The cultural signals were superbly done as well. Kerry’s former boatmate touched on faith and courage and the military, as well as implicitly evoking Kerry as a unifying figure. I lost count of the number of times John Kerry’s possibly future title was described as “commander-in-chief.” We were constantly reminded that Kerry would attack in his aluminum boat, rather than be merely defensive. Jimmy Carter’s speech was one of the best I’ve ever heard from him; and the genius of it was that Carter went against type. He re-introduced himself as a navy veteran, and was most effective mentioning those presidents who had actually been in the military: Eisenhower and Truman, under whom Carter served. Now listen to this passage:
Today — today our Democratic Party is led by another former naval officer, one who volunteered for military service. He showed up when assigned to duty — and he served with honor and distinction. He also knows the horrors of war and the responsibilities of leadership. And I am confident that next January he would restore the judgment and maturity to our government that nowadays is sorely lacking.
Kerry showed up. Kerry is as tough as Bush – but with “judgment and maturity.” And in case you didn’t get the message: “The biggest reason to make John Kerry president is even more important. It is to safeguard the security of our nation.” From a former president, that’s tough stuff; and Carter delivered an attack-speech that was all the more effective for being measured and often damning by mere inference. Less, someone has finally figured out, is more. (Of course, I’m leaving aside here the sheer chutzpah of Jimmy Carter giving anyone lessons on defending this country, or, for that matter, fighting the war on terror. My point is merely that Carter sketched exactly the centrist-conservative narrative that the campaign is obviously trying to portray. And it worked.)
TO THE RIGHT OF BUSH: For the Democrats to run to the right of Bush on the war – while leaving behind the question of whether the war in Iraq was right or not – is their only hope of victory, but also, oddly enough, the most direct path to victory. They also evoked the anxiety many Americans have that, in a time of war, they are so reviled around the world. Americans are prepared to fight alone, but they’d prefer not to. Carter spoke to those anxieties:
After 9/11, America stood proud, wounded but determined and united. A cowardly attack on innocent civilians brought us an unprecedented level of cooperation and understanding around the world.
But in just 34 months we have watched with deep concern as all this good will has been squandered by a virtually unbroken series of mistakes and miscalculations.
If you’re a worried undecided voter, you may nott agree with all that. But you’ll be troubled by enough of it to consider Kerry. And then there was the gut-punch: the indirect use of Bush’s dubious National Guard service. In fact, the way in which the Democrats used the service record of Kerry against Bush was straight out of the Republican playbook. It’s a pretty low blow, and Carter delivered it with a deep thud. When you describe someone as weak on defense and a draft-dodger, you’re usually a Republican. But not this time.
The Dish 