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GIVE 'EM HELL, JOHNNY!
By SARAKAY SMULLENS
YO! REMEMBER when John Kerry ordered a Philly cheesesteak and asked for Grey Poupon mustard? This was a food order laughed at worldwide.
But Kerry recovered. Ted Kennedy sent his lead campaign strategist, Mary Beth Cahill, to whip Kerry and his campaign into shape. Kerry removed his patrician cloak, revealing a guy with the right stuff - the kind of leader with the bravery and character to steer the Swift Boat he commanded in the Mekong Delta onto the shore toward the fire, pursue the enemy on the beach - and fight like hell.
At the Democratic convention, Kerry didn't come from offstage to accept his nomination. Instead, he strode presidentially down the aisle as if about to offer a State of the Union address. The look on his face revealed a hero's strength and grit - a resolve that so frightened the Republican leadership that their waves of ugly and ruthless lies and distortions after the Boston convention have been relentless.
And this ugliness, often covered by charm and charisma, reached fever-pitch during the Republican convention as speaker after speaker capitalized on the public's fear of another terror attack.
I'm not sure how Maria Shriver managed to sit through her husband's speech as he tried to dismantle every inspiring political ideal that her Kennedy family has stood for. At one point, the camera caught her looking like a deer in the headlights. I was strangely grateful that her father, Sargent Shriver, who fathered the Peace Corps, suffers from Alzheimer's and couldn't get his son-in-law's message: Richard Nixon was a giant; Hubert Humphrey was a socialist; Democrats are girly-men; the premise of the United Nations is ridiculous.
And Zell Miller revealed a terrifying state of megalomania with his vicious message that the Almighty is on America's side, and all who questioned the president's decisions are traitors.
Since the Democratic convention, John Kerry has done all that he can to keep the debate on the high road and to respond to questions in thoughtful and honest ways, avoiding meaningless, focus-group-tested sound bites. But his critics have projected their own natures onto him, condemning him as indecisive and weak.
Kerry's enemies' lies have been so relentless and effective that many supporters are now also questioning his capacity to lead. Case in point: It has long been a courteous tradition for a presidential candidate to restrain from campaigning during the convention of his opponent. But when Kerry did so he, was criticized for lazily luxuriating at his wife's Nantucket mansion.
So now is the time for Kerry's "decent guy" gloves to come off. He must once again show a warrior's face and fight like hell.
He must highlight the numerous issues that, if not addressed, paint a dire future for all we love and all we hold dear.
Only the very rich are better off financially than they were four years ago. But their children and grandchildren are in the same boat as the rest of us. Our huge budget deficits inhibit job creation and restrict necessary improvements in security, health care and education.
The president's reduction or elimination of regulations that restrict pollutants from poisoning our environment and our bodies put all of us in jeopardy.
His attack on Iraq without mature consultation with other countries or appropriate planning for the aftermath of the war has resulted in worldwide resentment and hatred toward America and has strengthened our enemies.
PRESIDENT BUSH is but the marionette of a small ultra-right-wing group that has groomed him and now controls him. Free of their oversight for a brief moment, he recently confided mistakes, admitting that the war we are in cannot be won.
It didn't have to be this way, and under mature and enlightened leadership, it does not and will not have to remain this way.
Sarakay Smullens is a family therapist in Philadelphia.
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