Hunting The Muse

SNL-Kerry's Positions

My opponent would like you to believe that I’ve changed my position on the war. The fact is I have one position, and one position only. Was Saddam a threat? Yes. I’ve said so since day one. What his regime a danger to the security of the U.S.? Of course not. Did he deserve to be removed? You bet. Was it the right action to remove him from power? No way. Was he in possession of weapons of mass destruction? Absolutely. Did he possess these weapons? No, he did not. And that has always been my position.

That's from Saturday Night Live's debate sketch, with Seth Myers as Kerry.

That's some damn good writing. Because honestly, every one of those sentences can be read as being correct, accurate, and consistent. Yes, Saddam was certainly a general threat to some degree. But no, his regime wasn't any significant danger to the security of the U.S. Those were both true at the same time. Yes, he deserved to be removed from power, as do many dictators worldwide. No, it really wasn't wise to go right in and remove him from power the way we did - the situation was more complicated than that. So again, both true at the same time. And yes, he was in possession of WMD at one time in the past. But no, he didn't possess them during the Bush administration. Aside from SNL's abuse of timetense in that last one, the whole thing is actually pretty consistent.

But it sure SOUNDS crazy. And SNL did a better job stringing it all together here than the Bush administration has ever done. It's excellent writing, because it actually didn't even misrepresent Kerry - it just made the explanation as clumsy as absolutely possible.

So really, it just comes down to Bush having to hope that people are stupid - stupid enough to believe his side of the story.

Posted by Curt at October 3, 2004 03:19 AM