John Kerry and Terry McAuliffe political cartoon.
It’s no secret. Sen. John Kerry’s campaign stump
speeches are boring. Reporters write about
it, late night talk show hosts joke about it, and
no doubt Democratic National Party Chairman Terry
McAuliffe stews about it.
Here are a few odes to the Kerry stump problem we’ve collected:
“John Kerry has a new 757 jet to use while he campaigns for president... did
you see it on the news? This is a really cool plane. In the event that Kerry
starts speaking, oxygen masks fall from the ceiling to keep people awake.”
– Jay Leno.
“He is a wooden campaigner...” – writes
Newsweek’s chief political correspondent Howard Fineman.
“Senator and Presidential candidate John Kerry has been criticized for
his cold, wooden demeanor and uninspired message...” -- Adam Nagourney,
New York Times.
“Kerry has been tagged a wooden Al Gore clone” – New York Metro
Magazine.
“Kerry sits onstage in a row of veterans, several of whom speak on his
behalf. My eyes wander across the row and come to rest, with familiar
incredulity, on the wooden guy in the white shirt. Of all the guys in this
row, can you believe this is the one running for president?” –
William Saletan, Slate’s chief political correspondent. [LINK
to full article, “The Thin Man” Sept. 2, 2003]
“Cleland lights up the crowd with zingers, plain talk, and more
animation than Kerry can manage with four limbs. While Cleland works his
magic, Kerry sits expressionless behind him, squinting and repeatedly
touching various parts of his hair to make sure they're in place. They're
fine, but Kerry seems terribly anxious that somewhere, somehow, a hair is
out of place....” – William Saletan.
“Much of Kerry's problem is superficial. He's as stiff as a GI Joe. He's
infatuated with the 1960s. He keeps talking about "our generation" to an
electorate that is no longer of his generation. He speaks the language of
the Kennedys, which now sounds flowery and phony. He adorns his prose with
words like "lavish" and "astonishing." He calls the audience "my fellow
Americans." He tells them he's "honored to join you in this endeavor." For
the thousandth time, he begins a sentence with the pointless preface, "And I
say to you today …" At another point, he proclaims, "Let me put it plainly:
If Americans aren't working, America's not working." This is what audiences
always have to wade through to get at whatever it is Kerry is trying to say:
Nuggets of nothing, wrapped in pretentious rhetoric, compounded by the
pretense of plain speaking.” –
William Saletan.