Kerry's cars

Extracted from QandO:

John Kerry: 'I don't own an SUV,' said Kerry, who supports increasing existing fuel economy standards to 36 miles per gallon by 2015 in order to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil supplies.

Jon Henke: Uh huh. Well, he didn't earn that 'flip-flop' reputation for nothing. Here's what John Kerry said when he talked to the Detroit News...

"We have some SUVs. We have a Jeep. We have a couple of Chrysler minivans. We have a PT Cruiser up in Boston. I have an old Dodge 600 that I keep in the Senate. ... We also have a Chevy"

Well. It seems like a minor issue. It is entirely possible that John Kerry is so ridiculously wealthy that he simply doesn't know how large his car fleet is. He might find himself in his summer home, opening the south garage to find the PT Cruiser. "Oh gee, I forgot I bought this one. Let's take her for a spin!"

But then it might be taken as indicative of what I believe is John Kerry's biggest weakness: his desire to tell everyone what they want to hear.

Environmentalists will hear that he doesn't like SUV's. The United Auto Workers will hear that he has a fleet of American cars, the bigger the better. The Japanese will hear talk about he loves his Toyotas, and hippies will hear how he loves his hemp oil-powered car.

It's a little thing, but campaigns often boil down to little things: Bush I's befuddlement in front of supermarket scanner, unable to even give a ballpark figure for a gallon of milk. Dukakis riding in his Abrams, looking like he was off to shoot down the Red Baron. Al Gore impatiently sighing during a debate, showing the world what a dickhead he was.

And then there are things like this, from Chuck (left as a comment on Q and O) :

Well, I know that Kerry used to have a Lincoln Navigator because I was almost run over by him on Nantucket about 4 years ago. We were walking across Main Street and he came roaring down the road leaning on the horn for us to get out of the way. It's a cobblestone street and pedestrians have the right of way. He was at the wheel and the license plate was HEINZ57 (no lie). Prick.

It is a simple question, John: How many cars do you own?

What does it tell you that this guy has a credibility problem about his cars?

- posted by total @ 4/25/2004 06:26:00 AM .