Thanks to the suddenly-ubiquitous Wonkette* it has been revealed that John Kerry was apparently once a bass player for a garage band, not to mention Norwegian:
From the liner notes, you might think Electramania [the high school band Kerry was in] was about to sweep the nation.
“All in all, the listener should find little more to be desired from this recording,” someone named P.W. Johnson wrote, before introducing each member of the band. Kerry, whose father was a career diplomat then stationed in the Netherlands, is described as “a resident of Oslo, Norway, and the producer of pulsating rhythm that lends tremendous force to all the numbers.”
So what does it sound like? Let’s put it this way: Kerry shouldn’t run on this record. Then again, he shouldn’t run from it, either.
Pretty much, yeah. While calling Kerry the Norwegian Bassmaster or something like that has its appeal, the truth of it is that this isn’t really anything to mock overmuch. The good Senator has, shall we say, issues with presenting himself as Everyman (being a Senator since forever and married to tons of corporate money will do that to you): I liked the way that he reacted to somebody showing him the album (pleased disbelief that somebody actually owned it) and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of this sort of thing. One of the things that Presidents need to be is comfortable inside their own skins (which is not quite the same thing as being cool for the cameras). Reagan and Clinton had it, and Bush II has it now; Bush I didn’t, really. Dean has it, by the truckload. Before this article, I would’ve said that Kerry didn’t, at all, at all – but now I’m not quite as sure.
That being said, if I find out that this is a manufactured spin piece, then the mockery will immediately commence and continue until morale improves.
Moe
*Hmmm. If I mock Media Whores Online – which, might I add, is somewhat redundant, as they do a better job of marginalizing themselves than I could ever hope to do – do you think that TRR will call for a delinking campaign (thus swelling our bloglinks), or is it too soon to try to go back to that particular well?
(mumble mumble)
Whaddya mean, Cappozzola dropped it down the memory hole?
Sheesh. And they call us Orwellian.
“…do you think that TRR will call for a delinking campaign (thus swelling our bloglinks)….”
I think he’s learned his lesson for now, judging from his follow-up.
You’ll just have to find someone else with a reasonable number of inbound links who is stupid enough to act like that.
In other words, it’s tough.