The Boston Globe reports that John Kerry has transformed himself into that most hackneyed of political clichés, the "outsider" candidate, despite having spent the last twenty years in Washington DC. Using the hilarious notion of turning a twenty-year career in the Senate into outsider street cred, Kerry insists on firing up crowds by talking about how Washington ignores the little people:

Gone was his stump speech railing against President Bush's Iraq war policy, the sluggish economy, and the Republican agenda; even mentions of Kerry's Senate career and Vietnam War service had disappeared.

Instead, Kerry -- a veteran politician who has held office for 21 years -- took off his suit jacket and roamed a small stage in Louisiana's Old State Capitol to push a new message: Get angry at Washington.

''Washington seems more and more out of touch with the difficulties the average family is facing," Kerry told the crowd of about 150 last week in Baton Rouge. ''Go out of here, take some anger and a little bit of outrage at the fact that Washington is not dealing with the real concerns of our country."

Six months after his presidential bid ended in defeat, Kerry is on another cross-country campaign. This time, he is running against the political establishment.

Who's he trying to kid? He is the political establishment, and an embodiment of the lackadaisical effort that so many like to lampoon about DC politicians. Prior to the presidential campaign, the longtime protege of the most powerful political family in American history could count his legislative victories on one hand and still stick a pinky finger out from his silver cup at afternoon tea. It's not that Kerry's voice has been lost in the wilderness, either. If Kerry counted the entire list of legislation he'd written and submitted for consideration to the Senate, all he'd need to do would be to pull that pinky back in. For a 20-year career, that shows little evidence of being in touch with anyone's concerns except those of John Kerry.

He's trying to make up for lost time now, primarily by this silly sleight-of-hand of fomenting anger at the Establishment while denying his long and undistinguished membership in it. He also wants to escape responsibility for the terrible campaign he waged and lost against a polarizing George Bush by telling people that he didn't lose the last election -- it was stolen from him:

Although Kerry said he was not in Louisiana to talk about his loss to Bush, the senator was clearly still smarting from the 2004 campaign. He proudly noted that he received 10 million more votes than President Clinton did during his 1996 reelection campaign and suggested that terrorism warnings sounded in the midst of the last campaign may have been exaggerated to help Bush.

''Fight back against the lies, fight back against the distortions," Kerry implored the crowd. ''In the last campaign, there was an unbelievable amount of fear put out there -- 'war on terror, war on terror, war on terror.' How many alerts have we had since the election?"

Kerry insists that he is campaigning only to pass the Kids First bill, not to advance his political career.

Uh-huh.

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry is

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Inside Out, The (New) John Kerry Story:

» Kerry In 2008? from Secure Liberty
Will he run? It shocks me to think so, but his ego is roughly the size of Jupiter, so perhaps he will. Of course, the Boston Globe (a local liberal rag, unworthy of your attention now that Peter Gammons has left) can be counted on for a puff piece no... [Read More]

Tracked on May 9, 2005 9:22 AM

» John Kerry: An Endless Source of Amusement? from The Bernoulli Effect
Maybe we should set the Sandia Lab folks onto the task of seeing whether we could harness the collective mirth generated by each latest pronouncement of John Kerry. We could have an easy source of unlimited energy. Captain's Quarters comments... [Read More]

Tracked on May 9, 2005 12:09 PM

» John Who? from The Loudest Cricket
What's with all the John Kerry posts? I thought this guy lost the election. He won't get the nomination in 2008. I don't think the Democrats are that stupid to nominate a guy who already lost an election to a... [Read More]

Tracked on May 9, 2005 12:58 PM

» John Forbes Perot from Hard Starboard
I wonder if John Kerry will ever get to the point where he can actually see around his ego to look in a mirror and recognize what a self-parody his unrequitable ambitions have made of him. Now the only thing missing is a crewcut and really big ear... [Read More]

Tracked on May 9, 2005 2:59 PM

» No matter how you spin it... from Eclipse Ramblings
If you were elected to the Senate in 1984 and have held the office since then, you are in no way shape or form, a Washington "Outsider". [Read More]

Tracked on May 9, 2005 8:44 PM

» Kerry The Outsider from Powerpundit
John Kerry the "ousider" candidate. Heh.... [Read More]

Tracked on May 9, 2005 9:50 PM

» Kerry's 100 Days from Everyman
It has now been 100 days since John Kerry told us, on Meet The Press, that he would "absolutely" sign the Form SF-180 so that we could all have a look at his complete military records. Although the media has, for the most part, treated that unkept p... [Read More]

Tracked on May 10, 2005 8:31 AM

» Submitted for Your Approval from Watcher of Weasels
First off...  any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here,  and here.  Die spambots, die!  And now...  here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher's Council for this week's vote. Council link... [Read More]

Tracked on May 11, 2005 3:46 AM

» The Council Has Spoken! from Watcher of Weasels
First off...  any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here,  and here.  Die spambots, die!  And now...  the winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Bush: A Solitary Voice For Remembra... [Read More]

Tracked on May 13, 2005 4:08 AM