Outrage displacing issues in US presidential race

March 22, 2004
The US presidential race threatens to become a nagging contest.

The US presidential race threatens to become a nagging contest.

The choice for voters is supposed to be about which candidate might best govern the country, not which one has the thinner skin.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the certain Democratic challenger, called President George W. Bush's campaign team "crooked" and "a lying group."

All the Bush team could think to do was demand an apology.

The wimps.

This came in the same week Bush television advertisements provoked howls from the Kerry side.

The ads included video shots from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Kerry supporters, including family members of some of the victims, were appalled that the president had "politicized" the tragedy.

The International Association of Fire Fighters Union, having earlier endorsed Kerry, demanded that Bush cancel the ads and—sure enough—apologize to families of stricken firefighters.

Complaining that Bush hadn't done enough for fire departments, the union's president called the ads "disgraceful."

With all due respect to memories of everyone killed on that fateful day and their families, this kind of touchiness degrades politics by short-circuiting debate.

In fact, the huff over Bush's ads began to dissipate when a number of relatives of Sept. 11 victims said they hadn't been offended.

The Bush campaign could have floated above it all. Instead, it swooped all the way to ground level in response to Kerry's fuss with its summons to the court of contrition.

This is no way to start a political race. Politicians should argue about issues, not referee speech.

The oil and gas industry should worry about the tendency of modern discourse to become usurped by hair-trigger outrage.

It has reached the point that, with some issues, it's safer to be sensitive than honest. Global warming leaps to mind.

If Kerry really thinks Bush's handlers are crooked liars, he should say so. If Bush thinks reminders of Sept. 11 help his reelection chances, he should run his ads.

Then they should defend their positions.

And nobody should complain when politicians politicize events. It's what they do. And when they apologize for something, they usually don't mean it.

(Online Mar. 12, 2004; author's e-mail: [email protected])