:rolleyes: yourself.
When the alternative is Charlie McCarthy, it’s difficult to set the bar too low. Suffice it to say that Senator Kerry clears bars that are orders of magnitude higher than that one.
I’m not sure that I ever said that the ability to perform the Heimlich is the qualification for being a good president. I do believe that this incident illustrates several things, however. It calls into question a couple of smears. As to Kerry’s character, rather than being a wishy-washy person who flees from crisis, it is another example of his acting quickly in ways that others do not. Like most people, I hope that I would do the same, but who can say they won’t be like Kit Bond, giving a couple of whacks on the back, or others who thought that Hecht was having a heart attack.
I think it is really something to have a presidential candidate who has directly saved the lives of at least two other people, and one of them outside of a combat situation. I’m not sure how often that has happened.
If Kerry were a self-aggrandizing glory hound, as the right would have us believe, why have we not been hearing about this incident all over the place? Hecht said that he would appear with Kerry, but that he had not been asked to do so. Why is that? If Bush had once kept a little old lady from stepping out in front of a bus, I suspect she’d be front a center at several campaign appearances. Hell, with some of these scripted knob-slobbing “questions” Bush has been “fielding,” you’d think that his tax breaks for the wealthy had saved hundreds of people’s lives.
The incident also illustrates that Kerry puts human life above politics, as I would hope that most people would, but I strongly believe that some would not. I honestly feel, for example, that Karl Rove would not do the same if he found a Democrat in a similar position.
There are many on the right who have dismissed Kerry out of hand because he is a Democrat, or worse, a liberal. I wonder if it would even be possible for a good proportion of the right to even see someone from the other side who is a good man and a good leader, simply because the right functions by attacking and smearing from the get go. Except, of course, if they vote like Zell Miller, Evan Bayh, or John Breaux.
I also think it’s interesting to see how the right can attempt to belittle or undermine something like this. It’s pretty hard to knock someone for saving someone else’s life, even if it is something so pedestrian as choking on a piece of fruit, but Lord Ashtar and SPOOFE have made valiant (well, okay more pillow-biting than valiant) efforts.
See, now this doesn’t even make any sense. Others have been able to cleverly craft this incident into parodies of campaign controversies, but you have not. Please review the others’ posts, look again at yours, think really hard, and try to come up with something better.
I think it’s also pretty significant that Kerry had just stepped off an elevator and had not witnessed the incident from the beginning. This shows that he was able to make a very quick evaluation of the situation and respond apprpriately where others had frozen or were confused (as opposed to someone else I can think of who did appear frozen and confused during a crisis). Being able to react without freezing is one thing, but being able to think clearly in a crisis and immediately figure out what’s wrong is another.
And I agree that it definitely shows something about Kerry’s character that he has not tried to call attention to this story, or seemingly even thought to mention it, in order to exploit for political advantage.
Kerry did not seek out Jim Rassman, the man whose life he saved in Vietnam, either, by the way. Rassmann, a lifelong Republican, sought out Kerry.
pointed sticks
SHUT UP!
So, you don’t listen to yourself?
Seems to me a lot of social conservatives are very worried about the fruit issue.
…and another thread succumbs to petty partisan bickering… :smack:
Pass the applesauce.
Once again, your rapier sharp wit has rendered me unable to respond. I bow before your debating skills and your contribution to this thread, as both are obviously quite impressive. Well done!