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Whither the Manchurian Candidate?
By Horace Cooper
May 10, 2004

Truth really is stranger than fiction. Before Hollywood can release its remake of "The Manchurian Candidate" erstwhile presidential candidate John Kerry is attempting his own rendition. Although the Hollywood version with Denzel Washington is poised to be a summer blockbuster, early returns suggest things aren't looking too good for John Kerry's version.

You may recall that in the original 1962 release of "The Manchurian Candidate" Frank Sinatra's character, Major Bennet Marco, uncovered a sinister political plot involving a former Korean War POW, decorated war hero and well connected Washington politico. In the movie Sgt. Shaw, the aforementioned war hero, is rainwashed by his communist captors in an elaborate plot to secure control of the presidency and place it in the hands of her foreign enemies. Early in the movie, there is a surreal scene in which Marco, Shaw and their fellow soldiers believe they are guests at a meeting of a ladies' garden club. But actually they've been hypnotized and they are really in a POW camp.

Perhaps some similar psychogenics explain the recent surrealistic moves by presidential candidate and decorated combat veteran John Kerry?

Remember when he was asked about his own usage of an SUV after announcing his plan to raise Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards? According to the Boston Herald, Senator Kerry insisted, "I don't own an SUV." But when asked about the Chevrolet Suburban parked at his Idaho vacation home, which the Herald calls "the mother of all SUVs" Senator Kerry replied, "The family has it. I don't have it." Okay, it's your wife's truck that you use and benefit from. As President Bush has remarked, "Now, there's a fellow who's getting a lot of mileage out of his Suburban." Even the best political spinners wouldn't try to mesmerize us this way. Mesmerism or not, in the words of Ricky Ricardo, "Senator, you got some 'splaining to do." Maybe a saboteur is secretly manipulating John Kerry to foil his election prospects. Sound too farfetched to be true? Senator Kerry does claim to be consulting with foreign leaders.

But if this incident were an isolated event it wouldn't be remarkable. Unfortunately it seems that this strange form of political psychosis is systemic for John Kerry.

Initially John Kerry voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq. As recently as May of last year Senator Kerry said, "I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein, and when the President made the decision, I supported him, and I support the fact that we did disarm him." Today Presidential candidate Kerry espouses the pro-French view saying, "I don't believe the president took us to war as he should have." And when given a chance to vote on the $87 billion Iraq reconstruction bill, Senator Kerry opposed it, later explaining that "I voted for it, before I voted against it." How do you harmonize these positions? Voodoo maybe?

But wait, there's more. Last year Senator Kerry defended his vote for the Patriot Act saying, "it has to do with things that really were quite necessary in the wake of what happened on September 11th." Now he says, "We are a nation of laws and liberties, not of a knock in the night. It is time to end the era of John Ashcroft. That starts with replacing the Patriot Act." And if hypnosis doesn't explain this bipolar-like behavior, what does?

There's more still. Between 1989 and 1993, Senator Kerry voted three times against the death penalty for terrorists. He claimed that countries opposed to the death penalty wouldn't cooperate with the U.S. John Kerry objurgated his GOP opponent's (former Governor William Weld) policy in favor of execution for terrorists calling it tantamount to a "terrorist protection policy. Mine would put them in jail." While insisting that politics has had nothing to do with his change, now Presidential candidate Kerry favors the death penalty for terrorists. But how long will he hold this position?

As a Senator, John Kerry was quoted by the Washington Post as calling affirmative action "inherently limited and divisive." When asked about it during the presidential campaign his response "That's not what I said.... I've never, ever condemned it." Maybe it's not that he can't remember. Maybe he's not allowed to.

In 2000, then Senator Kerry was highly critical of the Cuban embargo claiming, "The only reason we don't

reevaluate the policy is the politics of Florida." Today, he supports "engagement" but is opposed to "opening the embargo willy nilly."

As late as 1993 free trader John Kerry explained his vote for the North American Free Trade Agreement, claiming, "NAFTA recognizes the reality of today's economy - globalization and technology. Our future is not in competing at the low-level wage job; it is in creating high-wage, new technology jobs based on our skills and our productivity." But presidential candidate Kerry speaks a different tune. "If it were before me today, I would vote against it." Wasn't it before him when he voted for it? Did he know and when did he know it?

Let's come full circle to the most recent flap over John Kerry's war medals. For years, Senator Kerry has maintained that he threw away his ribbons and the medals of another soldier -- while his medals were in safekeeping at home that day - to protest the war in Vietnam. Now comes the transcript from a television program in which a young John Kerry appeared. When asked whether he'd tossed -- or given back -- the Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts that he had won in four months of combat in Vietnam, Mr. Kerry replied: "Yeah, and above that, I gave back my others." Reasonable people might want to know if he was lying then or now. When asked about the transcript he said it's a "phony controversy" that might have been caused because Kerry "uses the term 'ribbons' and 'medals' interchangeably." Now who are you going to believe, candidate Kerry or your lying ears?

In the movie version of the Manchurian Candidate, the conspiracy unravels and the presidency is saved. In John Kerry's version, will the candidacy unravel thereby saving the presidency?

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.