Mickey Kaus opines that Peggy Noonan “has done the Democrats a big favor by coming up with [a winning message for Kerry]. The message is that America wants a respite from all the headstrong history-making of the past four years.” Noonan argues in her recent WSJ column that
The American people may come to feel that George W. Bush did the job history sent him to do. He handled 9/11, turned the economy around, went into Afghanistan, captured and removed Saddam Hussein. And now let’s hire someone who’ll just by his presence function as an emollient. A big greasy one but an emollient nonetheless. I just have a feeling this sort of thing may have some impact this year. “A return to normalcy,” with Mr. Kerry as the normal guy.
I agree – but then I wrote something almost identical last February in Time:
Here’s what a really smart Democratic contender could say to the president this fall: “Thank you, Mr president, for your leadership in difficult times. You took some tough decisions and we are safer as a result. But the very qualities that made you a perfect pick for the war so far are the very ones that make you less effective from now on. You are too polarizing a figure to bring real peace to Iraq. You are too unpopular to allow European governments to cooperate fully in the attempt to hunt down terrorists. And your deep unpopularity in half the country makes it impossible for you to make the necessary compromises that the country needs domestically. Thanks for all you’ve done, but bye-bye.”
And two weeks ago, I wrote in the Sunday Times in London:
Americans, moreover, are somewhat drained. War is a terrifying and enervating thing. The fear of annihilation at any moment at the hands of terrorists with WMDs is a difficult thing to live with – and, fairly or unfairly, they associate this fear with the Bush administration. The soothing dullness of a Boston Brahmin can appear somewhat attractive in contrast.
No I’m not saying anyone is copying anyone else – these ideas are common enough, framed differently, etc. But it seems to me that Noonan didn’t “come up with” this scenario for the Dems. I saw it coming months ago. Kerry, of course, is far too politically stupid to play this card, even passively.
THE RACISM OF RALL: I guess he needs more attention. But Ted Rall’s latest cartoon depicts his revenge fantasy on Condi Rice. She defends herself thus: “I was Bush’s beard! I was his House Nigga!” Her prison guard (in the fantasy, various members of the Bush administration are treated the way Saddam now is) then tells her: “You’re not white, stupid. Now hand over your hair straightener.” And she is sent to “Inner City Racial Re-education Camp.” If a white right-winger ever said such things about a black woman, do you think he would still be syndicated? And celebrated?
The Dish 