The return of Shrumism

Andrew Sullivan has a must-read column in the New Republic which re-focuses on the main issue this campaign: why John Kerry is entirely unqualified and unfit to be President. Sully uses the adjective “vapid” three times to describe Kerry’s latest stump speech, presumably because there’s no other adjective to describe the Bob Shrum-driven, conspiracy-laden philosophy that everybody’s out to get John Q. Public. Of course, these “powerful forces” didn’t stop John Edwards from gaining his fabulous wealth by suing doctors. And it also failed to keep John Kerry in poverty due to his wondrous ability to marry heiresses.

Mickey Kaus sees it too: “Doctrinaire Shrumian populism is back. Those powerful interests are standing in your way again in the first Kerry-Edwards ads.” Remember: Bob Shrum has never been on a winning Presidential campaign. After Terry McAuliffe, he’s our best augur of election success!