Why Should a Donkey Be a Jackass?

The proof that there is no Democrat tide is that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are in hiding. You can't have a movement without leaders. No leaders no movement no tide. I hear Schumer at times: "The Bush administration has no plan, we will win." I hear Dean at times: "The Republicans have no ideas, we will win." And I hear pollsters and columnists and projections and criticisms. But no leaders. On the local scene I suppose each candidate is a "leader", and they do have to say at least something in their respective races, but this is a national election, and there's only one national leader.

I should read some of the lefty nut blogs and I will, but I already know what leaders it is they will discuss: Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld. These are America's leaders, they are our only leaders.

Democrats are without a forward banner. The only banner both sides see is white. I just don't believe Americans in large numbers are going to follow a white flag, especially since the one leader we do have is actually quite confident, quite cheerful.

But there is one leader, one Democrat leader, who has recently resurfaced. It's interesting that both sides look at him about the same way. They don't like him. John Forbes Kerry. His joke of yesterday went something like this: "If you study hard you'll get a good job, if you don't you'll end up in Iraq." This was contempt, expressed as wit, or intended as wit. But just what was the target of his contempt is not easy to know. I think those who argue that it was aimed at the troops slightly miss the mark, and I think those who out of hand dismiss his explanation that it was aimed at Bush slightly miss the mark. This was John Kerry, expressing contempt, and with John Kerry, his mark is very broad. This is the way he lives, he is a Democrat. For those who annoy him he has contempt. And he is annoyed often.

This is the image of the moment that Americans have of a Democrat leader. It's true Democrats won't support him just now, they will bury him as well as they can. The last thing they want Americans to see is a true, living, breathing Democrat leader. When you've got an actual leader out there you're no longer living in the generic, and the Democrats know that a flesh and blood actual Democrat leader in a serious time is not astride a white horse. An actual Democrat, leading, is an embarrassment to a donkey.