Fantatstic Bob Shrum defense of Kerry and attack on Romney, not as flip flopper, but shapeshifter!

[karynnj]

Kerry and Romney have little in common except central-casting presidential jawlines. In 2004, Kerry inartfully and too memorably said he voted for $87 billion supplemental appropriation for operations in Iraq before voting against it. It was a self-inflicted wound, the memorable trigger for an instant and persistent attack. But it was no flip-flop. Kerry had voted to fund the money so long as Republicans paid for it by rescinding one one-hundredth of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. The flip-flop attacks on Kerry’s record were all like this, based on distortions like Senate votes stripped of context. They had to be, because Kerry’s real record is a lifetime of consistency.

But consistency and Romney don’t belong in the same sentence. That’s why using the Bush-Cheney playbook against him isn’t just an insult to Kerry; it’s an insult to flip-flopping. Romney isn’t a flip-flopper; he’s a shape-shifter.

In contrast, Kerry’s principled record reaches all the way back to his call to end the Vietnam War, an act of moral clarity summed up in a compelling challenge still quoted today: “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?’’

The only pearl of moral wisdom Romney has offered thus far came in a recent debate: “I’m running for office, for Pete’s sake, I can’t have illegals!’’

http://bostonglobe.com/opinion/2011/11/23/not-flip-flopper-shape-shifter/KQazVVi6dH67JSPWqcVcoK/story.html

This is wonderful and says what we have all said. Shrum is incredibly well positioned to speak on this because he was a senior strategist and media adviser in both the 2004 Kerry campaign and the 1994 Romney/Kennedy Senate race.

[Luftmensch067]

1. This is a brilliant piece of writing

And shows why Shrum was thought the best strategist for the campaign in 2004. Unfortunately, he has only thought of the masterful phrase "a lifetime of consistency" in 2011. That should have been their mantra!

But I agree -- this is wonderful, not only as an ironclad defence of JK, but as an indictment of Romney.

[karynnj]

2. Great point - "a life time of consistancy"

I suspect that in the heat of the campaign they did not anticipate the flip flop charge getting traction until it was too late. (Dean had used it in the primaries and it completely flopped.)

The reason it would have been so good is that it works on nearly every issue. It is amazing that his Yale 1966 foreign policy speech (that Madeline Albright excerpts in a book she wrote in 2006) as themes that are consistent with Kerry 2011! That is consistency for you.