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September 17, 2004Kerry's mistakeKerry ought to admit that he made a mistake in voting for the Iraq War. Get it over with. "Yes, I made a mistake, and I can admit it. The mistake was, Mr. President, believing you." Now, the truth is that Kerry voted for the war out of a craven desire to take the issue off the table back when the war was popular, seemed like it might be short, and could have turned up WMD's. So, it was a CYA vote. And simultaneously Kerry tried to cover his ass for his CYA vote by saying he was voting for it only to give Bush the big dick, um, stick, he needed to intimidate Saddam. So, this is a low point in Kerry's political career. But, still not as low as the Commander in Chief's lying to trick us into starting war. As some columnist said a long time ago, the reason Bush's opposition looks like a bunch of damn flippity-floppers is that they made the mistake of believing Bush...on the war, on No Child's Behind Left Unspanked, even on compassionate conservativism. So: "I made the mistake of believing you, Mr. President. But, unlike your administration, the American people learns from its mistakes." Posted by David Weinberger at September 17, 2004 11:09 AM | TrackBackComments
David, I agree that Kerry should stop defending his vote. Many of us who followed the primaries knew that that vote would be a major problem for his campaign. But my biggest concern is that he doesn't seem to be communicating a hopeful vision for the future--not in terms of specific plans, but in terms of a larger coherent vision that focuses on our strengths, rather than on our fears or on compensation for past failures. If he could do that, I think there'd be no question about who would win this election. Posted by: Elissa at September 18, 2004 11:33 AMI actually agree with both David W, and Elissa. Showing that he has the humility and courage to admit he made a mistake: 1] Shows that he is very different from the fearful pretender who can never be wrong but almost always is; 2] Is the first step, the foundation step, to creating a vision of the future based upon strength, confidence, innovation and the courage to learn from our inevitable mistakes. Why do I say "inevitable mistakes"? Simply because I believe perfect knowledge is impossible for us mere mortals. Our imperfect knowledge makes it inescapable that we will always make mistakes. The strong admit them and learn from them. The weak deny them and enter a vicious cycle of ever greater mistakes in a vain attempt to cover over earlier mistakes. Posted by: Jock Gill at September 19, 2004 10:09 AMWe do need a "New Frontier", "City on a Hill", "New Deal" from Kerry. Oh, wait! He's already done it! The "Real Deal" (vs. Bush's Raw Deal). It includes vision statements, principles he believes in, an action plan for his administration's first 100 days in office. It's been documented on his web site for 9 months. So we don't have a problem with the candidate. We have a problem with memetics. When even his supporters don't know it even exists (let alone what it says), it's a solid communication failure. Don't sweat The Message. Sweat the Envelope and the Couriers. Posted by: Phil Wolff at September 20, 2004 8:12 PMPost a comment
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