www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Dr. Krautheimer on Stem Cells and Edward's promise

Good reading

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/charleskrauthammer/ck20041015.shtml

Dan L

Another good one.

Dennis Prager

Why I cannot vote for Kerry

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | For reasons that are more psychological than political, George W. Bush has been the most hated president in memory. The Left has hated him from the beginning because they regarded his election as illegitimate: for the Left, the Florida Supreme Court's decisions on behalf of Al Gore were appropriate, while the U.S. Supreme Court's reversals of the Florida Supreme Court's decisions were inappropriate.


But there are many other reasons for what can fairly be described as a hatred bordering on the hysterical: President Bush claims to make his decisions based on the values informed by his Christian faith; he is a Texas � read "cowboy" � Republican; he has no regard for the gods of the Left � in particular the news media and academia; and most important, he believes the United States is morally superior to the United Nations and therefore fully justified in acting alone at times.


While the Right is not as predisposed to hating fellow Americans as is the Left, many non-Left Americans, while not harboring the hatred for Sen. John Kerry that the Left harbors for George W. Bush, hold John Kerry in low regard and believe that bad things would accompany a John Kerry presidency.


Here is one voter's list:


1. John Kerry was described by Lynne Cheney as "not a good man" after Kerry used the Cheney daughter's sexual orientation to score political points. She may be right. As William Safire writes, "The sleazier purpose of the Kerry-Edwards spotlight on Mary Cheney is to confuse and dismay Bush supporters who believe that same-sex marriage is wrong, to suggest that Bush is as 'soft on same-sex' as Kerry is, and thereby to reduce a Bush core constituency's eagerness to go to the polls." Even the press, Safire notes, has respected Mary Cheney's right to privacy.


2. John Edwards, Kerry's choice as his running mate, is a trial lawyer who has made a fortune suing hospitals. Like many in his profession, he has made America a worse country. However, even more of his character was revealed when he said after the death of Christopher Reeve, "If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again."


As Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Charles Krauthammer, himself wheelchair-bound from paralysis, wrote, "In my 25 years in Washington, I have never seen a more loathsome display of demagoguery. Deliberately, for personal gain, raising false hope in the catastrophically afflicted is despicable. . . . There is no apologizing for Edwards's remark. It is too revealing. There is absolutely nothing the man will not say to get elected."


3. Normally even partisan observers of elections say nothing about the wives of presidential candidates. Aside from propriety � the families of candidates should remain off-limits to political attacks � every wife of every presidential candidate and of every president in living memory has been an asset to the country. It brings me no joy to say that Teresa Heinz Kerry is not worthy of being the first lady of the United States of America. From her public utterances � such as young American men and women dying in Iraq because of American "greed for oil" � and her many years of financial support for radical groups, it is clear to me and many others that this woman does not particularly care for this country. Her primary identity is that of world citizen, and her values are those of France and anti-American Europe.


4. John Kerry represents the Party of Michael Moore. This America-hating Marxist was given a place of honor at the Democratic Party Convention in Boston, seated next to Jimmy Carter, a former Democratic president who said that Moore's Goebbels-like propaganda film "Fahrenheit 9/11" was one of his two favorite films.


5. A vote for John Kerry is a vote for Michael Moore, the ACLU, Ted Kennedy, trial lawyers, George Soros, the leftist academics who morally confuse generations of young Americans, and for Dan Rather, CBS News, and nearly the entire news complex that daily presents a proctologist's view of America. A vote for John Kerry is a vote for Jesse Jackson, whom Kerry has named a top adviser; and for Al Sharpton, with whom Kerry campaigns; for Sean Penn and his Hollywood world; and for the passionately pro-Kerry MTV, the greatest destroyer of young people's minds and souls in American history. And a vote for John Kerry is a vote for the countries that have abandoned us and against the countries that are helping us.


Two unimpressive men have been nominated by the Democratic Party to be president and vice president of the world's greatest country. If they win, this country will, for the first time, begin relinquishing that greatness.

Well at least he gets the quote right.

There is no doubt that Edwards, just after Reeves's death, went over the top rhetorically. But also that such excess is not part of the campaign; it has not been repeated. The crowd that heard this wasn't that great; the false hope issue is a red herring. Indeed more heard this quote, or a faux version of it, from the Republican shills - who are shocked, just shocked by it. Drudge had a racier version of the quote up right away; that version, with reckless disregard for its accuracy, was quickly picked up around the net, including Mark Shea's CAEI. And now, even later, Krauthammer weighs in with his shock - as though anyone would mistake political rhetoric for medical advice.

But note how this issue is played by the Republicans. The pro-life teaching moment is abandoned; their seminal contribution to this research is emphasized; and now the talking point - they'll say anything to be elected.

The Republican governor of CA came out publically in support of the CA initiative to fund research inelligible for NIH funding - new embryos. I had thought this caving-in would not happen until after the election.

djs,

It's nice to see that you are an equal opportunity cynic. You don't trust either party very far. No problem there.

One question: You seem to be able to discern Medical advice from mere political rhetoric in the comments of Charles Krautheimer. Are you also a medical doctor?

Dan L

Despite the noise from both sides, I am going to vote the good old-fashioned American way - by secret ballot. In a few days it will be all over, and whether we are better off, remain the same, or get worse, will become clear. But one thing is true, I haven't seen this much rancor in a campaign since the Goldwater candidacy.

Why, what do you know? I'm voting by secret ballot also. I'm going to hit those hanging chads so hard that no one will mistake my intention. Now where's my hammer...?

Dan L

No, I am not an M.D. Krauthammer refers to his medical training, and his ability to discern hype - extemporaneous or calculated. I don't think much training, however, is required to understand that moment. If Edwards had simply said the we will "begin" rather than "do", the real, unaddressed problem - the life issue - would remain, but the red herring of predation would be moot.

It was rhetorical excess, probably not calculated, as I would expect shrewder calculation. Heard by few until repeated by opponents, with their spin, for their advantage.

Thanks for bringing Prager and his "hate bordering on the hysterical" commentary to the forum.

ROFL I hope we don't have a repeat of the last election's problems in Florida. I have long supported direct election of the President instead of the Electoral College, but doubt it will ever be changed. I think our system doesn't work very well in close elections.