WaPo's Kathleen Parker is an MTD carrier

[ProSense]

The real John Kerry says no go

In deciding not to run for president, he sounds like one

By Kathleen Parker
The Washington Post Writers Group
February 04, 2007 6:00 AM

Snip...

Kerry is dropping out - before he dropped in - and he'll try to find better ways to serve his country than making bad jokes, modeling spandex and insulting the military.

OK, OK, halt, truce, peace. It's over. Give the man a hand.

The truth is Kerry never has been better than he was announcing his intention not to run in 2008. Speaking to his colleagues in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 24, he was dignified and resolute, and, more to the point, he was real.

Snip...

In similar ways, Gore and Kerry are tragic figures.

Both seemed destined to become president and both believed in that destiny. Which is to say, they bought their own myths; they might have wanted it too much.

Want has a scent. It reeks of rapaciousness and oozes from the pores of the overly ambitious. Others likely to make a run in 2008 are similarly malodorous. You know who they are.

Far more appealing are those who don't lust so much for the presidency. One has to want the office to win, obviously. Duty alone isn't enough to sustain a candidate in today's pitiless political environment.

Obviously, too, some level of grandiosity is required for survival - and probably for effectiveness.

A candidate has to keep believing he's worthy, because plenty of people will press the other view.

Wanting for the sake of winning - of fulfilling some need to be great - usually will be revealed for what it is and do a politician in.

One way or another.

more...

"Truce"? You MTD (Media Transmitted Distortion) carrier!

"Bought into their own myths"? Gore won!

Backhanded compliments don't count, so say get help Kathleen. Stick to the facts!

[kstewart33]

1. One of the great Bush lovers, reluctantly succumbing

to a small degree of rehabilitation in recently months. But still can't help herself, as this column suggests.

[Kolesar]

2. rapaciousness? malodorous?

Yes, that is an objectionable article.

[Captain Hilts]

3. I've never heard of her. WPWriters' Group doesn't mean you get in the actual WP. nt

[ProSense]

4. Here:

KATHLEEN PARKER JOINS THE WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUP

[Captain Hilts]

8. I read a lot of newspapers and I've never heard of her. She hasn't been in the WP, but...

it's surprising she hasn't. The op-ed page is very male, so they've hired two conservative women: Anne Applebaum and Ruth Marcus.

So, I guess the Post can take Mary McGrory , Ellen Goodman and Donna Britt off their list of columnists to make it look as though they had women on the op-ed page when they didn't.

[Benhurst]

5. Yeah, both Gore and Kerry bought into the myth we have reasonably

fair and honest elections in the United States.

If only they had known the truth of the electoral process, they could have avoided such "grandiosity."

Enough already! What a stupid bitch!

:argh:

[bemildred]

6. Parker guzzles KoolAid by the gallon.

She will fit in really well at WaPo. She is even dumber and more unrealistic than Friedman. She is like a female Max Boot. You have to wonder where they get these people anyway. The palace eunuchs of the modern state.

[BuelahWitch]

7. I hope she's getting shots for that...

[Canuckistanian]

9. And Dubya bungling and stealing his way into the presidency is the CORRECT way?

The Bush administration will be studied and analyzed as a time of great shame in America.

That Gore and Kerry DIDN'T obtain and hold on to power in this manner is no shame at all.