Who Is John Kerry?

"Saying is one thing and doing is another: we are to consider the sermon and the preacher distinctly and apart."

    -Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French essayist

Political pundit Dick Morris pretty much nailed John Kerry for me in his New York Post oped, "The Bagel Candidacy." Morris, assessing Kerry's Friday night Democratic Convention speech, raises important questions that deserve answers:

"What did this man do as an adult? What happened during his service as Michael Dukakis' lieutenant-governor in Massachusetts and in his 20 years in the United States Senate?

What bills did he introduce? What initiatives did he sponsor? Which investigations did he lead? What amendments bear his name? What great debates did he participate in?

What did he do for his constituents in Massachusetts? What businesses did he persuade to come to the Bay State? Which elderly did he help get their Social Security benefits? What injustices did he correct?"

Morris says that all we know about Kerry is he fought in Vietnam and then ran for president.

In his speech last night, Kerry had an opportunity to fill in some of these blanks as well as elaborate on how he plans to deal with current issues like Iraq, future threats to our security and the economy. The Washington Post editors (registration required) say his speech failed to provide that critical information to the American voter:

"He offered not a word to celebrate the freeing of Afghans from the Taliban, or Iraqis from Saddam Hussein, and not a word about helping either nation toward democracy...But what is 'the job' in Iraq? He didn't say...a President Kerry...would face momentous decisions based on inevitably imperfect information, whether about Iran or North Korea or dangers yet to emerge. How would he respond?"

Lawrence F. Kaplan shares many of the Post editors' concerns in an article in The New Republic Online titled "Apocalypse Kerry," and criticizes Kerry for touting his four months of service in Vietnam as experience that would enhance his effectiveness as commander-in-chief:

"...whether it describes a Republican or a Democratic candidate, the fact that a politician has 'fought under that flag' tells us nothing about his qualifications to be a wartime leader--even less when the would-be leader devotes far more of his convention speech to a long-ago war than he does to the war in which America happens to be presently engaged.

If his Vietnam service offers proof that he is 'decisive' then why is it that for two decades Kerry has been 'only an average Senator,' as pro-Kerry columnist Al Hunt wrote in yesterday's Wall Street Journal? If his wartime feats prove that Kerry is 'strong' on national security, then why did he oppose virtually every stand-out weapons system in the U.S. arsenal today, speechify against the first Gulf War, and refuse to fund the second? Why, indeed, unless no correlation exists between his biography and his record?"

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that Mr. Kerry doesn't give us the details of his Senate achievements of the last 20 years because there are few of them to brag about. I believe his reluctance to tell us specifically how he plans to deal with the Iraq and Afghanistan situations, how he intends to retaliate against possible future attacks on our homeland, and how he would manage our long-term economic issues stems from not wanting to be called to task should he fail to fulfill the promises he made as a campaigner if he becomes our next president.

This is not surprising, for it's how many politicians run a campaign. I just expect more in a race of this importance. If Kerry really wants to have a shot at winning this fall, he'd enhance his chances by being less evasive and much more specific as he presents himself to potential voters across the country. If he doesn't do this, I predict that Bush and the Republicans will bury him come November. 

Update: Tom Maguire at his weblog JustOneMinute has some thoughts too. In addition to a couple of the links I used he provides some others, and there are many interesting comments in response to his post.

Update: Syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell weighs in on Kerry's "Missing Years" in this Townhall.com oped.