John Kerry, peacenik

The Boston Globe is running a series exhaustively detailing the life of John Kerry. Kerry does not seem to me to be a figure worth the ink being spilled on him in this series, but today’s installment — part 3 of the series — closely examines Kerry’s transition from the Navy to peacenik politician.
Whether or not Kerry warrants the attention the series provides him as a presidential candidate, this installment is an eye-opener simply in light of Kerry’s status as a United States Senator. It is a fine piece of journalism that provides the reader sufficient information to come to his own conclusions about Kerry, and the conclusions drawn here are not apt to be flattering to him. He appears (to me anyway) to be a man of great ambition, poor character, and little judgment. See for yourself: “With antiwar role, high visibility.”
I saw Kerry speak at Dartmouth in a relatively small, informal venue (the student lounge on the second floor of Hopkins Center) during his entry into public life as described in this article. One of the students in the audience stood up to walk out on Kerry’s speech and shouted to Kerry as he approached the steps to go down to the first floor: “You phony. You’re just in this to promote your own career.” Kerry was only momentarily flustered, bending down to the microphone and asking the guy to stay and talk after he’d already gone down the steps.
At the time I couldn’t believe the obtuseness of the student; I bought Kerry’s act. In retrospect, however, that student strikes me as a person of uncommon discernment.

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