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August 3, 2004
The AP Practices Real Journalism On Kerry

In a sign that John Kerry may lose his last bastion of defense -- a sympathetic mass media -- the AP rips Kerry in an analysis of his "secret plan" to increase foreign troops and reduce American presence in Iraq. Ron Fournier writes that Kerry's plan is not only reminiscent of Nixon, but that it's ultimately irrelevant:

John Kerry (news - web sites) says he can "put a deal together" as president to drastically reduce U.S. troop strength in Iraq (news - web sites), a pledge reminiscent of Richard Nixon's secret plan to end the Vietnam War and Dwight D. Eisenhower's promise to stop fighting in Korea.

Like those Republican presidential candidates, the Democrat's blueprint for peace lacks detail and has critics squawking. ... But when asked for hard evidence that his victory would produce a troops-reducing deal for America, neither Kerry nor his fellow senators cite anything other than their vague perceptions and utmost hopes.

Fournier then shows how Foreign-Leader Syndrome (FLS) has escaped the Kerry campaign quarantine and has infected other Democratic partisan hacks like Carl Levin. Yesterday, Kerry invoked Levin and Joe Biden as two people who could verify his assertion that his mere presence would convince countries to act on our behalf despite all evidence that it would be contrary to their own interests (in their perception). Speaking on behalf of his party's faltering standardbearer, Levin gave a half-hearted attempt to agree:

"I'm not going to tell you which foreign leaders, because I'd be breaking the confidence of foreign leaders that I've met," said Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Last spring, Kerry said foreign leaders preferred him to Bush, though he also refused to identify any.

Levin wavered on the question of whether any foreign leader promised to get more involved in Iraq if Kerry wins. "It seems to be that's the basic implication," he said at first.

But has any leader made a commitment?

No, he replied.

So Carl Levin wants us to trust him and John Kerry that foreign leaders prefer him over George Bush and that they'd start shipping troops by the thousands to Iraq and anywhere else we need just as soon as we elect him. However, none of them have actually said they'd do this ... it's just that Levin and Kerry can feel the vibe, man. Even Joe Biden seems a bit out of the vibe loop:

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., a top Kerry adviser, thinks Kerry could sway allies better than the president, said spokesman Norm Kurz. But that's only hypothetical — "I don't think there's a guarantee," he said.

In other words, it's complete drizzly horse patooties, a point Fournier hammers home in a venue where Kerry would expect more sympathetic treatment. Not only does Fournier expose the spreading FLS in the Democratic Party, but then also destroys Kerry's assertion that his four-year plan will significantly reduce American troop presence in Iraq. Fournier quotes an Iraq expert and former aide to John McCain -- Kerry's first choice for VP -- giving out the common sense so absent from the Kerry campaign and his apologists:

Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Kerry's plan assumes too much.

"Nobody is going to bail us out of our responsibilities in this conflict," said Cordesman, former adviser to Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz. "It is not a matter of who is the president at this point. There simply won't be any international support for a country like France or Germany to do it."

Furthermore, he said the insurgency is either going to be contained in the next year or the American public will demand an end to the occupation. Either way, there will be a significant reduction in U.S. troops within four years.

Thus, Kerry's plan "borders on being irrelevant," Cordesman said.

Fournier reveals Kerry to be nothing more than an empty suit on Iraq, pronouncing secret plans to deliver nothing different than what George Bush already has done, and insinuating that heads of state around the world will abandon negotiating with the US if Kerry is not elected. Not only is that ridiculous on its face -- the US is the most dynamic economic market in the world, for one thing -- but it speaks to a hint of narcissism and megalomania that hearkens back to Nixon, along with Kerry's secret plan. Most damaging of all, Fournier's shot across the bow of the Kerry campaign may signal that some of the mainstream media has had enough of the empty-suit campaign and may start taking their Kerry coverage seriously -- and that will be very, very bad news for the Kerry/Edwards ticket.

Sphere It Digg! View blog reactions
Posted by Ed Morrissey at August 3, 2004 7:07 AM

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