No Flip-Flops

I knew John Kerry was going to lose the 2004 presidential election. I knew because I attended the Republican convention at Madison Square Garden in New York on a press pass. It was so obvious that the GOP had Kerry’s number. It wasn’t just those “Terrorists [HEART] John Kerry” signs. It was those goddamned flip-flops.

The flip-flops, which were nowhere to be seen the first night of the Republican convention, were everywhere by the end of the festivities. People were clapping flip-flops together instead of using their hands.

And the problem wasn’t simply that Kerry had changed positions on issues, like saying he’d voted against funding the Iraq War before he’d voted for it. That was an explainable, if damaging, gaffe.

The problem was the flip-flops had a deep metaphorical power. John Kerry had not only “flip-flopped,” as the Repugs repeated mercilessly, on issues of war and peace. But John Kerry, with his elongated visage and patrician chin, had a face shaped somewhat like a flip-flop.

Kerry’s windsurfing photo-op, which was one of the worst photo-op ideas since “Mission Accomplished,” re-enforced the well-founded impression that Kerry pursued a namby-pamby, elite, flip-flop lifestyle: toes in the sand, shades on, New York Times and iced cappuccinos.

The Bushes clear brush on the ranch.

Meantime, the Bushies were scaring the bejesus out of America with terror alerts and images of mushroom clouds and dirty bombs. They were swiftboating Kerry, who looked weak when he couldn’t defend himself from GOP lies and deceit. And America thought, “Jeez, if this Kerry can’t defend himself from that nice good ol’ boy George Bush, how the hell is going to keep my family safe from Usama bin Laden?”

I was disappointed Kerry didn’t defend himself more vigorously, and that disappointment was magnified when Kerry did nothing to challenge the weird Ohio voting anomalies, leaving it to Barbara Boxer to do the fighting when it came time to challenge the election results in the Senate.

So, in 2006 and 2008, let’s get behind Democrats that will fight for themselves, their party and their country. The Democratic presidential candidates from the last two cycles, Gore and Kerry, could both be candidates in 2008.

From what I’ve seen of both, I favor Al Gore. Gore’s new fire and sense of righteous indignation makes him almost unrecognizable as that wooden, robotic candidate from 2000. Being robbed of the presidency has deepened Gore and made him seem more human. Gore has been a forceful and passionate advocate of civil liberties and a common sense foreign policy. He has the experience and the name recognition to win in primaries and, after all, we’ve already elected him vice president twice and president once.

I’m not trying to put down John Kerry. He’s served his country well and is an honorable man. But Al Gore makes a better candidate and should be our next president.