John Kerry gave a speech at Georgetown yesterday on “National Security.” After watching much of it on C-Span, I can summarize the Senator’s position: he’s against it. Or rather, he’s against it if we have to act alone, but he’s all for defending the country if it’s OK with the French.

Kerry was trying so hard to look presidential, and his remarks adopted a faux-Kennedy style: e.g. “I come here today” and “I offer this new course.” But it was one theme over and over and over – whatever Bush does is wrong because he doesn’t play well with others. The repetition of Kerry’s theme was jarring and exasperating; his tone often took on that too familiar Gore-like condescension (isn’t it obvious!?). And his earnestness on the need for multilateralism frightened me: does America really want a president who will be paralyzed by the likes of the U.N. Security Council? Good gravy.

Well, I have much more to say about Kerry’s speech, but let’s start with a keyword rundown, which should give you a feel for the flavor of his speech:

International/ Internationalism: 16
Multilateral/multilaterally/multilateralism: 6
Engaging/engagement: 7
Coalition: 7
Partners: 8
Allies: 7
Global/globalization: 20