Click Here

Visit Bloomberg.com to get all the news, commentary and context you need. Content,video, alerts and podcasts. Online exclusives now available.

CATEGORIES
ARCHIVES
Look Who's Linking to PoliBlog:
3cx.org
Absinthe and Cookies
Accidental Verbosity
Admiral Quixote's Roundtable
All Day Permanent Red
All Things Jennifer
Ann Althouse
The American Mind
Arguing with signposts
Arms and influence
The Astute Blogger
Asymmeterical Information
Attaboy
augustus
B-Town Blog Boys
BabyTrollBlog
Backcountry Conservative
Balloon Juice
Bananas and Such Begging to Differ
The Bemusement Park
Benedict
Bewtween the Coasts
Betsy's Page
The Big Picture
BipolarBBSBlog
BIZBLOGGER
bLogicus
Blogs for Bush
The Blog of Daniel Sale
BoiFromTroy
Boots and Sabers
brykMantra
BushBlog
The Bully Pulpit
Cadillac Tight
Caffeinated Musing
California Yankee
Captain's Quarters
Chicago Report
Chicagoland of Confusion
Citizen Smash
Coldheartedtruth
Collected Thoughts
The Command Post
Common Sense and Wonder
Confessions Of A Political Junkie
The Conservative Philosopher
Conservative Revolution
Conservative and Right
Cranial Cavity
The Daily Lemon
Daly Thoughts
DANEgerus Weblog
Dart Frog on a Cactus
Dean's World Dear Free World
Brad DeLong
Democracy Project
DiVERSiONZ
The Disagreeable Conservative Curmudgeon
Down to the Piraeus
Drink this...
Earl's log
Earthly Passions
The Education Wonks
the evangelical outpost
exvigilare
Eye of the Storm
Feste
Filtrat
Firepower Forward
The Flying Space Monkey Chronicles
The Friendly Ghost
FringeBlog
Fruits and Votes
Functional, if not decorative
G-Blog.net
The Galvin Opinion
The Glittering Eye
Haight Speech
Half-Bakered
The Hedgehog Report
Heh. Indeed.
Hellblazer
Hennessy's View
High Desert Skeptic
The Hillary Project
History and Perceptions
Robert Holcomb
I love Jet Noise
Idlewild South
Incommunicado
Independent Thinker
Insults Unpunished
Interested-Participant
Internet Ronin
Ipse Dixit
It Can't Rain All The Time...
The Jay Blog
Jen Speaks
Joefish's Freshwater Blog
John Lemon
johnrpierce.info blog
Judicious Asininity
Jump In, The Water's Fine!
Just On The Other Side
KeepinItReal
A Knight's Blog
The Kudzu Files
LeatherPenguin
Let's Try Freedom
LibertarianJackass.com
Liberty Father
Life and Law
David Limbaugh
LittleBugler
Locke, or Demosthenes?
LostINto
Mad Minerva
Gary Manca
Mark the Pundit
Mediocre but Unexciting
memeorandum
Mental Hiccups
Miller's Time
Mind of Mog
Minorities For Bush
Mr. Hawaii
The Moderate Voice
The Modulator
Much Ado
Mungowitz End
My opinion counts
my thoughts, without the penny charge
My Word
mypetjawa
Naw
Neophyte Pundit
Neutiquam erro
New England Republican
NewsHawk Daily
neWs Round-Up
NixGuy.com
No Pundit Intended
Nobody asked me, but...
Obsidian Wings
Occam's Toothbrush
On the Fritz
On the Third Hand
One Fine Jay
Out of Context
Outside the Beltway
Suman Palit
Parablemania
Passionate America
Brian Patton
Peaktalk
Pelicanpost
Peppermint Patty
Phlegma
John Pierce
PiratesCove
Politicalman
The Politicker
The Politburo Diktat
Political Annotation
Political Blog For The Politically Incorrect
Possumblog
Power Politics
Powerpundit.com
Practical Penumbra
Priorities & Frivolities ProfessorBainbridge.com
Prof. Blogger's Pontifications
Pros and Cons
protein wisdom
PunditFilter
Pundit Heads
QandO
The Queen of All Evil
Quotes, Thoughts, and other Ramblings
Ramblings' Journal
Random Acts of Kindness
Random Nuclear Strikes
Ranting Rationalist
Read My Lips
Reagan Country
Red State Diaries
Jay Reding.com
A Republican's Blog
Resource.full
The Review
Rhett Write
Right Side of the Rainbow
Right Wingin-It
Right Wing News
Right Voices
Rightward Reasonings
riting on the wall
robwestcott
Rooftop Report
RoguePundit
The Sake of Argument
Sailor in the Desert
Scrappleface
Secular Sermons
Sha Ka Ree
Shaking Spears
She Who Will Be Obeyed!
The Skeptician
The Skewed
Slant/Point.
Slobokan's Site O' Schtuff
small dead animals
Sneakeasy's Joint
SoCal Law Blog
A Solo Dialogue
Solomonia
Some Great Reward
Southern Musings
Speed of Thought...
Spin Killer
Matthew J. Stinson
A Stitch in Haste
Stop the ACLU
The Strange Political Road Trip of Jane Q. Public
The Strata-Sphere
Stuff about
Suman Palit
SwimFinsSF
Target Centermass
Templar Pundit
The Temporal Globe
Tex the Pontificator
Texas Native
think about it...
Tiger
Tobacco Road Fogey
Toner Mishap
Tony Talks Tech
The Trimblog
Truth. Quante-fied.
Twenty First Century Republican
Unlocked Wordhoard
Use The Forks!!
Ut Humiliter Opinor
Varifrank
VietPundit
Vista On Current Events
VodkaPundit
Vox Baby
Jeff Vreeland's Blog
Wall of Sleep
Weapons of Mass Discussion
Who Knew?
The Window Manager
Winning Again!
WizBang!
WizBang Tech
The World Around You
The Yin Blog
You Big Mouth, You!
Zygote-Design
Non-Blogs Linking to PoliBlog:
Sunday, January 30, 2024
An Interesting Juxtaposition
By Dr. Steven Taylor @ 2:29 pm

For whatever reason, John Kerry is the other big story today, mostly because he was the main guest on MTP, causing a great deal of blogospheric reactions. This strikes me as an interesting juxtaposition to the Iraqi election story.

There is also an interesting story from Bloomberg in which George Soros criticized the Kerry candidacy: Soros Says Kerry’s Failings Undermined Campaign Against Bush

Billionaire investor George Soros, the biggest financial contributor to the failed effort to defeat President George W. Bush in November’s election, said Democratic challenger John Kerry was a flawed candidate.

Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, spent $26 million in last year’s campaign that he said was undermined by the candidate he supported.

“Kerry did not, actually, offer a credible and coherent alternative,'’ Soros, 74, said yesterday in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “That had a lot to do with Bush being re-elected.'’

Indeed.

Update: Stephen Bainbridge has some apt comments on Soros.

(Note: all quotes below from today’s MTP).

I was struck by his response to today’s news out of Iraq, as it struck me as disingenuous:

MR. RUSSERT: Election day, Iraq. Condoleezza Rice, the new secretary of State, has just told the United States and the world, “It has gone better than expected.” What is your sense?

SEN. KERRY: I think it’s gone as expected.

That may well be the case, but I honestly find it very difficult to believe that he thought that turnout would be high and that violence would be low.

Generically, his capacity for being on both sides of an issue in a given response continues to amaze me. In regards to Senator Kennedy’s speech this week, Russert asked the following:

MR. RUSSERT: Specifically, do you agree with Senator Kennedy that 12,000 American troops should leave at once?

SEN. KERRY: No.

MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe there should be a specific timetable of withdrawal of American troops?

SEN. KERRY: No.

MR. RUSSERT: What would you do?

SEN. KERRY: I understand exactly what Senator Kennedy is saying, and I agree with Senator Kennedy’s perceptions of the problem and of how you deal with it. I would–in fact, last summer, if you’ll recall, I said specifically that if we did the things that I laid out–the training, the international community, the services and reconstruction, and the elections and protection–we could draw down troops and begin to withdraw them. I think what Senator Kennedy is saying–and here I do agree with him–is that it is vital for the United States to make it clear that we are not there with long-term goals and intentions of our presence in the region. I agree with Senator Kennedy that we have become the target and part of the problem today, if not the problem. Now, obviously, you’ve got to provide security and stability in order to be able to turn this over to the Iraqis and to be able to withdraw our troops, so I wouldn’t do a specific timetable, but I certainly agree with him in principle that the goal must be to withdraw American troops.

Ok, he initially says that he doesn’t agree with any of Kennedy prescriptions, but then goes on to state that he largely agrees with Kennedy.

Yes, I see the distinction he is making, but it still has that typical Kerry formulation of saying yes and no in the same answer. It is problem that he needs to address if he has any aspirations of running in 2024 (which seems to be the case). Of course, I don’t think he will ever be able to overcome it, however.

Same thing here—Rice is qualified to be SecState, but she isn’t:

MR. RUSSERT: But you voted against Condoleezza Rice to be secretary of state. That’s not finding common ground. She is qualified to hold that job, no?

SEN. KERRY: Yes, and I said so. But I also said that she was a principal architect, implementer and defender of a policy that has made the United States of America less secure in the world. And that was a fight that was central to my campaign. It is central to what I think is one of the major issues that faces our country. And I think it’s important to have accountability. I paid her a great tribute for her journey of life. I mean, I think she’s a remarkable person. And I think she’s obviously accomplished a great deal. But I wasn’t voting on whether she was just qualified. I was voting on the judgments that she brought to the table. I was voting on the answers that she gave us in committee. And I was voting on the vision that she offered to the country. And I found all three, frankly, faulty.

MISC OBSERVATIONS

  • There is no doubt in my mind that he is planning on running again in 2024, despite the fact that he claims to not be thinking about 2024 at all.
  • Kerry stated his generic support for Dean for DNC Chair. He also praised the job did by McAuliffe.

Some blogospheric reactions to the interview:

  • Ann Althouse’s response to the interview squares pretty evenly with my overall impression:
    The Kerry interview on today’s “Meet the Press” is exactly what you would expect. There are many of the familiar lines from the campaign, including the repeated assertion that he had a better way to handle things in Iraq. Now, success in Iraq depends entirely on the “four-point plan,” which he (he says) articulated precisely and clearly during the campaign and which still applies.

  • Michelle Malkin notes the Russert-Kerry interchange over the SwiftVets business.
  • Powerline addresses the same issue.
  • PoliPundit: Sourpuss Kerry
  • Captain’s Quarters: John Kerry’s Tone Deafness Continues.
  • Mark Griffith, a.k.a. Political Man notes the following quote from Betsy Newmark:
    Hmmmm. Whom would you rather watch on the Sunday shows? John Kerry explaining how the President should have listened to his four-point plan to Tim Russert? Or Condi Rice talking about the Iraqi elections while wearing some high heeled, kick a** black leather boots?

    Indeed.

  • Update:: Jim Geraghty of NRO’s Kerry Spot e-mails to note he has a post on today’s MTP performance as well. Amongst several salient observations he hits the nail on the head as to why the booking of Kerry on today’s show had such an odd feel (at least to me):
    The Kerry Spot on National Review Online
    You are no longer the Democratic presidential nominee and the face, and most important voice, of your party anymore, Senator. You’re just the junior senator from Massachusetts.

    Exactly right.

  • Bryan S. asks: “Where’s someone who can talk about TODAY?!”. Indeed.
Filed under: US Politics | |Send TrackBack

Truth. Quante-fied. linked with A Bright New Day in Iraq

3 Comments »

  • el
  • pt
    1. A Bright New Day in Iraq
      John Kerry on the Iraq Election: “It is hard to say that something is legitimate when whole portions of the country can’t vote and doesn’t vote.” Gee, you think somebody’s a little bitter? PoliBlog has more.

      Trackback by Truth. Quante-fied. — Sunday, January 30, 2024 @ 2:27 pm

    2. Contrast Kerry’s reaction to the Kennedy statements with those of Joe Biden, who was on “Face The Nation.” Biden said Kennedy was “gravely wrong” or something to that effect, and that his comments were very mistaken, essentially agreeing with Sen. Luger, who was also on the panel.

      Comment by bryan — Sunday, January 30, 2024 @ 5:03 pm

    3. When Kerry was talking about how the administration’s actions over the next couple days were it’s “last chance” to get it right, it occurred to me how applicable those words were to the Democratic party.

      If the Democrats want to have a chance to of being viewed positively by mainsteam Americans, they will have to distance and denounce the words of the likes of Kerry, Kennedy, and Boxer.

      This very well could be their last chance to do so. If they don’t, all Democrats will be tainted by their words for a long time.

      Comment by OhioVoter — Sunday, January 30, 2024 @ 6:14 pm

    RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

    The trackback url for this post is: http://poliblogger.com/wp-trackback.html?p=6048

    NOTE: I will delete any TrackBacks that do not actually link and refer to this post.

    Leave a comment



    Blogroll


    Visitors Since 2/15/03
    ---

    PoliBlog is the Host site for:

    A TTLB Community


    Advertisement

    Marketing cars
    Office Linebacker
    Baseball Shopping
    Business Phones
    Online Banking
    Advertisement


    Powered by WordPress