Demagogue

I guess this makes me a glutton for punishment. But this past Sunday's "Meet the Press" reminded me of the appearance that Kerry made last April. I found this exchange between Tim Russert and the candidate from that April '04 appearance -- an exchange that should have foreshadowed Kerry's vulnerability to the "he's on both sides of the issue" charge:

MR. RUSSERT: Let me ask you a question that may not be popular in Michigan. Are you still for raising the gasoline miles per gallon to 35 by the year 2013 for all cars and trucks?

SEN. KERRY: Well, that's a goal. It's a worthy goal. And America ought to try to set the goal. But I've said to people in the industry, I've talked to UAW workers, I've talked to Carl Levin. I'm not wedded to one way that we're going to do that. There are plenty of ways to do that ....

MR. RUSSERT: That was your legislation. You stand by that.

SEN. KERRY: Well, we did that. We tried to do that that year, but both John McCain and I said at the time -- you can go back and look at the quote -- we said we're not fixed in stone as to the number or how we do this. We're ready to negotiate. The problem is nobody wanted to negotiate ...

Until you'd read this morning's posts on Kerry, you'd probably succeeded in exiling the memory of his campaign to the far reaches of your brain.

Sorry for disturbing the healing process and your search for closure.