Kerry should have quelled the disturbance from the stage on the microphone by saying, "Officers, please release him immediately!". When the campus police continued wrangling with the student, Kerry should have walked off the stage and approached the police and asked them to please stop. Wouldn't you do it, folks? Forget the politics right now - Isn't it the human thing to do! Some are too afraid to admit to themselves that they would've remained safe and quiet on the stage just like Senator Kerry did. Just because the student was mouthy and obnoxious, he didn't deserve the consequences or Kerry's non-commital loitering. All day long on FOX, we witness mouthy, rude, annoying and hateful idiots, but they never get zapped with 50,000 volts and then removed from our televisions.
The "Slow-Boating" of a Nation
John Kerry spoke in a calm and measured tone into the mic, while a young man was being zapped like a bug at a barbeque. The Senator remained totally professional through the entire event. There comes a time however, when placing ones own profession over the common good looks just like what it actually is. A politician being a parody of a politician.
One set of actions might have won him, and his party, the hearts and minds of America. He could have been UNPROFESSIONAL! He could have ditched the charade for a moment and helped the kid up. He could have stopped this unconstitutional travesty from ever having taken place. He could have been an actual man, even just a human being. But, no, he babbled.
I admit it, I voted for this sloth-like master of making the Democrats look like boneheaded weaklings. He is the "Albatross-In-The-Room" for the Left. We were politically corralled, so he seemed the only alternative at the time. I hoped he would stand up to the thugs. But Dear John threw the fight like a punk. I couldn't believe it. I have subsequently learned HOW TO believe it, however. The guy has done more harm to the Democrats than Karl Rove. Kerry's carefully placed blunders have almost capsized the very boat he was on.
Not career suicide, but party sabotage. Weak-Link Kerry.
The whole time those guys were "Swift Boating" him, Kerry was "Slow Boating" the entire USA. Pacifism does NOT mean allowing bad things to occur right in front of you. He did not stand for the Constitution in that assembly. In that attempt to protect himself, he accidentally revealed himself.
The Senator might even be immortalized one day, when he just grinds to a complete halt and becomes his own statue.
Perhaps, if we had the presence of mind to hit the Nader switch all at once, some things might have turned out far better. But, there's only speculation to weigh against monumental and catastrophic failure, so how can anyone really tell for sure?
Especially, with such even odds...
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"Officers, release him immediately." Yup that'd been about right. BUt, he hadn't rehearsed it. proved once again he wasn't the talking figurehead the Dem's are in need of. No one is available. the very interest in running for the job should disqualify the candidate.
Their really just one party like Overton has said before
"What politician with any name recognition has served the USA well? Dennis Kucinich?"
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Hmmmm. Somebody's REAL scared of Kucinich. Good to know.
Funny how much people say, when they think they're saying something else.
Zapping and piling onto ANYONE for an issue of speech and volume is a Constitutional travesty.
Whether he was a prankster, a pundit or just an angry young man, it makes no difference.
It'd be different if Kerry weren't the one who rolled over and allowed the Monster-Right to ruin the nation.
So it's Kerry's fault that we have been presided over by corporate war-mongering fascists? You are out of your mind.
"So it's Kerry's fault that we have been presided over by corporate war-mongering fascists? You are out of your mind."
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So, you think Kerry HAS served the USA well? Especially as of the last few years. You're satisfied? Who is the one that's out of their mind again?
I don't know what you expect out of the people we elect into office here. What politician with any name recognition has served the USA well? Dennis Kucinich? I mean, where is the bar you hold so high? Kerry is not the statesman he wishes to be. He's not the devil either. He's a career politician who calculates his every move. Or has his moves calculated by someone close to him. Just like every other politician on The Hill. I can put the microscope to any politician on The Hill and come up with something that would outrage you or someone like you. I just don't understand the points you people on here are making about Kerry not intervening with Police action on a 21 year old FSU student. Should he have excused himself to the telephone booth and changed into a superhero to save the day? Kerry isn't the best politician by a long shot and maybe he hasn't done enough to counter the evil of the Bush Admin. And maybe there are 99 other senators who likewise haven't done enough to counter that evil either. The Senate is the problem. Not John Kerry alone.
Kerry could have fought harder then, AND now.
hey guys, I think you are making a huge assumption not borne out by the video or news accounts-- Meyers was not in view of the auditorium while being tasered....the news accounts refer to taking him out. So lets not accuse Kerry and Florida students of being total jerks....Maybe Meyers himself needs to speak up on this and clarify it?!
Well this is certainly part of it. Now try to imagine next year's "inevitable" candidate being any braver, acting any more human...
I agree with all you say, Rick, but sadly it is the whole story now. We don't have any other kind of politician. One honest opponent of the Bushwars in the Senate would be able to stop it. I am not thinking of Mr. Smith. Just one Senator who used everything in his control to do what the young man questioning Kerry tried to do: ask the unaskable questions. We didn't send them there to be nice, but to fight for us. We don't suffer if they are impolite, but when they allow crimes to be done. And the coming crime everyone knows about but none of those war opponents is addressing is the attack on Iran.
Why are we not leaving Iraq like the Iraqis wish and like the American people wish? And who wants the attack on Iran? Not the American people!
And are we truly slaves to that little country which does want it?
Now where are "our" Congressional representatives who will fight for us? Those who say they are anti-war?
The stigma of being "anti-war" follows a politician like an albatross long after the war is done and forgotten. That's why no one in the Democrat Party really wants to stick his/her neck out.
Hate Senator Kerry do we Rick?
Done more to hurt the Democrats than Karl Rove? Oh for heaven sake - that's just idiotic. I'd need way more proof than some campus cops overreacting to a situation involving Senator Kerry that that to believe that statement.
And the reference to Ralph Nader? I'm confused. Ralph didn't run in 2004.
Nader did warn us of a single-source "Two Party System."
You are completely unfair with your claims. There is no reason to expect Kerry to know why the officers were taking the young man down, and he has no right to interfere with the actions of the police in that situation. If what they did was wrong, it would be for the police commission or a court to decide. How could he be certain that the young man was not a wanted fugitive, someone who had made threats by phone, or in some other way was known to the police to be a danger?
You are completely absurd. If Kerry had interfered, and it turned out the man was, eg, armed, he would not only be severely criticized for that, he would be arrested, and with good reason. Short of absolute knowledge that the police were illegally assaulting the young man, (which would be all but impossible in the situation,) he would have no right to attempt to intercede.
Quit being ridiculous, and apologize for such outrageous statements against Kerry. If you disagree with his policies, discuss those. But please, saying such unfounded and unjust things about him only demonstrates your ignorance.
I agree with your assessment. It is not Kerry's place to interfere with police action of any sort for any reason.
I'm failing to see why Kerry is hated on so much. Is it because of the windsurfing? Is it because he's married to one of the richest women in the world? A JFK wannabe? Who doesn't wannabe JFK? Are you nuts?
agreed 100%. as a consituent of his I emailed his office last evening and told them how his actions exemplify todays democratic party, completely and totally impotent.
he had a chance to show leadership and he failed miserably.
John Kerry has been a "wannabee" all his life. He tried to choreograph himself to be like JFK. When he through his wannabee prsedincial elitists bid in, it illuminated what most people in life observe about wannabees: they are not the real deal. Kerry has never had the inherent strength of character, poise, common sense, political savvy, and certainly not the brilliant wit of JFK. He keeps trying to speak for something to make his legacy standout, and he is but it certainly isn't the very good one it could be. He should have called the Nazis off and addressed the young Journalist, and short of that he should have stopped the arrest, that would have shown real class instead of just being born into one.
Have to agree with you. Even his role in the anti-Vietnam crusade seemed to me to be always very studied and calculated. Kerry is the kind of guy that makes you cringe when he says he's on your side.
Kerry isn't too fast on his feet, and that comes from too much advice, and not enough self. That certainly shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who paid attention in 2004.
Will Kerry answer the questions, honestly and fully? At this point in time, that is the only measure we can take of him, and the only response from him that would matter.
This is a cheap shot.
John Kerry sucks, sure. He's a politician and it goes with the territory. But he's not even our worst Senator, let alone the worst politician.
Also, I witnessed him work to help stop one war, and won't take anything away from him now because he was better at it back then.
Look up Philip and Daniel Berrigan. A couple of Catholic Priests who used to break into military places, pour blood around, shit like that. They'd go to jail and start all over.
That's available to you, too. Do that even one time and if you want to say someone else ain't doing enough I'll agree you're entitled. Right now you look like someone who doesn't know any more than anyone else does, and are sharing your opinion just because you have one.
And piling on just because you can.
It's Kerry's constitutional obligation to protect us, not some typist.
It is so very hard to be heard above the screams of some college kid being tazered.
How can Kerry compete with that?
These "so-called leaders" talk big and talk smoothly, and they say whatever their puppet masters think you want to hear. Mr. Kerry even does just that, frequently, right here.
But NOT ONE of them is a leader.
And today, you saw with your own eyes that it was so.
This entire farce of a so-called "election," oh so many months too early, is nothing more nor less than a public show designed to distract you.
These men pacify you with their voice and betray you, to a man, with their voting hand. Their other hand is soaked with blood, and oil, and gold.
It does not matter whether their coat is red or blue. It does not matter if they sit in the White House, in the Senate, in the House, or in the Judiciary. Our Constitution's carefully crafted system of checks-and-balances has been defeated by the simple expedient of corrupting all three Branches at once ... with the promise of unlimited power, brought by the promise of unlimited money, brought by the promise of unlimited oil.
"And there," it would seem, "you have it." "The thing that brought down the United States of America, after a mere 231 years. The thing that made the country turn its face upon every thing that it had once sworn to the world were its guiding principles; an oath that, at one time, the world (and the American people) oh-so-foolishly trusted.
actually, he didn't just babble, he tried to make a joke about how the guy getting arrested for asking a question *was not a Kerry supporter*.
the level of disconnect in this disgusting man boggles the mind. I'm having a hard time describing precisely what kind of disgusting man he is. elitist worm? oafish doofus invertebrate? help me out here.
And you folks actually voted for this guy? The Repubs at least knew exactly what they were getting.
What did you expect Kerry to do?
Kerry like everyone else in that room is a citizen with rights that do not elevate to the level of King. He did the only logical thing; stand back and let the cops handle the offender.
Kerry isn't King, Georgie is King!
Amen. Thanks for cutting to the chase. That's what everyone should notice about that recording.
It's not what he's doing, but what he refuses to do.
BillZBubb:
"...hit the Nader switch" -- I'm afraid I don't get the reference vis a vis Kerry.
The Nader reference here, I believe, is to someone who we KNOW would institute real and meaningful change were he to get into office, rather than maintaining the status-quo, as it seems is usually the case regardless of who gets into office with the current only-two-choices system. One of the biggest problems confronting our democracy today is the corporate stranglehold from which our government refuses to escape, and there can be no doubt that Nader has been most outspoken on this. At least John Edwards has brought this up in his campaign...
Snaggster:
"Amen. Thanks for cutting to the chase. That's what everyone should notice about that recording."
Blaming Kerry for this event seems odd to me. The problem I see with all of this is that we don't seem to know exactly what truly transpired BEFORE the cops got overly-abusive, which they clearly were; I"m not excusing their behavior. But I believe other people were present who also stood by and did nothing, some of whom apparently cheered when the offensive young man was restrained and then removed, and they were in a position to have a clearer understanding of what was occurring than did Kerry.
If Kerry"s perceived pacifism is indicative of anything, I would say it is that he/liberals/Democrats OVER-ESTIMATE the average intelligence of the American population, illicit election procedures in Florida and Ohio (2004) notwithstanding. The assumption that the average American was intelligent enough to engage in critical thinking and to be able to see through the "Swift-Boat", and other Republican chicanery, was the mistake that continues. Case in point, the popularity of FOX "news".
Therein lies the dilemma for at least some liberal politicians: either lower yourself to the "Swift-Boat" level, dragging down the entire national debate with you; or assume, hope, pray, (whatever), that Americans will see the truth and take the appropriate corrective action. It is the proverbial "rock and a hard place", no-win situation.
I don't blame Kerry for anything here. I just would like to have heard him raise his voice, sound like he really meant to intervene, sound like he was alive.
The cheering can also be interpreted different ways. Kerry had droned that he would like to answer the kid's question. Could it not be that they were cheering for him to do that? If they were, it didn't seem to move him. Even if they did just stand by, can you really say that you believe you'd get your skull cracked for that boy?
snaggster,
You and I are in agreement. This is exactly my point -- we DO NOT KNOW, from the accounts we are seeing, what exactly transpired, so it is difficult to make any judgments about the events because the circumstances, where everyone involved was concerned, seem vague at best.
"...hit the Nader switch" -- I'm afraid I don't get the reference vis a vis Kerry.
BillZBubb
"...hit the Nader switch" -- I'm afraid I don't get the reference vis a vis Kerry.
Nader believed and still does, that both parties have been corrupted by a large corporate influence.
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Posted September 18, 2007 | 06:39 PM (EST)