Kerry flounders with the masses
The Age. Australia ^ | May 30, 2004 | Roger Franklin
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2...5641762587.html
You couldn't turn on the news last week in America without thinking that it was a good moment for a stiff drink. Part of that was Teddy Kennedy and the power of suggestion. Those gin-blossomed jowls have been shaking all over the screen for the past few weeks, their owner bellowing that only John Kerry can rescue the country from ruin and disgrace.
Then there were the reports of terrorists' "chatter" and Attorney-General John Ashcroft's all-points alert for seven swarthy villains from Central Casting, one of them a woman with a degree in neurochemistry and two others said to be trained pilots. Ashcroft's message: If al-Qaeda is preparing another assault, it will likely be soon. That drink? Better make it a double.
Was it just such a bracing jolt that fired up Al Gore? Probably not, unlike Senator Ted, it was the spirit of another kind that last week inspired a spit-flecked tirade against the man who pipped him for the White House in 2000. George Bush is the most crooked president since Nixon, Gore thundered to massive applause, accusing Bush of dragging America's good name through the mud and desecrating the shining legacy of the Founding Fathers.
As America rolls toward its November appointment at the polling booth, it's becoming quite a show. There is only one thing missing: The headliner, John Kerry, who seems barely willing, or is it able, to step full-stride into the spotlight.
Why such a low profile? An incumbent burdened with so many negatives should be a sitting duck. Yet Kerry has left it to his support acts to make the running. Iraq's casualty list, an economy still getting its act together, falling presidential poll numbers, petrol costs, and the imminent prospect of higher interest rates - they should be red meat for any candidate with a hunger for power.
Given the bad news eroding his opponent's numbers, the big question is why the challenger isn't gaining more traction.But Kerry isn't feasting. Yes, he's out there, roaming the country and scoring ink, but not half as many of the bold headlines his surrogates are earning. Given the bad news eroding his opponent's numbers, the big question is why the challenger isn't gaining more traction.
One obvious answer is that he is a genuinely awful campaigner.
Take last week, for example. On the same day that Gore blew his top and led the nightly news broadcasts, Kerry was addressing a rally under Seattle's sodden skies. His presidency wasn't going to be about photo ops, he promised the invitation-only crowd, which had been stripped of its umbrellas to avoid obstructing the cameras and spoiling what was itself nothing more than a photo op. The footage was of Kerry supporters looking cold, wet and miserable in a driving rain.
As for substance, there is precious little of it from the Massachusetts blueblood - and when it comes, it's likely to be bogus. Americans need to give up their gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles, Kerry said recently, assuring his questioner that he doesn't and wouldn't own one. Turns out he has five. His defence: they belong to his family, not him, personally.
And then there is Iraq. America's policies are wrong, says the candidate who, as he put it, "voted for it before voting against it". So, Senator Kerry, you'll be bringing the troops home? Well maybe/maybe not, the answer goes, depending on which way the wind is blowing. It could be yes on Monday, no on Tuesday, and by Wednesday, the answer will hang on Old Europe's willingness to send troops, which France and Germany clearly won't even contemplate.
Even his own candidacy is something of a contradiction. Last week, Kerry's people put it about that their man might delay accepting the nomination until after the convention. Being the non-candidate candidate would allow him to exploit a loophole in US election-finance laws and pump another US$70 million ($A98 million) in matching grants into the war chest. By week's end, however, the idea had been scuttled.
In public, Kerry's handlers point to polls that show him as many as six points ahead. All he needs to do is bide his time and wait for Bush to lose, the strategy goes.
But is it that simple? The same polls, most notably the ABC/Washington Post survey, show Kerry also is losing ground. In March, 59 per cent of voters thought him "honest and trustworthy". By last week, the number was 48 per cent and falling. Same thing with his "leadership quotient", down 9 per cent over the same period. This could be the election determined not by popularity, but according to which contender carries the fewer negatives.
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Bush is kicking Kerry's ass. Great news!
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