How To Deal With A Flip Flop? Erase The Flip!

Remember Kerry’s criticisms of “Benedict Arnold CEO’s” that he subsequently blamed on “overzealous speechwriters”? Everyone understood Kerry to be criticizing CEOs whose companies outsourced jobs, but “Kerry campaign officials” are quoted in an article in today’s Washington Post claiming that “Kerry’s use of Benedict Arnold designation had to do only with firms that incorporated overseas to avoid U.S. tax liabilities, not firms that have engaged in ‘outsourcing.'”

Perhaps that’s why the following statements that Mickey Kaus quoted from johnkerry.com are no longer to be found there. After quoting an earlier Kerry attempt at denial — ” I was referring to the people who take advantage of non-economic transactions purely for tax purposes” — Kaus writes:

Is that really what Kerry meant by the “Benedict Arnold” line, which was a standard part of his stump speech? Let’s go to Kerry’s own web site, and search for the traitor’s name. Here are some representative samples:

1. “George Bush continues to fight for incentives to encourage Benedict Arnold companies to ship jobs overseas at the same time he cuts job training for our workers and cuts help for small businesses that create jobs here at home. … ”

2. “Unlike the Bush Administration, I want to repeal every tax break and loophole that rewards any Benedict Arnold CEO or corporation for shipping American jobs overseas.”

3. “Instead of George Bush’s raw deal, we need a real deal that stands up to the powerful interests. That’s built on people and products not privileges and perks. And that closes every loophole for the Benedict Arnold companies that ship jobs overseas.”

Kerry can remove unwanted items from his own site, but he can’t clean the whole net. Thus it remains easy to find many examples of what he’s actually said, such as this from last February:

We will repeal the tax loopholes and benefits that reward Benedict Arnold CEOs and companies for shipping American jobs overseas

… or this from March:

When I am president, and with your help, we’re going to repeal every benefit, every loophole, every reward that entices any Benedict Arnold company or CEO to take the money and the jobs overseas ….

Must be that awful “Republican attack machine” at work again, making Kerry say these things, or making him deny them, or something.

Say What? (14)

  1. Laura August 5, 2004 at 9:22 pm | | Reply

    That speechwriter excuse is lame anyway.

    Who is running for election, him or his speechwriters?

    Peggy Noonan’s What I Saw At The Revolution is a pretty good read. She wrote about President Reagan’s appreciation of the speech she wrote for him to give at the 40th anniversary of D-Day. He told her it was like “Flanders Field” and that the original Pointe du Hoc fellows came up and told him how they liked it, with tears in their eyes. (It was a pretty good speech. I remember it.) She writes this:

    “I had been in the White House less than five months at that point. I had seen how the White House works and how speechwriting works….[S]peechwriting in the Reagan White House was where the philosophical, ideological, and political tensions of the administration got worked out. Speechwriting was where the administration got invented every day. And so speechwriting was, for some, the center of gravity in that administration, the point where ideas and principals still counted. For others … speechwriting was a natural and unhappy force of nature, a black hole….”

  2. ELC August 6, 2004 at 12:44 pm | | Reply

    I can’t wait to see how NYT and CBS cover the vanishing texts.

  3. Sam August 7, 2004 at 9:25 am | | Reply

    They won’t cover it.

  4. Stephen Y August 8, 2004 at 2:08 am | | Reply

    I’d say it was a poor choice of words to begin with, but it goes along with the general aim of the Kerry Campaign’s message that jobs should stay here, and moreover we shouldn’t pay others to take them away from us.

    I don’t categorize this as a “flip flop” as much as I do a search for a better illustration of what’s going on.

    Besides, can’t relate to a nation who is so poorly educated that you have to explain who Benedict Arnold is before they can draw comparisons.

  5. Pablo August 8, 2004 at 11:29 pm | | Reply

    It was Richard Nixon who said you had to run to the right to get the nomination, then run to the center to get elected. However, this time John Kerry seriously miscalculated on how far left he really needed to run in order to get the nomination. Pity that Iowa was first on the nomination trail and that everyone believed that Howard Dean was going to cower everyone out of the race in 2 weeks, not knowing that the Iowans really saw through the bluster of his attack to know he, well, was all bluster. JK ran way farther left than he needed to in order win the nomination. Once he started winning primaries, he wasn’t smart enough to backtrack prior to the next rounds to the politcal middle, as he really liked trouncing his fellow democrats more than thinking ahead.

    This reveals that he knows little about strategy and long term thinking. I think if elected he would fail miserably against the likely Republican congress. Just imagine Jimmy Carter against Newt Gingrich and you get my view of the future. Even the mainstream press would be hard pressed to find a JK presidency “relevant”.

    JK’s poor vision during the run for the nomination will hurt him badly. He will backtrack and run to the middle and this will only re-inforce the flip-flop image. Very soon the Democrats will experience a very bad case of buyer’s remorse. Maybe this will finally get the party leadership out of the grip of the Clinton’s appointees and a real battle for the “heart and soul” of the Democrats will ensue.

  6. neil August 9, 2004 at 11:40 pm | | Reply

    who cares…W is so corrupt that ANYBODY on the left would be a fresh start on all the repair work that is needed.

  7. Anonymous August 9, 2004 at 11:40 pm | | Reply

    who cares…W is so corrupt that ANYBODY on the left would be a fresh start on all the repair work that is needed.

  8. neil August 9, 2004 at 11:40 pm | | Reply

    who cares…W is so corrupt that ANYBODY on the left would be a fresh start on all the repair work that is needed.

  9. I love Jet Noise August 10, 2004 at 4:19 pm | | Reply

    Queer Eye For the Disingenuous Guy

    JOHNKERRY.com gets a Queer Eye makeover QGuy #1 &ndash John dear…you know – your site is just to-die-for. All those men in uniform! Girls! I think I made a pun! I guess this means I’m no longer a virgin (giggle).

  10. dave August 12, 2004 at 7:54 pm | | Reply

    What I tell you three times is true?

    The Bellman himself they all praised to the skies –

    Such a carriage, such ease and such grace!

    Such solemnity, too! One could see he was wise,

    The moment one looked in his face!

    He had bought a large map representing the sea,

    Without the least vestige of land:

    And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be

    A map they could all understand.

    “What’s the good of Mercator’s North Poles and Equators,

    Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?”

    So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply

    “They are merely conventional signs!”

    Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!

    But we’ve got our brave Captain to thank”

    (So the crew would protest) “that he’s bought us the best –

    A perfect and absolute blank!” [with lots of nuance]

    -Lewis Carroll

  11. jody August 13, 2004 at 12:31 am | | Reply

    It seems quite obviously a nuanced thought (and thus something which most people in this world might tend to have a hard time understanding.)

    the companies themselves are traitors, not for sending jobs overseas, but for being huge corporations that take advantage of tax loopholes and usually muck everything up when it comes to telling the truth and being good corporate citizens. he never says anything more. benedict arnold is always being used as an adjective.

    $87b in surprise spending is something worth at least considering to vote against if you’re not sure it’s being well spent. voting against the first gulf war may sound unpopular today, but why dismiss it? it’s seems impausible, but letting saddam keep kuwait, may have left us safer. maybe the jihadis would have kicked him out and we would have avoided getting so tangled up in a region’s rage. bring up kerry’s choices on this stuff. he’s making tough ones. trying to balance the needs of our companies with calling them out for some excessive unamericanism. make it tougher for them, bring in some dough that should be the people’s, but don’t take away business freedom to compete with outsourced labor. they need it to keep growing here. times are tough. seems understandable to take benedict arnold down if he’s bringing down morale.

    another thing: how can john kerry be a flip flopper and a crazy Mass. liberal at the same time? wouldn’t some of his flips flop him away from any extreme view? sometimes things just don’t add up.

    on the other hand, whole benedict arnold thing reminds me how bush saying saddam was a threat became american thought he said saddam crashed the planes here. we all know he didn’t say it. it’s true, however, that there was a pretty big danger that iraq would help the terrorists eventually because we know that saddam was always sniffing around, seeing what they could do together, like a general manager at the trade deadline. and he was stirring up trouble and lying and those terrorists were (and still are) trying to stir up trouble, too, and no doubt looking for aid under every rock. so you know bush had a right to say that; he never said iraq was working bin laden, just capable of it. look at any individual statement. guy’s making tough decisions, which are tough to justify. maybe he was wrong, but think about what he’s trying to say.

    nobody these days good communicate.

  12. dave August 13, 2004 at 3:26 am | | Reply

    There is a subtle difference between a nuanced position and being on both sides of an issue at the same time.

    GWB’s positions on almost every subject run counter to mine, but to his credit he at least seems to believe what he says.

    I will vote against both – GWB because I disagree with what he stands for and J”F”K for being a poseur.

    This was charming, no doubt: but they shortly found out

    That the Captain they trusted so well

    Had only one notion for crossing the ocean,

    And that was to tingle his bell.

    He was thoughtful and grave – but the orders he gave

    Were enough to bewilder a crew.

    When he cried “Steer to starboard, but keep her head larboard!”

    What on earth was the helmsman to do?

    – Lewis Carrol

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