James Taranto of the WSJ’s OpinionJournal.com finds the quote about John Kerry that we needed the other day. From a NY Times article last year:

Some aides and close associates say Mr. Kerry’s fluidity is the mark of an intellectual who grasps the subtleties of issues, inhabits their nuances and revels in the deliberative process. They call him a free-thinker who defies stereotypes.

Here are some other people that Kerry fooled:

“I initially entered the voting fray as an “Anyone But Bush” person, but I now truly believe that Senator Kerry is a true intellectual who understands that the world is not simply black and white. ” (link)

“For a candidate perceived in polls as recent as two weeks ago as aloof and intellectual, Kerry’s ability to connect with people on a human level probably struck some viewers as a surprise.” (link)

“John Kerry can do a lot better,” said (Massachusetts ‘liberal icon’ Jerome) Grossman, who stresses that he still backs Kerry. “I still think he is the intellectual and political class of the field. But he hasn’t lived up to those appellations.” (link)

Our point isn’t really to make fun of Kerry, although we do admit some enjoyment writing this. It’s that the reason Kerry got the adjective “intellectual” attached to him is because the press, who proclaim their objectivity and cynicism, stuck it there. Similarly, Bush got tagged “dumb” early on even though his principal problem is with articulation (Slate to this day runs a snarky ‘Bushism of the Day’ column). Neither assessment was right.

The press let that ‘intellectual’ label stick to Kerry because they wanted to believe it — wanted to believe that Democratic candidates are smarter than Republican ones, because they are mostly smart and mostly Democrats. The national press identifies with Democratic candidates the same way sports fans attach to a team — as “our guys.”

In 1999 — a year before the election — the New Yorker published an illegally obtained copy of President Bush’s Yale transcript. Did they, or any other media organization, make the same effort with Kerry? Or did they sit on their hands because they worked through the incorrect tautology “I’m smart; I’m a Democrat; John Kerry is a Democrat; therefore John Kerry must be smart”?

Kudos to the Boston Globe for their pursuit of this story. Boos to the rest of the national press for being surprised by its content (and rotten tomatoes to the Los Angeles Times, who as of today have not printed a word about Kerry’s grades for their 900,000 readers — yesterday’s non-story was not a fluke).

Technorati Tags: 2008 Election, John Kerry, LA Times, Los Angeles Times

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 9th, 2005 at 11:08 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Election 2008 Live Team Coverage!, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.