Lightweight and lighter

[Hoss68]

By Cal Thomas
The Washington Times
July 10, 2004

One thing people hate most about politics is politicians who don't tell the truth and change their positions at the drop of an opinion poll.

Only five months ago, Sen. John Kerry said of his chosen running mate, Sen. John Edwards: "I think the American people want an experienced hand at the helm of state. This is not the time for on-the-job training in the White House on national security issues."

Speaking of freshman Sen. Edwards' lack of experience, Mr. Kerry was quoted by the New York Times six months ago as saying about Mr. Edwards: "In the Senate four years — and that is the full extent of his public life — no international experience, no military experience, you can imagine what the advertising is going to be next year.... When I came back from Vietnam in 1969, I don't know if John Edwards was out of diapers then."

Did Mr. Edwards swallow maturity pills and overnight achieve political potty training? How can a presidential candidate think so little of a Senate colleague and select him as his running mate? When chosen to run with President George H.W. Bush in 1988, Dan Quayle had more congressional experience than John Edwards.

Some of the same people praising Mr. Edwards trashed Mr. Quayle for being an inexperienced airhead.

Less than a month ago, Mr. Kerry's stepson Chris Heinz was quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "I was very pro-Edwards in the spring.... But now I think we may need someone with stronger credentials on foreign policy."

Mr. Edwards has a 100 percent liberal voting record as chronicled by most left-wing organizations and a zero rating by most conservative ones. The chairman of Walter Mondale's 1984 presidential campaign, Bob Beckel, interviewed July 6 on Fox News, described Kerry-Edwards as "a liberal ticket."

Mr. Edwards would repeal the Bush administration's tax cuts, which ended a brief recession and ignited an economic recovery. He is a big-government, high-taxing, abortion-at-any-stage, judicial-litmus-testing opportunist.

The Republican National Committee issued a remarkable 22-page diary full of quotes by Mr. Kerry criticizing and opposing Mr. Edwards' stand on almost every issue imaginable, from health care, to lack of experience, to accepting special-interest money and "grandstanding."

And the feeling was mutual. Mr. Edwards attacked Mr. Kerry on the poverty issue, saying he doubted Mr. Kerry would make the poor a priority. He criticized Mr. Kerry for being inconsistent on his approach and votes concerning the Iraq war. And Mr. Edwards implied that in 1969 he and his parents were "sitting around a kitchen table... trying to figure out how we would pay for college ... that is a difference between me and Sen. Kerry." There's much, much more on the Republican National Committee Web page ( www.rnc.org ).

Don't look for the big media to point out much, or any, of this. They'll call Mr. Edwards a "moderate" or "progressive," while they label President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney "conservative" or "very conservative," which is precisely what the media called them in 2000.

A preview of the way the big media will treat Mr. Edwards (and Mr. Kerry) occurred early last Tuesday when it became known Mr. Edwards would be Mr. Kerry's choice. CBS' Byron Pitts gushed: "He is a newcomer, but he is by no means a novice to this business. He was on the Senate Intelligence Committee, he is considered one of the best debaters on the Senate floor.... The expectation is he will be a good match next to Dick Cheney in a debate."

Mr. Pitts theorized Mr. Edwards could "deliver his home state of North Carolina."

That is not what Mr. Kerry said last February. According to the New York Times of Feb. 3, Mr. Kerry said: "Edwards says he's the only one who can win states in the South.... He can't even win his own state."

But Mr. Pitts didn't explain how Mr. Edwards can win North Carolina since his approval rating was just 37 percent, according to an April 7 poll published in the Greensboro News and Record. A Winston-Salem Journal poll published September, 2002, showed President Bush beating Mr. Edwards nearly 2-1.

The Bush-Cheney re-election team should have no problem campaigning against these two. Call Mr. Kerry "lightweight" and Mr. Edwards "lighter weight." And would someone in the Democratic leadership mind sending an apology to Dan Quayle?

---Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist.

[cb88]

Hoss, now you know that's why the dems can never state an opinion about anything, they have to wait until the opinion polls come out to tell them what they think!!!!

[conlor]

Kerry wants someone who doesn't appear to be more intelligent than himself. He had to scrape low to find one.

[USMC5831]

Originally Posted by conlor

Kerry wants someone who doesn't appear to be more intelligent than himself. He had to scrape low to find one.

LMAO to bad they had to be American he could have come to egypt and found a few.