This past Labor Day weekend, my family and I saw a most interesting sight (and I promise you, none of the following anecdotal details have been embellished in the least): Getting off I-90 in Issaquah, we pulled behind a white Lincoln continental.
A little old lady is driving, her head just barely reaching her seat rest, so you can only just tell someone’s in command of the vehicle. On the back fender was a “John Kerry/John Edwards 2004” campaign sticker. O.K., nothing to be excited about. Just a sweet lady with very large sunglasses, a comfy car, and a Kerry sticker.
Then, we spy something else. Right in the back window, located dead center in the driver’s blind spot, is a large picture taped haphazardly to the glass. “What could that be?” I wondered. Lo and behold, it is a photograph of John Kerry himself, holding hands with John Edwards at the Democratic convention! Just in case you forgot who they were! At first, I thought that it was just plain silly. But then it struck me -- the lady had made a point (unintentionally, bless her heart).
Boiled down, the DNC was about one person: John Kerry. “Of course,” you might say, “who else?” Exactly!
I watched both conventions, and the thing that struck me the most about the Democrats’ convention was the over-arching theme of John Kerry’s record, in particular, who the man is. The focus was not on what he wants to do if he becomes president, but rather on Kerry the man. That isn’t bad necessarily, but it did appear, well, a bit odd. I mean, shouldn’t the convention be a platform launcher, a time for big ideas and practical solutions? Shouldn’t it be an opportunity to hold a referendum on the incumbent, and not one on yourself?
Articles like “What makes John Kerry tick?” were the seeming focus of that week back in July. Now that the confetti has settled, so to speak, the Democrats appeared to have spent a great deal of time explaining who their candidate was, as opposed to the Republicans, who didn’t have to. I wonder if that was such a great idea.
As the goofy picture of John Kerry and John Edwards on the elderly lady’s car illustrated, we now know who Kerry is (sort of ;-), but not really what he wants to do. President Bush is someone we all know, for better or worse, and the RNC spelled out what he wants to do in his second term.
Perhaps the advice former President Clinton gave Kerry this past weekend was about how to be more proactive, how to be more about doing, and not explaining, in other words, more simple...like President Bush.
So, it will be interesting to see how things play out in the two-odd months left in the election season…almost as interesting as seeing John Kerry’s photo taped to a car window.
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