Our National Hobgoblin

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do...Speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Of course, if you quoted Emerson to the President -- after you explained what a "hobgoblin" was -- Bush would no doubt attack him as a Massachussetts Liberal (which he was, much more so than Kerry.) He was out on the stump again today pimping the idea that a "clear and consistent" President is more important than one who will get it right.

Kerry, on the other hand, has got to stop giving the public the benefit of the doubt and believing that they can understand, as filtered by the media, any sentence with a subordinate clause in it. It's admirably liberal of him to believe in the better angels of human nature, but stunningly ineffective.

I'm going to help by drafting a few speeches for Kerry in future posts, but let's start out by sticking to the basic points. The fewer syllables that can be used to express these ideas on the stump, the better.

• The Iraq War is a huge mistake. That's my position now, and talking about anything else is irrelevant. Bush broke it, he bought it, and he showed up without any money in his wallet. Time for somebody else, me, to try.
• Yes, I would have liked to see Sadaam dead. If we'd had a functioning CIA, we might've gotten him without spending $200 billion and over 1000 lives. Because that's the only reason we went into Iraq.
• Iraq is in civil war with our troops there. I don't see how it could get any worse if we pulled the troops out.
• We're $422 billion in the hole this year alone. (Everytime Kerry is attacked for spending this or that or raising taxes or whatever, he should just respond by saying "I didn't write $422 billion in hot checks. Everything they say about me is speculative. The $422 billion Bush blew this year alone is real.")
• If Bush has all these great ideas about the economy, and medicare, and education -- how come he didn't do anything about it his first four years? The President says he's against social promotion. I agree. Don't give him another four years just because he says he's going to try harder.
• Bush is either lying or incompetent.
• Cheney is both lying and incompetent.
• Cheney's really in charge.

That's it. Just be consistent. Don't start in on anything else. The hobgoblin vote will swing this election.