerry on the all-important issue of Terrorism by only 49% - 42%, by far the smallest margin in recent months and on the question of Iraq, more Americans prefer Kerry to Bush 49% - 46%. The person with a “threshold” problem is Bush.

And finally, after hammering Kerry for months for “having no message” now that he has one, The Note takes issue with it:

12. "Strength" without substance … is what, exactly?

Strength means Kerry is a strong leader. That he will not back down from solving America’s toughest problems and that he will restore honor and truth to America’s image around the world where it has been badly tarnished by Bush and his arrogant foreign policy. It is this context in which Kerry brings up “strength” in his speeches.

If The Note doesn’t think “strength” is valid, why do they give credence to Bush’s Steady Leadership in Times of Change. George Orwell couldn’t have come up with a more vacuous campaign slogan. Bush has done a part in creating the most horrible kinds of change (i.e. violence) around the world and now he wants to claim to be a “steady” leader?! Bush can’t even make up his mind about what to do with Iraq, leaving Rumsfeld to tell a congressional committee this week, “I look at Iraq and I just hope it turns out well.” Hope is not a policy, and Bush is not a leader of any kind. Not only is the whole slogan meaningless, it’s just a flat out lie.