QandO

August 04, 2004

Like Bob Dole
Posted by Dale Franks

Jules Whitcover, the grizzled Baltimore Sun writer, isn't all that impressed with the Kerry campaign's first big tour. He writes that they seem a little flat.

Mr. Kerry, for all his striving, lacks Mr. Clinton's easy rapport with crowds and has a sense of humor and timing that often falls flat.

At a large rally at the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg the other night, for example, Mr. Kerry blurted: "John and I are humbled to be with Ben Affleck," an Academy Award winner many years their junior, while "John and I are honored just to be nominated."

Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards, individually, tried to engage the crowds by chronicling failures of the junior Bush administration and then encouraging them to join in forced chants - Mr. Edwards calling out "Hope is on the way!" and Mr. Kerry modifying it to "Help is on the way!" Neither pitch seemed to much energize the crowds.

Mr. Edwards' new role as second banana on the ticket seemed to take some steam out of the dynamic stump delivery that had fired up primary audiences earlier this year and won him a place on the Democratic ticket.

Kerry is "honored" to be on the stage with Ben Affleck? I guess 'cause Ben has done, you know, so many impressive things in his life. Like, uh, Gigli. Oh, and Paycheck.

You know, actors crack me up. Affleck is the guy who, last week, when describing the things the Democrats need to do to win, made a point of telling reporters how vitally important it was for Democrats to "enervate the base". Now, my copy of Websters tells me that the definition of "enervate" is: To weaken or destroy the strength or vitality of. Maybe Ben just heard someone say "enervate" once, and it sounded so cool and savior faire that he just had to use it in a sentence.

There's a reason why, when actors are out of work, we usually call them "waiters", and it ain't because they are "waiting" for their NASA job applications to go through, if you know what I mean.

This is not to say that being a waiter is demeaning. But it is interesting to note that, when Ben is making several million bucks for Pearl Harbor, reporters flock to hear his oracular wisdom. But, we don't, in general, flock to Denny's to hear Marge from the night shift hold forth on, say, Nuclear Proliferation. Yet, apart from a native skill at pretending to be someone else, Marge's job is about the only other work Affleck is qualified for. So, as long as Affleck can make millions reciting lines of dialogue written by other people¹, we're "honored to be on stage with him."

Or, at any rate, some of us are.

In any event, I suspect Kerry's problem is simply who he is. If you're a wealth, patrician New Englander, it takes a lot more to connect to regular voters than the accompaniment of a down-home, cornpone, southerner. Even hard core democrats might find him a bit hard to warm up to. As Mark Steyn quipped last week, "If it's enervating the base you're after, John F. Kerry would seem to be the perfect candidate."

One gets the sense from Kerry that he's John Kerry, who was, after all, born in the West Wing of the hospital, which means something, you know, signifigant. To me, he exudes a sense of entitlement, an unquestioning recognition that he, in some way deserves to be president. After all, he filled in all the little boxes on his career advancement sheet.

"Military Service...Check. Ooh, medals! Bonus points...Check. Prosecutor; shows I'm tough on crime...Check. Lieutenant governor; gives me executive experience...Check. Senator, national stature...Check. OK, well, I guess I'm all set!"

Not that Kerry is unusual in this, by any means. It is often said that every Senator in Washington DC sees a future president staring at him in the mirror. But with Kerry, there's just something...I dunno, it's hard to put my finger on it.

But it's the same kind of vibe I got from Bob Dole in '96. No clear policy statements, no effort to explain what the shape of a Bob Dole presidency would be like. Just the overriding sense that he was thinking, "I'm Bob Dole, and it's my turn."

I didn't vote for Bob Dole, either.
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¹ Yes, I know all about Good Will Hunting.

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