...in the debate tonight. Remember the scene in the movie Annie Hall, in which people are arguing in a movie theatre lobby about something that Marshall McLuhan said, and Woody Allen, disgusted, pulls the actual Marshall McLuhan out from behind a counter, who informs them that they don't seem to understand his work at all?

When (probably not if) Kerry mentions Paul Bremer, or Charles Duelfur, as supporting his position tonight, it would be great if the president could pull them out of the woodwork, and have them tell Kerry, in front of God and the debate audience, that he doesn't know what he's talking about?

What's interesting about this weirdness (the donkeys trying to impeach Team Bush with its own employees) is that it contains the implication from Democrats that operatives of the Republican party are more trustworthy than their own people.

They're hoping the messages received is: the Nixonian facade is cracking! People from behind the curtain are beginning to reveal the truth! It's the same old tired post-adolescent boomer bullshit.

Frankly, I think it represents more than a little projection. Anyone who's paid the least bit of attention to John Kerry's career (I've followed him since he replaced Tsongas in the Senate twenty-some years ago) knows that he is utterly unlike the image being presented now. The Democratic campaign is hysterical with the urgency of holding together until November 3 the illusion that their guy is something he's manifestly and deeply not. That's why the focus on style -- being "Presidential" -- over substance. God help them if the actual substance leaks out.

It's also one reason they don't object too much to the portrayal of Forbes Kerry as boring or too nuanced to be easily understood. They don't want you to understand him. Just watch the pretty pictures, eh? Nice, presidential bearing. Shiny metals. Virile (windsurfs! bikes!) Handsome sidekick. Intellectual, informed (speaks French! uses very long words!). No need to inquire about what he believes, no need at all. . .

Carl,
So what does Kerry believe?

Rand,
I must admit I have new admiration for Paul Bremer. I didnt think it was possible to type coherently with electrodes attached to your nuts...

The best chance for this might have been in response to the 'The only people here affected by my tax cuts would be you, me, and Charlie there.' line.

500 people, _someone_ else in that room has to make 200k before taxes, and the chances are good that it's precisely the sort of person Bush would want. A doctor with a couple employees, or something else similar. (You aren't going to end up with Bill Gates, Paul Allen, McCaw etc.)

Probably against the rules.

A doctor with a couple of employees? Where do you live, North Dakota? Here in Orange County, you qualify as "working class" (i.e. in need of some kind of gov't assistance for the purpose of buying houses) if your family income is less than $80,000. Which it isn't, very often. Ordinary teachers make $40k, bank assistant managers $75k, technical writers $50k, and if you run a small corporate intranet $90k. If you're in real estate or a lawyer, then of course the sky's the limit. So around here just about every "ordinary" family with two wage-earners and the kind of plain "middle-class" job that requires not much more than a college degree was affected by the Bush tax cuts. A doc with a couple of employees would probably have an office income of half a million.

Which, of course, he'd need to buy a house around here, where the going price is just about $500,000 for a 3BR plain single-family cave.

I'm in Seattle, insane-price-central.

I agree with you, I was painting a worst case. There _had_ to be someone in there affected by Kerry's 'rich tax' beyond Kerry, Bush, and Gibson.

Dunc, the short version is that John Kerry believes in himself, and in his ability to tell the rest of us how to be better liked and nicer.

But more important is what he doesn't believe, and what he doesn't believe in is us. He doesn't believe you and I and the rest of the little people know how to play fair, keep our promises, be nice to each other, earn our daily bread without handouts, or defend ourselves and our family without turning into monsters.

He thinks as a nation we're not to be trusted with nuclear weapons. As soldiers we're not to be trusted with guns around unarmed civilians. We're too terrified of Alzheimer's, old age and death to cope with them unless someone wiser guides us. We don't have the stomach to win any fight that takes more than 60 days, encompasses the occasional tactical error, or involves ugly battlefield death. After seeing our countryman's head cut off with a knife, what we most want to do is get a big hug from someone who cares. When our proud buildings are destroyed and our beloved sons and daughters burnt to death by crazies, the most effective response we can organize on our own is a candlelight vigil. We aren't grown up enough to pay for our own health care. We can't sort out good doctors, automobiles or ideas from bad all by ourselves. We need help. We have no good ideas about how to live and prosper, so we need his. We need him to be our dad, so he can breathe life back into our hamsters and put smiles back on our cute little faces.