10/22/2004|||109846471135828238||||||

THE KERRY CONUNDRUM

Jonathan Rauch, one of the sharpest left-leaning commentators, has misgivings about George W. Bush. But, as he explains in his National Journal column, he doesn't have much faith in Kerry on the fundamental issues. I think he speaks for an awful lot of voters:

"And what are Kerry's core beliefs? If you shake him awake at 3 a.m., what are the two or three things he knows deep down, the way Reagan knew that Big Government and Communism were bad and Bush knows that Al Qaeda and its allies have launched a global insurgency on behalf of a virulent totalitarian doctrine? I don't know.

There is nothing wrong with Kerry's senatorial "flip-flops." Maneuvering is what senators do. More disturbing has been his irresolution on Iraq since becoming a presidential candidate. Most disturbing of all is that, with only days to go before the election, I still don't feel I have a handle on what he is really all about. Perhaps Kerry is the scion of Dukakism, the doctrine that the election is about competence, not ideology. But Kerry is running for president, not city manager."

|||Clive|||http://clivedavis.blogspot.com/2004/10/kerry-conundrum-jonathan-rauch-one-of.html|||10/22/2004 05:57:00 pm|||||||||

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