Red State

Comments

1. I'm Sure Brokaw and Obama Will Be a Disgusting Display

   IJB July 26th, 2008 at 10:16 a.m. (link)

   Though, honestly, I'm not sure it'd have been much better with Russert (remember how Russert tanked an interview with Kerry back in '04?).

   Either way, I won't be watching.

   1. I remember that MTP well....

      Mark Kilmer July 26th, 2008 at 1:06 p.m. (link)

      From Sunday, April 18, 2004.

      M'archive:

      John Kerry on MTP. Kerry had promised donors at the "21" Club in New York last week that he would soon begin to define himself for voters, and the process is underway. We give him poor grades for his first move, but it's difficult even for a skilled politician to come into his own in an interrogatory format. But Kerry said: "We're in a position now to let the American people know who I really am." He then explained that the President has "no record to run on"; rather, the President has a record "to run against." He followed this by accusing the President of lying to his own advisors.

      On the diplomatic front, Kerry accused the President of "stunningly ineffective diplomacy" and pledged, if elected, to go personally to the UN and to foreign capitols and beg for support. He would empower his Secretary of State, he said, to be a real Secretary of State. He would go before the U.N. and "rejoin the community of nations," which implies that he will bend his knee and show the contrition to the international community which many Democrats have demanded of President Bush.

      Russert quoted the Kerry pledge to include NATO and the UN in the Iraqi process and asked if the UN and NATO would be willing to help. Kerry replied: "Tim, that is the dilemma that the Administration has put us in." He said the Administration has blown three opportunities to get international help: 1. when he refused to give the U.N. inspectors more time, "when the statue of Saddam fell" and Kofi Annan offered to help, and in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly last autumn.

      Russert quoted Kerry from a 1970 interview in which he had said that the only just use of U.S. troops was with a U.N. mandate. Kerry laughed and said that those were the words of a 27-year-old who had just returned from Vietnam and was angry. He promised that no country would have a veto over matters of U.S. security, this despite his statements earlier and later on MTP this morning. Sayeth Kerry: "Multilateralism is no weakness. It's strength."

      Russert displayed the Kerry quote from FTN last September in which the candidate said that he would vote for the $87-billion to fund our troops in Iraq even if Joe Biden's amendment raise taxes to pay for it were defeat. Kerry voted against the $87-billion, though, and today he accused the President of having threatened to veto the measure if it were changed. He is claiming not to know the difference between a tactical veto threat and an actual vote against a measure funding our troops. Russert did not ask Kerry if he voted against the measure because he was among the Democrats at the time who were perceived to be losing the battle for the party's nomination to Howard Dean.

      Kerry reiterated his feeling that the war on terror was primarily one of intelligence gathering, diplomacy, and law enforcement, not military. Even looking at the nuance, which no one is going to do, it was an insane thing to think and say. And it can only hurt him politically.

      Russert quoted Kerry as saying that he would not speak against the war while our troops were in harm's way, as it is bad for cohesion and morale. Kerry said that he stuck to his pledge, did not speak out against the war until after our troops had succeeded in their goal. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. So to Kerry, that banner on the U.S.S. Lincoln was accurate, even though the President said in his speech that there was still a lot of work left to do.

      Russert quoted Kerry in 2000 as saying that the "politics of Florida" were the only reason the boycott against Cuba had not been lifted. Now that he is trying to appeal to Florida's Cuban-American community, Kerry told Russert that the "politics in 2000 were different" than they are today.

      Russert played a clip of a young John Kerry, in military greens, appearing on MTP - April 18, 1971. In the clip, Kerry admitted to personally taking part in the atrocities of war, slaughtering villagers, etc. He condemned his higher-ups for giving the orders. This morning, Kerry laughed and said: "Where did the dark hair go? That's the real question, Tim."

      Kerry said his words were "honest, but they were a little bit over the top." They reflected the anger of the time. He did not like the words he had used, but he insisted he was "honest." Russert did not question him about the individual atrocities in which he claimed to have taken part.

      Addressing the assertion of his commanding officer in Vietnam that Kerry's first Purple Heart award was bogus, Kerry insisted that he was in combat, there was shrapnel, and the Navy thought at the time that he deserved the medal. He told Russert that all of his military records were available to the press at his campaign headquarters, something which Russert appeared not to have known. (It was probably news to all but Kerry.)

      Kerry addressed the claims of several years ago by his wife, Teresa Heinz, that he still has nightmares about Vietnam. Kerry laughed and said that he did not.

      We're still waiting for a definition, and it is questionable if there is anything to define.