why is John Kerry "Electable"?

Take away his Vietnam War record and medals, etc, what has he done? He hasn't really distinguished himself as a Senator. He has sponsored no major legislation. He even has a piss-poor voting attendance. When he does show up he's rather inconsistent. He voted against the first Gulf War, when it pretty damn justifiable and obvious as to why we went in. But he voted for the latest Iraq war, based on the same intel the President was looking at,. He stated, based on that intel, that Hussein had the weapons and stockpiles that everyone knew/thought/agreed he had. But when things started to get a little rough over there he chickened out and voted against funding a continuation of the effort.



Not only that, but he was in favor of the nuclear freeze in the 80's. This is the same movement that, had they gotten their way, the Soviet Union would likely still be in existence. This movement was based on the idea that the US is the problem, that our country needed to back down and let the Soviets have their way because that communist evil empire was morally equivalent to ours. It was just a "different system," no better, no worse. Well, history shows that they were wrong on the most important issue of the day. John Kerry was wrong. He was in favor of that appeasement, and he's in favor of appeasing on the issue of terrorism. Today it appeared that Kerry was in favor granting the United Nations the veto power over our troop movement. He said, "I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations." He railed against Howard Dean for saying the same thing just last month. Who is the real John Kerry. So maybe he's changed his views since 1970. But maybe he's just being politically expedient.



He's also changed his views on the death penalty. He's still against the death penalty for people in this country who commit atrocious crimes, but apparently, he now thinks that the death penalty is appropriate for terrorists. Contrast this with the views he held in 1996 when he voted against the death penalty for terrorists. I can see why he has now changed, you know 9-11 and all, but it again strikes me as political expediency, considering he still doesn't support the death penalty for home grown murderers. He's just a Mass liberal with a voting record that mirrors Ted Kennedy. The only different between the two, besides botox, is that Kerry will jump in the water to save a victim from drowning, as he did in Nam, and Kennedy will jump out of the water to save his own ass and leave the victims in the water. Other than that....



Anyway, my point is that, yeah, Kerry was a distinguished war record, but has nothing to distinguish himself since then. If he ran only on his Vietnam service, it wouldn't be enough to get elected president, and if he ran just on his service since then, it certainly would be enough and wouldn't make him an attractive general election candidate. Finally, his Vietnam service, though commendable, does cover up his record as a pretty average (at best) Senator and won't cover up for the fact that he's wrong on the issues, when he can make up his mind.