July 08, 2004

Kerry's House of Ketchup #17

Welcome to the greatest political linkfest since...well ever! But enough of the lack of modesty there is news to cover.

The most exciting story surrounding Sen. John Kerry's campaign is the selection of Sen. John Edwards as his running mate. It's Kerry Edwards, the John-John/bad soap opera actor ticket.

Mustard is seen as the accompaniment to ketchup but I've been unable to make a Edwards-mustard connection. Carolina barbecue uses a vinegar-based sauce that doesn't resemble mustard. Edwards doesn't sport mustard-blond hair (although Kerry quipped that the Democratic ticket tops the Republicans in the coif category). Edwards isn't the more sour of the two so there goes that angle. If you can figure out an Edwards-mustard link that's funny but not stupid (tough to do as shown by my linkfests) let me know. I may need to make a new logo.

After all the swooning over the Edwards pick hopefully the media will see the abortion problem Edwards and Kerry both have. Kerry told an Iowa newspaper that he believes human life begins at conception but "can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist."

Boston Globe columnist, Eileen McNamara took Kerry to task. She understands a pro-life activist better than the Democratic Presidential candidate.

So, Kerry's conscience is not at odds with church teaching, just with his voting record? By any measure, that is an odd definition of conscience. Forget church teaching for a moment. Conscience is a moral concept, as well as a religious one, after all. If you believe that life begins at conception, doesn't your conscience compel you to vote in concert with that belief? Just as, if your conscience tells you capital punishment is state-sanctioned murder, you would vote against the death penalty? Or if you believe that gay marriage is a fundamental civil right, you would vote against a constitutional amendment to ban it?

Edwards' abortion problem comes from a winning trial 19 years ago where he stood "before a jury and channeled the words of an unborn baby girl." Two NY Times reports went on to describe Edwards' closing argument:

Referring to an hour-by-hour record of a fetal heartbeat monitor, Mr. Edwards told the jury: "She said at 3, `I'm fine.' She said at 4, `I'm having a little trouble, but I'm doing O.K.' Five, she said, `I'm having problems.' At 5:30, she said, `I need out.' "

But the obstetrician, he argued in an artful blend of science and passion, failed to heed the call. By waiting 90 more minutes to perform a breech delivery, rather than immediately performing a Caesarean section, Mr. Edwards said, the doctor permanently damaged the girl's brain.

"She speaks to you through me," the lawyer went on in his closing argument. "And I have to tell you right now — I didn't plan to talk about this — right now I feel her. I feel her presence. She's inside me, and she's talking to you."

For Edwards, did the unborn only speak through him then, or do they still cry out to him now? Does he believe like he appears to have in 1985 that the unborn can feel pain and suffer in the womb, or was it just a cynical plucking of a jury's emotional heartstrings?

Big media may not dig into this issue specifically, but Reason's Charles Paul Freund thinks Edwards' "media bubble is bursting."

Since Election Day is still too far away, polls don't really matter. However, I want to point out that despite Wisconsinites low rating of Bush's efforts in Iraq he leads Kerry by 4%. (That's within the margin of error.) At the Iowa Electronic Markets the Edwards pick moved Kerry even with Bush for a day in the Winner Take All Market. Bush then bounced back ahead of Kerry. In the Vote Share Market the spread between Kerry and Bush has narrowed but not as much as in late May.

Now, onto the links.

• John Cole isn't excited by the Edwards pick (if he was Bush would be in a whole lot of trouble) and would have preferred Sam Nunn. For Cole, Edwards doesn't solve Kerry's main problem: "NO new ideas."
  

• Kerry better get asked often why he thinks Edwards is qualified enough to be one step away from the Presidency but didn't think Edwards was qualified to be President during the primaries.
  

• One half of Kerry Edwards may have the initials JFK, but to the Neophyte Pundit the ticket is "anti-Kennedy in many ways."
  

• The Viking Pundit sees the pick as politics over substance. He then stumbles upon a good slogan: "John Kerry is an unserious candidate during serious times."
  

• I hope Rush Limbaugh doesn't use this lame campaign slogan much.
  

• Stephen Green links to a Dick Morris column where he suspects Edwards may have campaign finance issues.
  

• One Fine Jay thinks that Kerry made a mistake. Edwards is "a sweet poison that will slowly shut him down as time slowly and excruciatingly passes by, sapping the identity and strength off of Kerry until it will seem that it is John Edwards running for president."
  

• Edwards' work in "helping the little guy" by suing doctors in cerebral palsy cases has ended up increasing malpractice premiums that increase health care costs and hurt the "little guy."
  

• I should like John Edwards as The Breck Girl. He is pretty...too pretty. But who even remembers what Breck is anymore?
  

• Kerry is opposed to illegal immigrants getting drivers licenses. Michelle Malkin calls this a "Sister Souljah moment."
  

• By opposing the Northeast Milk Compact, Kerry is pandering to Wisconsin--a state he needs to win--and taking the Northeast for granted. Smart move since there's no way states like Vermont will go to Bush.
  

• Paul at Wizbang thinks the abortion comment typifies Kerry's approach to all issues.
  

• Kerry wants more troops but opposes the Pentagon's efforts to get experienced ones. This is a flip-flop in mid-thought. It might even be a new record for him. James Joyner then fisks Kerry's Washington Post op-ed.
  

  
  Robert Garcia Tagorda read the same op-ed and writes, "So the administration has done just about everything that Kerry wanted. Yet he's moving the goalposts without properly acknowledging our progress. That's not fair, is it?"
  

• The Vatican doesn't want the Catholic Kerry to receive communion. U.S. Bishops decided to let local bishops make that decision.
  

• McQ doesn't think Kerry is a traitor and harps on those who think he is.

• W Ketchup. Nice idea, but it looks like a bottle of Hunt's with a patriotic label slapped on it. I'm sticking with Heinz.
  

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[Thanks go to the John F. Kerry Media Relations Center for the Sen. Zoop's "voice." Cheap gimmick not endorsed by Glenn Reynolds.]