Vacillation

Good old Cal Thomas writes today on the cinematic endeavors of the Republican Party.

The Republican National Committee has released a "documentary" to counter Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11." The film (available for viewing at www.rnc.org) chronicles John Kerry's statements about Iraq and proves to all but the most partisan that this is a man who is a political opportunist and a vacillator who cannot be trusted with the power of the presidency.

Opening with Kerry's pledge at the Democratic National Convention last month to "never mislead us into war," the film shows how Kerry consistently favored using force to oust Saddam Hussein until it proved politically advantageous for him to reverse course.

Well first of all, there is a bit of a difference between an independent film-maker like Michael Moore and film, made by a party, distributed on the internet for free. Frankly I don't think Mr. Moore is worried about competition that decides to give away their movies, any more than Brittany Spears is worried about guys who sing and hold up signs saying "Will Sing for Food."

Interesting how this is one of those areas where the RNC doesn't trust capitalism. You see I am a capitalist. I think you need some government protections, but for the most part free markets work to provide the best goods. In Mr. Moore's case, he successfully put out a film that a lot of people wanted to watch. It did extremely well for a documentary. If I remember correctly, it made more money than any other documentary previously released.

So naturally the Republican response is to release an internet movie for free.

Anyway in another of the endless sacrifices I make for you, I ended up watching the movie. I particularly liked the bit where they show a moment of Kerry on Hardball with Chris Matthews. Matthews asks Kerry if he is an Anti-War candidate. Kerry answers "Yes . . . ." because then the movie immediately cuts him off and moves on to playing the theme song from Flipper.

For those who don't know here's the run down.

Senator Kerry disagreed with the timing of the first Iraq war and so voted against it.

He has long been concerned about the potential threat from Iraq (like almost every other politician), and felt that the Clinton administration and the congress wasn't doing enough to solve that problem.

He felt that President Bush should have had the authority to invade Iraq, so he voted yes on the Iraqi War Resolution.

He feels that the Bush administration made several very serious mistakes in the build up to the war, particularly in how they handled the diplomacy.

President Bush asked for $87 billion to fund the war in Iraq. Senator Kerry felt that the money should be paid for, in part, by rescinding some of the enormous tax cuts President Bush had given to the wealthy. There were also problems with some of the way the contracts were set up in that they would not allow the free market to determine the best price for the services rendered. For these reasons Senator Kerry voted against the bill. Two further points that you all know. The vote was not close, Senator Kerry knew that the soldiers would get the money. And President Bush threatened to veto the bill if it didn't come to him in an acceptable fashion.

Cal Thomas says that all who watch this film, except the most Partisan, will walk away with a negative view of Mr. Kerry. I guess that by the most partisan, he means those who know the record.

But it's like I always say, reality itself is partisan.