Triviality and explanations

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I wonder if John Kerry has perhaps launched his descent into caricature a couple of months too early.

Usually, the successful losing candidate waits till late spring/early summer before shifting gears and beginning each day with the campaign trying to explain some rhetorical triviality from the previous week that has stuck to his shoe and that he can't seem to shake off.

Ever since last summer, I've been mocking Sen. Kerry's tortured explanations of why his vote in favor of such-and-such in fact demonstrates his staunch opposition to it. As I wrote a couple of months back:

"His vote against the first Gulf war was, he says, a sign of his support for the first Gulf war. Whereas his vote in favor of the Iraq war was a sign of his opposition to the Iraq war. And his vote against funding America's troops in Iraq is a sign of his support for America's men and women in uniform. On the same principle, I think the best way voters this November can demonstrate their support for John Kerry is by voting against him."

Even I, though, would have balked at so crude and obvious a parody as this line some Kerry impersonator did on the radio the other day:

"I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."

Oh, hang on. That's apparently the real senator, explaining to an audience of veterans why he voted against funding the Iraqi reconstruction:

"I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." Got that?

Q: How many John Kerrys does it take to change a lightbulb?