There's an altar in the valley to things in themselves as they are

P.J. O'Rourke 'looks much too closely at the current crop of stump speeches' in the Jan/Feb Atlantic Monthly:

- on Kerry (who gets more than a fair share of that looking): "More common than lies are vague generalities, in which candidates sometimes tangle themselves by Brer Rabbit means. 'We cannot talk vague generalities,' John Kerry says, immediately after saying, 'We don't have to choose between jobs and the environment. Protecting the environment is jobs-- the high-value-added jobs of the future.'"

- on Bush: "Mainstream Democratic candidates don't advocate spending--just investing... George Bush, however, thinks that people should make their own bad investments. 'The best and fairest way,' he says, 'to make sure Americans have... money is not to tax it away.' He's going to give us money by not taking it. The other candidates do not point out that this sounds like a protection racket. They favor tax cuts too."

- on Kerry again: "And around and around, it could be argued... One might say of all the candidates that 'false rhetoric becomes a substitute for meeting the reality of our challenges.' But Kerry, who actually does say that, provides the best examples: 'They talk about heroes in New York City... But let me remind those Republicans of something: every single one of those firefigthers, every single one of those police officers, every single one of those emergency medical personnel... were members of organized labor.'"

- and on Bush again: "Bush proposes 'a new approach to helping unemployed Americans through Personal Re-employment Accounts,' saying that 'Americans who face the greatest difficulties in finding work will receive up to three thousand dollars to use in their job search... If the job is obtained quickly... the worker will be able to keep the cash as a Re-employment Bonus.' Job-hopping from KFC to Wendy's on a weekly basis, you could make $156,000 a year."

And I would like to include his words of 'wisdom' on Edwards, Dean, Lieberman, ex-candidate Mosley Braun, Sharpton, and Clark... but you'll have to buy the magazine if you want to see those.

Posted by eatingbark at January 23, 2004 1:32 PM