More on emphasis…
I would have advised Howard Dean to change the emphasis of his latest remark. About military preparedness, Dean said: “We won’t always have the strongest military.” Seizing the opportunity this comment presented, John Kerry’s communications director, Chris Lehane, said that Dean’s remark “raises serious questions about his capacity to serve as Commander-in-Chief. No serious candidate for the Presidency has ever before suggested that he would compromise or tolerate an erosion of America’s military supremacy.”
Rather than say America might not always have the strongest military, Dean should have said something like: ‘We must plan for the day when other nations, non-allied nations, are able to confront us on an equal footing.’ This puts the onus on those dastardly others. Plus, it nearly eliminates the possibility that Kerry can hit back with such a calculated misinterpretation because one measure of competence in military affairs surely must be planning for any contingency–including that others might one day challenge us.
This situation is an excellent illustration of the delicate game of verbal nuisance that is campaign politics. This situation illustrates why message control has become so important to a modern campaign.
For a good rundown on this situation, I recommend reading William Saletan’s latest column.
Howard Dean was in my area on Friday. There wasn’t much media play, which is typical since Presidential politics go on in Iowa 24/7/365 and the media are sensitive to viewer/reader overload. In the one newspaper account I saw, Dean promised everyone everything, including some things that have been promised by politicians since at least the l970s (”reduce dependence on Middle Eastern oil”). Some of the items were mutually exclusive IMO. I guess I was expecting something more unusual from Dean, but at least he is playing the game in Iowa. But the quote I found most interesting was this: “We are going to say things that appeal to independents… I am tired of being divided by the Republicans.”
This is premature, but it seems to me that Dean is/will be getting into trouble with shoot-from-the-hips remarks.
Dean’s comment demonstrated how hazy he is on world affairs– the United States accounts for about half of the world’s military expenditures, and the trend is toward an even greater disparity– but Kerry’s criticism seems off-point: my guess is Kerry would reduce military spending also, and favors a more congenial diplomacy.
Probably doesn’t matter. No Senator has become President since JFK, and it is hard to believe any war critic can win in 2004.
We won’t know about the Senator curse until we get closer to the election.