John Kerry is His Own Best Enemy

There's an eruption going on here somewhere.

All hell is breaking loose in America. Florida has been incessantly ravaged by hurricanes for the past month, California's tectonic plates are having a point of contention once again, Mount St. Helens is blowing its top and John Kerry is ahead in the public opinion polls.

Seizing on the opportunity to first agree before disagreeing with himself, John Kerry ended the first presidential debate of 2004 looking like a winner. How did he ultimately accomplish this? By attacking his own weaknesses better than George W. More specifically he had to become more like George Bush. He appeared resolute, determined, authorative...presidential. No flipping and/or flopping.

Yet things haven't always been this rosy for John Kerry.

The Bush campaign has been having a field day the past few months pointing out John Kerry's inconsistencies; with little to no counter from Kerry's side. The best attack the Kerry campaign has been able to muster is bringing up W's service record, and we all saw how that blew up in Dan Rather's face. What John Kerry should have learned from the Swift Boat Veterans fiasco is that the best way to beat someone is to turn their strengths into weaknesses: Kerry is a decorated Vietnam veteran; fact, he didn't deserve his metals, was a horrible Swift Boat Captain (re: poor leader) and probably was an agent for the Vietcong. John Kerry is a seasoned veteran of the Senate that opposed the war in Iraq; fact, he is out of touch with mainstream America, "flip flop's" on important issues and most likely brokered the deal between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.

John Kerry may feel like the golden child after what he accomplished on Thursday, but he ultimately didn't fully utilize the George W. Bush attack method. He may have defended himself deftly, but he didn't take the president's strengths and turn them against him. If George Bush is decisive, then why isn't he single-minded? If George Bush is resolute, then why isn't he recklessly unyielding? So far the Kerry campaign has conceded to us that President Bush made the wrong decision at the wrong time; because he is unwilling to compromise, why doesn't he make the worst decisions all of the time, without afterthought?

Even if the Kerry campaign eventually moves toward implementing George Bush's proven attack technique, he still lacks one definitive Bush quality that he can never obtain, humanity. At the end of the day, most Americans believe that President Bush is more like them than John Kerry will ever be. Say what you want about utilizing empathy as a requirement for electing a president, but with two questionable candidates on the ballot, it's hard to reason why not.