Looking Beyond Charisma
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| Fri, 07-09-2004 - 1:23am |
July 9, 2004
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Looking Beyond Charisma
By BOB HERBERT
At some point, if we're sane, we'll get past the explosion of superficiality that has accompanied John Kerry's selection of John Edwards as his running mate.
Right now we're consumed with who has charisma and who doesn't, and such compelling matters as whether the candidates' wives get along.
"Do they really like each other?" asked a breathless, straight-faced TV reporter, referring to Teresa Heinz Kerry and Elizabeth Edwards. Mr. Kerry himself contributed immeasurably to the foolishness by happily proclaiming that in addition to his team's grand vision and bold ideas, "We've got better hair."
One of the more disturbing things about our presidential elections is the extent to which they can turn on criteria more suitable to high school campaigns. He's cute. Would you look at the way she dresses?
Abe Lincoln, who was decidedly not cute, and F.D.R., with his wheelchair and Eleanor, wouldn't stand a chance in the current atmosphere.
When we finally get serious, we'll see that we're facing one of the most important elections in American history. The nation is locked in a war in Iraq that we don't know how to win and don't know how to end. And the White House sent another tremor of fear through the country yesterday when it announced, with its usual absence of details, that Al Qaeda may try to disrupt the election.
Domestically there are two very divergent paths looming on such issues as the economy and jobs, taxes, health care, Social Security and government support for education. It is in this area that the differences between the two major parties are starkest, and as the campaign unfolds it's likely that the clearest evidence of the divide will come not from the top of the respective tickets, but from John Edwards and Dick Cheney.
This could be the most interesting fight of the campaign.
Dick Cheney believes, and has acknowledged (which is rare), that one of the main reasons for cutting taxes is to starve the government of resources. In an interview published in The New Yorker in May 2001, the vice president said, "If we collect those taxes, government'll spend 'em."
"So to some extent," he added, "by preventing government from collecting taxes that it currently has no use for, we avoid a situation in which we collect them and spend them and put them into the baseline to become a permanent part of the government."
That's a statement of values from a man who is proud of his hard-right political credentials. According to Time magazine, "The Washington Post once referred to Cheney the congressman as a `moderate,' prompting him to order an aide to call the paper's editors and `suggest they look at my voting record.' "
As we've learned, there was nothing moderate about the Bush-Cheney tax cuts. They've transformed the Clinton-Gore surpluses into staggering budget deficits. And there was very little that was moderate about Mr. Cheney's voting record as a congressman from Wyoming. He opposed federal funding for abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. He voted against funding for Head Start, against subsidizing school lunches for poor children, against aid to college students and against the Older Americans Act, which offered nutrition and other services to the elderly.
"Cheney's voting record was slightly more conservative than mine," said Newt Gingrich a few years ago, "but his style was not as confrontational."
Mr. Cheney's positions on some issues have no doubt evolved since the 1980's, but he has not undergone any transformation of values and still considers himself a "hard-liner." In some ways he is more of an embodiment of the Bush administration than the president himself.
Senator Edwards is as straightforward as the vice president about his own views and values, which can fairly be called populist. Mr. Edwards objects to what he calls the "two Americas," and believes government has an obligation to try to maximize opportunities for everyone. "We will say no," he says, "to kids going hungry, to the kids who don't have the clothes to keep them warm, and no forever to any American working full time and living in poverty."
This will not be an election between tweedledum and tweedledee. Charisma and hairstyles aside, by November it should be apparent that voters will have a clear and unambiguous choice about the direction this nation is to travel over the next several years.

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Larry is an easy interviewer. I think once people get use to Kerry's not so glib replies they will realize he is honest and sincere. I just can't stand the duplicity of GWB.
In North Carolina, you can pay between $25 - $90 for a haircut. I've lived in the New York City area for many years and haircuts are much more expensive in the NY Metro area.
There are so many explanations for this that the story means nothing.
"In North Carolina, you can pay between $25 - $90 for a haircut. I've lived in the New York City area for many years and haircuts are much more expensive in the NY Metro area."
Uh huh? So does milk, gas, taxes, insurance, a happy meal....its called the cost of living.
If you are going to call the president a "shrub" I would get better support for you arguements.
Hi Roxyrooroo. You don't think Bush tells lies?
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