November 13, 2003

WHY JOHN KERRY WILL NEVER

WHY JOHN KERRY WILL NEVER BE PRESIDENT: It's not even 2004 yet, but every indication seems to be that John Kerry's presidential campaign is dead in the water, with advisers stepping down left and right, and the junior senator from Massachusetts losing ground rapidly to Howard Dean as well as the other candidates. I'd been trying to put my finger on what exactly was wrong but yesterday, as I ordered lunch, I caught five minutes of the movie "Full Metal Jacket" on the TV in the deli, and it all hit me at once:


Pogue Colonel: Marine, what is that button on your body armor?
Private Joker: A peace symbol, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Where'd you get it?
Private Joker: I don't remember, sir.
Pogue Colonel: What is that you've got written on your helmet?
Private Joker: "Born to Kill," sir.
Pogue Colonel: You write "Born to Kill" on your helmet and you wear a peace button. What's that supposed to be, some kind of sick joke?
Private Joker: No, sir.
Pogue Colonel: You'd better get your head and your ass wired together, or I will take a giant shit on you!
Private Joker: Yes, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Now answer my question or you'll be standing tall before the man.
Private Joker: I think I was trying to suggest something about the duality of man, sir.
Pogue Colonel: The what?
Private Joker: The duality of man. The Jungian thing, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Whose side are you on, son?
Private Joker: Our side, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Don't you love your country?
Private Joker: Yes, sir.
Pogue Colonel: Then how about getting with the program? Why don't you jump on the team and come on in for the big win?

John Kerry, who I don't doubt does love his country, wanted to have it both ways in running for president- to be the war hero who turned against the (Vietnam) War, but remains proud enough of his service to mention it every time he opens his mouth. To be the staunch opponent of the Iraq war, and the "warmongering" of the Bush Administration, who nevertheless voted for the war resolution (but against the money appropriation). To attack Dean for being too anti-war, and Lieberman for being too pro-war…
Every time Kerry gives a speech, he may as well be wearing both the peace pin and the "born to kill" helmet. And instead of having it both ways, he's having it neither way- he hasn't been able to come up with any sort of coherent message, and thus his candidacy is down and out. Because not much of the American electorate buys into "the Jungian" thing- or even knows what it is. At any rate, it doesn’t appear Kerry will "come on in for the big win" anytime soon.
(A footnote: I was in the Copley Square mall in Boston when I first learned of the death of FMJ's director, Stanley Kubrick, in March of 1999. As reported in the Boston Globe earlier this year, Kerry's grandfather committed suicide in the adjacent Copley Plaza Hotel in 1921).

Posted by Stephen Silver at November 13, 2003 08:10 AM
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