Kerry's Claim

[FishForLunch]

Since when do foreigners influence the US election? Must be the Iranians, Syrians, Koreans, French and Germans

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kerry claims world leaders want him to beat Bush
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington


John Kerry dropped an early bombshell into the US election campaign yesterday by claiming some foreign leaders have already told him they want him to beat President George Bush in November.

His remark, at a fundraiser, drew a mocking response from the White House, where officials pointed out that "US voters, not foreign leaders, decide who becomes President." But it shows how foreign policy - usually a low ranking election issue here - may be front and centre of the battle this time around.

Mr Kerry named no names when he addressed a fundraiser in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. But said: "I've met foreign leaders who can't go out and say this publicly but, boy, they look at you and say, 'you've got to win this, you've got to beat this guy, we need a new policy.'"

The all-but-certain Democratic nominee was in Florida ahead of primaries there and in three other Southern states today. After the withdrawal of Mr Kerry's sole remaining serious rival, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, the results are a foregone conclusion - but Florida this autumn is likely to be as tightly contested as it was in 2000.

Four years ago, Al Gore lost the state - and with it the entire election - by 537 votes. Since Mr Kerry, in effect, clinched the nomination, separate polls have put each candidate ahead, with the most recent poll yesterday giving the Democrat a 49-43 per cent edge over Mr Bush.

Ralph Nader, who is trying to get on the ballot as an independent, is given 3 per cent, compared with the 2 per cent he took in Florida in 2000 when he ran as the Green party candidate.

Mr Kerry's latest sally underlines how his advisers have decided attack is the best means of defence in what many analysts expect to be one of the roughest campaigns in recent history.

Election day is still almost eight months off but Mr Kerry is campaigning as if it were next week - ripping into the President across the board, from domestic issues such as the economy and health care to the White House's handling of Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti.

But his dragging of unspecified foreign leaders into the fray could be risky. True, a much-noted global survey by the Pew Research Center last summer found countries in Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Islamic world dislike Mr Bush - and it was their main reason for unfavourable views of the US. But Republican strategists may use the senator's words to depict him as a virtual agent of other countries. There are bound to be insinuations that among the "foreign leaders" in question are those of France and Germany, still unpopular here after their opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

On the eve of that war, when Mr Kerry appeared the front-runner, White House aides were even letting it be known that he "looked French".

A survey by NPR radio yesterday found 63 per cent of Americans were "very interested" in the election - a higher figure than in comparable polls in the final week of the 2000 and 1996 elections.

[MavKikiNYC]

To the extent that Kerry's claims are true, it means that foreign leaders feel like their nations' interests will be better served relative to those of the American people with a spineless, unprincipled, approval-seeking Dim-ocrat such as Kerry in the White House.

The United States' interests were never more poorly served than with the pathologically needy Clinton in office, who sought validation from foreign leaders, all the while whoring away the U.S.'s national security. The unctuous European leaders in turn propped up Willie's sagging and slimy public image with a faux-obsequiousness borne of self-interest. They may well have identifed with Willie, but it's hard to think they actually respected him. Rather, they knew and understood that the more he felt he was one of them, the easier he would be to manipulate. And so it was.

The same Europeans are clueless when it comes to manipulating Bush. He is not one of them, doesn't share their values (for better and worse), doesn't identify with them, and absolutely does not aspire to be like them. W is immune to the charms of adulation by world leaders, and virutally un-influencable by them. And for this they resent him--some even may hate him. But unlike Clinton, they respect him with a fear borne of loathing. Because they know that he will not be seduced by their flattery; that he does not NEED their acceptance or approval; and that he will always put the interests of the U.S. ahead of his own personal legacy.

In Kerry, they see a throwback to the days of Clinton--an easy mark who will sell the U.S's interests out for nothing more than cheap flattery. Fortunately, my sense is that the bedrock of American voters are not really swayed by these Euro-blow jobs.

[dude1394]

'Nuff said kiki.

[Evilmav2]

This would be great fodder for an 60 second ad.

Start with long-haired pictures of Kerry at Vietnam protests while voicing over with some of his 1972 senate Vietnam testimony (nasty, whiny stuff condemning the actions of US infantrymen*), cut to pictures of Kerry eating brie and crackers in a tuxedo with audio of Kerry claiming foreign leaders want him to win the election... *Cut to a waving American flag* where a deep voiced voice-over says, "In these troubled times, Americans have a choice, but that choice is American alone. *Cut to french flag, tanks, oil wells, and pictures of Putin and Chirac looking scheming* Voiceover says: "Do responsible Americans want the same the same kind of president that Putin and Chirac want? *Cut to pictures of the collapsed North Tower, Bush speaking, a firemen funeral, a toppling statue of Saddam, smiling folks in an office, and welders welding something*. The voiceover intones: "We've come a long way these last four years, and the choice is yours: Whether to continue to trust in Strong American Leadership or wander back down the road into ineffectiveness and danger", *Cut to smiling picture of Bush*, "My Name is George Bush, and I approve of this message"...


*On April 22, 1971 Link in PDF,Kerry told a Senate committee that U.S. servicemen "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned on the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam." He said these were "not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."