Kerry behind the scenes: Restless, Multisyllabic

[wyldwolf]

Like a caged hamster, Senator John Kerry is restless on the road. He pokes at the perimeter of the campaign bubble that envelops him, constantly trying to break out for a walk around the block, a restaurant dinner, the latest movie.

At 60, Mr. Kerry is an avid and able athlete, though he sometimes seems physically awkward, with custom-made clothes hanging off his lanky frame as he pumps a fist at rallies. A former prosecutor, he employs a Socratic style in policy talks with aides and advisers, though he rarely goes beyond chitchat in conversations that could be caught on camera.

His formal statements are filled with multisyllabic upper-crust phrasing — his campaign had an intern whose main responsibility was to look up all the unfamiliar words Mr. Kerry uttered — but one on one, he calls strangers "man" or "brother."

And where former President Bill Clinton plays cards and President Bush turns to the treadmill, Senator Kerry strums his Spanish classical guitar in a kind of musical meditation. Lately, in the private front cabin of his campaign plane, he has been learning a new (old) song, "This Land Is Your Land."

"He's a weird mix of both the very refined taste of elite schools and all that but also eating Hostess cupcakes and watching dumb comedies on TV," observed Andrei Cherny, who spent more than a year as Mr. Kerry's chief speechwriter and now works for the Democratic National Committee. "It's sort of a mix of those two things: Up on pop culture more than most people running for president; at the same time, he's read all these books by people whose names I can't pronounce."

Mark Mellman, Mr. Kerry's pollster, recalled sending a perfunctory bouquet to Mr. Kerry when he had prostate surgery early last year, and getting back a two-sided handwritten card. "I barely knew the guy," he said. "His gesture was more complete than mine."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/13/politics/campaign/13TRAIL.html?ei=5006&en=002878959d6bed16&ex=1087704000&partner=ALTAVISTA1&pagewanted=print&position=

[rocktivity]

1. What's this--the "Kerry is as least as weird as Bush" meme?

:headbang:
rocknation

[wyldwolf]

2. no, more like...

Kerry is absolutely brilliant, can use bigger words than Bush (but who can't) but still knows pop culture more than most, and is prone to taking time to write long thank you's to almost complete strangers.

[MajorFlaw]

3. Kerry can't hide the fact that he is a bright, educated man. He

would be a fool to try. Gore ran a bad campaign because he chose not to be himself. While I'm not taking sides in the Veepstakes yet, the possibility that we could replace shrub and Cheney with two guys as educated as Kerry and Clark is very tempting. I like my leaders to be educated and experienced. It does seem to help their job performance.

[demgrrrll]

4. Having read the entire article it isn't as much of a hit piece as the

"valet" piece that she did awhile back, but the elitist,
upper crust meme is still there. It isn't going to turn anyone
who is for Kerry away from him but it does reinforce the
old who would you rather have a beer with the cowboy or
the intellectual? The thing that bugs me immensely is that
the Bush family are anything but poor and the goofball went
to Yale too, yet I don't remember anyone writing about his
elitist upper crust background. Still think she's a hack.

[H2O Man]

5. Please read "American Dynasty"

by Kevin Phillips, Viking Press. It is perhaps the single best source of information about bush's "elitist upper crust background." I am confident that you would enjoy it .... I certainly did, and I learned a great deal from it, too. Very good book!

[demgrrrll]

6. I will read that book. So much to read right now and not enough time. nt

.

[newsguyatl]

7. you're right, it's a great book

perhaps a little tough to get through at times, but a gem nonetheless... unfortunately phillips' book got the cold shoulder by the press.

[H2O Man]

8. I think it is as important

today as the Schlesinger book, "The Imperial Presidency," was back in 1973. I recommend that people read both of them. I'm curious, newsguyatl, if you have read both?

[DrFunkenstein]

9. "Upper Crust Phrasing"?

This is coming from a man who is supposed to be a writer as a living! Someone less of a hack might have suggested Kerry's use of long, difficult words suggests a familiarity with Latin that dates back to his days as a prep school debate champion.

It would still be a dig at Kerry's erudition (read "elitism"), but the guy wouldn't sound quite so doofy.

PS - In the several times I met Kerry on the road to the nomination, he always called me "brother," but I assumed it was due to the fact that I was always in a room crowded with hardcore Dems.



(Is Teresa suppressing a smile, or is she about to clock JK in the head?)

[Doosh]

10. I think this guy will be our Reagan

he's the complete opposite of Ron(thank god) but if Kerry gets elected he'll be embraced like Reagan was by the GOP. Kerry wil shake the label of stuffy liberal like Reagan shook the label of "dangerous neocon with the itchy trigger finger"

both were tall, wrinkly faces, great hair, he is an underrated joker (remember the limbaugh quip at one of the early debates?) Kerry is a very well rounded guy. While Bush is a phony cowboy, Kerry is a genuine windsurfer, skiier, hockey player, and he doesn't give a crap how "liberal elite" those sports might seem to the Laura Ingraham's of the world,