The overall mood in the simulcast was somewhat less than jubilant. After a few hours standing in line sustained by nothing more than perfunctory cheers and abortive attempts at creating a wave, the opportunity to watch Kerry live on a television screen did not exactly electrify the audience.
The standing ovation he received in the main auditorium when he took the stage never materialized – the lone person who did jump to their feet stayed standing just long enough to glance around and note the relative apathy in the crowd around him. Upstairs Kerry was king of the roost, but his reception just a scant few feet below was lukewarm.
To his credit, Kerry’s speech proved once again that he has little trouble preaching to the choir. Given the composition of the audience, he could have performed a juggling act and still received the rapt attention of most of them. The majority seemed not to be concerned with what was actually said, but rather the fact that anything was being said at all.
His laundry list of perceived conservative devilries focused on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The sticking point for Kerry appeared to be the fact that the administration dared to implement conservative policies in affected regions. After all, what kind of government would dare to carry out policies it believed were effective? I clearly must have been sleeping through American history class the day that we covered the “In case of a disaster, the minority party may rule by fiat” clause of the Constitution.
Running with the “George W. Bush is responsible for hangovers, reality TV, and Mondays” motif his presidential run, Kerry railed on the White House for its irresponsible lack of both precognition and omnipotence. But Kerry stopped just short of actually blaming Bush for Katrina. Instead, he merely blamed Bush for failing to prevent Katrina from causing any damage.
Of course, Kerry failed to mention how he would have handled the situation differently, leaving that part to the listener’s imagination. I suppose we were meant to envision a messianic Kerry standing on Louisiana’s shore, parting hurricanes before him as Moses parted the Red Sea.
It is ironic that Kerry focused so much on the concept of unity, and of shared responsibility. It is clear that mistakes were made in the handling of Hurricane Katrina, but to allocate all responsibility upon Bush, or even upon conservatives in general, does little to serve the cause of unity.
Dividing society in lieu of uniting it, hating his opponents in the guise of grieving for victims, Kerry relied upon a set of truly Orwellian flourishes that would make his remarks laughable if not for the widespread applause they received. If his comments are in any way indicative of the type of hypocrisy and double speak we would have endured under a Kerry administration, I remain more than pleased to have passed on that particular cocktail of Kool-Aid.
