« "New Hillary" To Meet The Press | Main | Shenanigans In Michigan » Say What?11 Jan 2008 09:48 am Sen. John Kerry: "The moment is now, and the candidate for this moment is Barack Obama. Like him, I also lived abroad as a young man, and I share with him a healthy respect for the advantage of knowing other cultures and countries, not from a book or a briefing, but by personal experience, by gut, by instinct. Swiss boarding school is so much like Indonesia... Comments (36)
Thats a dumb post. You do learn perspective from living in another country. Kerry's point is sound and this media fixation on lazy stereotypesis annoying. 
Marc, this particular post is way below the belt. He said that he'd lived abroad, not that he'd grown up in Indonesia or Asia or had the same life story as Obama. Don't be a kneejerk hater. Kerry didn't shoot your dog or anything, did he?
Come on Marc. Rhoda is right. Living abroad is living abroad. If you live in another country for more than 6 months you are going to be exposed to things that you would not be exposed to living in the USA. That provides a different perspective no matter where you live. Kerry's comment is completely fair and yours is the opposite.
With this endorsement, you are going to see an unholy alliance between Hillary supporters/shills and the Swift Boat types and their sympathizers. In truth, these people are very similar. They're cynical and they use the politics of personal destruction with abandon.
I'm no fan of Kerry, but I think that there is nothing wrong with his quote. Regardless of if it's Indonesia or Switzerland... living abroad, or even travelling abroad for a decent length of time certainly opens up ones eyes and mind to different cultures and ways of life. His point was made perfectly, and yours is pretty low Marc...
Kerry's comments ring true. After moving to Singapore in 1997, I was asked multiple times by supposedly enlightened upper middle class US citizens whether or not "they have paved roads there". Face it, many, if not most, US citizens are absolutely clueless about the rest of the world and our interdependent relationships with other countries. Look no further than our current President for proof. We require a leader with international perspective in the 21st century.
Lame Marc. The Swiss private school probably had students from several, if not dozens, of other countries as well. Many private schools in Europe (as do some in the U.S.) have students from throughout the world. Silly post.
RKA, I think that's a good prediction. The right wing swiftboaters can tag team with the Clintons to tear down Obama (or whomever), thereby ensuring that the least electable Democrat is the nominee. And then the right can dispatch Hillary rather passively. It's like killing two birds with one stone.
Pretty lame cheap shot, Marc. Not only that, you're also wrong for the reasons everyone has listed.
What, exactly, is wrong with this statement, Marc? Kerry doesn't equate Switzerland with Indonesia - you do. He simply speaks up for the value of experience abroad at a formative age. Can you really dispute that? You should apologize for this low and dishonest comment.
Lame. I don't know what it is with the media and why they feel compelled to constantly mock and criticize Senator Kerry. That practice jumped the shark back in 2004.
Amen to all of the above posts. Would you please at least try to APPEAR fair?
He is a war hero. Show some respect. I've never commented on this blog before, but if your mad about kerry endorsing obama, don't go as low as the republicans in 04 and bash him for saving lives. This is disgusting. You should think about taking this post off, seriously.
Sour grapes much? Kerry took some pretty good jabs at your girl. Cry me a handful.
I don't know Marc's politics, but given that his blog bucks the trend in giving much more attention to the Republican race (not that there is anything wrong with that), and given the "swiss" snark at John Kerry, I wonder whether Marc's true motivations for shilling for Hillary is because he wants her to win so that the Republicans can use her to rally from the wilderness. I have no idea if this is true or not, but it seems like a plausible theory.
Kerry is absolutely correct. Living abroad provides a unique perspective on America. I don't care if it's in a small village, an army base, or a Swiss boarding house. There will be a collection of ideas and experiences that sticks with the individual and shapes how they see them self and their country. Here in Japan many US expatriates live exclusively within pockets of English-speaking foreigners, due primarily to difficulty with the language and social forces pushing them to the margins. And yet even these individuals, as socially isolated as they are, gain some unique perspectives on America.
I'll "Say What" -- Marc, you're a reactionary little pundit, aren't you? There. I said it. Use your brain, man. You spew the CW line too well. Kerry said nothing remotely questionable.
Marc! Did YOU really post that or did someone sneak in and do that to make you look ignorant?! Living abroad, not just traveling abroad, but living there (including among other internationals as Kerry did in boarding schools) first and foremost shows a person that they're not just national citizens, but world citizens. Moreover, Americans come away knowing that the rest of the world isn't out there to push around. That the rest of the world doesn't think the U.S. is as great as Americans think we are. That a Colombian or a Somali or a Mongolian could be class president or the boss or teach them something didn't know or a scholar of American Literature just as easily as he/she, the American, could be. Oh, and perhaps most important of all -- a nation's citizenry is not a monolith, there are tribes and classes and cultural and linguistic divides, something U.S. leadership has long misunderstood and/or ignored. Political Nanny -- www.politicalnanny.com
Hello, Marc, commenters- I'm a little surprised that Kerry waited until AFTER the NH primary to endorse anyone. I don't think that his endorsement, per se, is going to move anyone into Obama's oolumn - but it did get him some free-media attention at a time when HRC and McCain are dominating the news (as evidenced by the mere fact that you posted on it and all us posting these comments as to its effect)...
What a stupid cheap shot by Marc! You should realy apologize for this one - it undermines your credibility. Notice that it is unusual when virtually all posters agree on something - particularly when it comes to defending John Kerry who isn't exactly the most popular politician in America right now . . .
Damn, someone sent the righteousness bat signal out early. As everyone has pointed out, yes Kerry's statement is factually correct. However, I think the connotations that Kerry was trying to draw from the comparison is what Marc was being snarky about. There IS a difference between a student at a Swiss boarding school or a soldier in Vietnam and Obama's youth in Indonesia. There IS a difference between Obama's rearing within the local culture and Kerry's experiences observing local culture. Put it this way: say both had spent some time before the age of 30 in say India, one as a child growing up and attending local schools and the other as a student at a boarding school or as a soldier stationed there. Would you say that they had the same experience? That their experiences would give them similar perspectives on local culture and society? That is what Kerry was implying and what Marc was being snarky about.
Why is it that when Obama speaks off the cuff one on one he sounds doesn't have a hint of a dialect or speech pattern that you could trace to any African American communities in various parts of the country. Yet when he gets up on the stump he sounds almost exactly like a 1960s, southern civil rights activist. Is that on purpose? If so isn't that a bit phoney? I mean he has never lived in the south, or been a civil rights activist. He grew up in Hawaii. If it is phoney isn't Obama guilty of playing race politics? Or using the struggles of civil rights heros for his own political gain?
You are an idiot Civilized Crank. Marc took a cheap shit for no reason. Spending any significant time abroad gives one a useful perspective on the world. Your parsing of the experience is a canard. There was no reason to attack Kerry on that front.
I would agree that any time abroad gives one a useful perspective. But just because you spend time abroad doesn't mean the perspective is the same or the lessons learned are either. I have spent time abroad too, but wouldn't pretend that it gives me the same perspective that Obama's time in Indonesia gave him. I didn't think Marc was making an attack but a snarky comment aimed at precisely that.
Marc, stop behaving like morons in RNC and Drudge. For heavens sake you claim to be a neutral blogger/journalist. By the way, have you lived abroad Marc? Lets see how much credibility you have to comment on this matter.
I've got to echo the comments by the others. This is a lame piece of lazy punditry and an unfair cheap shot at Kerry. You can, and should, do better than this, Marc.
Marc,
If you are not rolling on the floor with laughter at the ridiculous character of a man of priviledge using silly Steve Colbert-worth phrases such as making decisions by "gut" than you truly are partisan and need to take a few steps back. Kerry, like all career politicians, is a man who has known nothing but priviledge as a result of taking other people's money and giving little back other than platitudes and passing whatever bills necessary and saying whatever necessary to appeal to his base and stay in power. That he tosses around phrases like making decisions based on "gut" makes it all the more humorous. If you were to say, there are millions of starving kids in Africa and I were to say, ya I was hungry once too as a kid when I forgot my lunch money and it sucks. That would compare to the terrible comparison that Kerry draws with his "living abroad, understanding of other cultures" because I was in Switzerland while he was in the 3rd world.
Not that I know much of Obama, but my understanding was he was in a third world country as a child. Is this true? If that is the case, it may be interesting in pointing out that our most formative years in life come from our childhood surrounding and upbringing and he grew up in a place that was the antithesis of where the average American would prefer to raise their kids.
If you were to say, there are millions of starving kids in Africa and I were to say, ya I was hungry once too as a kid when I forgot my lunch money and it sucks. That would compare to the terrible comparison that Kerry draws with his "living abroad, understanding of other cultures" because I was in Switzerland while he was in the 3rd world. Nice straw man. How about you read the quotation a bit more carefully?
A typical American response. This is the kind of inward looking provincialism that gets us in trouble around the world to begin with... ANY kind of experience that would give you a sense of the rest of the world, and the extent to which is does not conform to American values, is extraordinarily valuable. Cheapest shot I've seen in a while.
He is a war hero. Show some respect. Only to people who haven't been in the military. Most of his peer officers he served with despised him. Same with most Vets. Things like his cavorting with the enemy in Paris, his false accusations against troops as atrocity-committing raping Ghengis Khans, and the dubious nature of two of his purple hearts will never be forgotten or forgive. I've never commented on this blog before, but if your mad about kerry endorsing obama, don't go as low as the republicans in 04 and bash him for saving lives. No one should be pissed that Kerry endorsed anyone because the guy is so discredited as a candidate and discredited about his past that the general wish is the guy would just shut up and go away. This is disgusting. You should think about taking this post off, seriously. Andrew, you are an idiot, so it is unlikely that the truth will ever be absorbed and have an impact on you. So a post up or down does not even affect you, let alone others....
Regarding comments suggesting the right wing wants Hillary to win as she would be easier for the Republican candidate to defeat: Can you explain why prominent neo-conservative columnists like Karl Rove, David Brooks, Andrew Sullivan, Bill Kristol, et al, gush all over Obama? I haven't seen any of them pandering to Hillary Clinton.
Amazing responses. What is it about US Americans that 'gut' and 'instinct' are prized so high? Makes me think perhaps you deserve to be subjects rather than citizens.
Kerry probably flew over several dozen countries in his wife's plane, too. He's a complete idiot with nice hair and good taste in rich women. His instincts have steered him to marry well and pose nicely.
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He was also in Vietnam for a while as a young man since he said countries. It's funny the first instinct is to mock the man whose only crime is occasionally looking like an idiot and spending his life serving his country.
Posted by Rhoda | January 11, 2008 10:03 AM