Kerry Motto Lotto

Via Mickey, we learn that Noam Scheiber of TNR is running a "Kerry Motto Lotto":

...for my money it's the last graf of the same article that best sums Kerry up:

"Between the moral clarity, black and white, good and evil of George Bush that distorts and gets reality wrong," [former Kerry aide Jonathan Winer] said, "and someone who quotes a French philosopher, André Gide, saying, 'Don't try to understand me too much,' I'd let Americans decide which in the end is closer to what they need in a president, in a complex world where if you get it really wrong there are enormous consequences."

Isn't that basically Kerry in a nutshell? He'll never be too wrong--and, oh yeah, he can quote André Gide! They should put this on a bumper sticker...

Actually, why don't we let our inner Mickey Kauses run wild and turn this into a contest? If you see a quote from Kerry or a Kerry aide/associate/acquaintance/relative that you feel nicely sums up the de facto Democratic nominee, please send it to [email protected], ATTN: "Kerry Motto Lotto." I'll announce a winner during the Democratic convention in July.

That sets the bar pretty high, but here at JustOneMinute, we are committed to victory... or at least, a long, potentially inconclusive quagmire. So, our first entry draws on the same article:

"There's indoor John and outdoor John," said Jonathan Winer, a Washington lawyer and former State Department official who worked for Mr. Kerry from 1983 to 1994.

"Indoor John is thoughtful, works all this through, is nuanced, and so deeply into the process that you can get impatient," Mr. Winer said. "Outdoor John is a man of action. There'd be a point where, Boom! and go. Once it happened, the dialogue was over, and you wouldn't always know which way he was going to go."

OK, our idea for a bumper sticker that both co-opts the "Two Americas" theme and reassures voters that John Kerry is thoughtful and reflective:

Vote Kerry - It's time for an indoor John.

Comments

[Cecil Turner]

This might be cheating, but if you splice his French quote with the beginning of his Winter Soldier testimony, you get:
"Don't try to understand me too much"--"I am not here as John Kerry."

[TM]

That is very funny. I still have hopes of doing something with his "I was prescient" comment to TIME. Or maybe "Asses of Evil - not just a fight against obesity."

[Richard Meixner]

Your suggestion opens a whole new dimension to outsourcing.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

From:

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061503.shtml

``Let's fly under the bridge!''

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

Wow, MoDo has a slew of possibilities:

" Like Dennis Kucinich, he writes soulful poetry."

"not a simple brush-clearing, ESPN-watching fellow"

"wrote a poem about the barren desolation of the desert"

"We all were affected by Hemingway."

"I'd love to learn to tango."

All that's missing is, "There's something really sexy about Scrooge McDuck."

[TM]

We are committed to victory. Unless you are going to submit those, I will; I'll even credit you on some of them.

My fave is still, for Southern Dems worried about Kerry's impact down-ticket, or anyone worried about national security:

"Kerry - Let's fly under the bridge!"

[Paul Zrimsek]

The perfect Kerry image, and a possible project for anyone whose Photoshop skills exceed mine: A twin-engine fighter jet streaking away from the Golden Gate Bridge at about deck height. Behind it stream two contrails: one passing over the bridge and one passing under it.

[Jon Neufeld]

"But I can do a better job of protecting America's security because the test that I was talking about was a test of legitimacy, not just in the globe, but elsewhere."

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/10/04/kerry.global/index.html