December 11, 2003. ש Dean and Kerry, Conspiracy Theorists.

Jay Nordlinger at National Review says,

John Kerry put an ad on the air that sort of knocked my socks off. It reads, in part, "Kerry will make energy independence a national priority so no American will have to fight for Mideast oil." That is a breathtaking statement, with its implication that American boys are being made to shed their blood for oil — a stock charge of the lunatic Left.

...

Howard Dean thinks it's entirely possible that President Bush, before September 11, was warned by the Saudis. He calls that "the most interesting theory that I've heard so far." That a man could even entertain such a notion should be disqualifying, I would think. Instead, it's a positive credential in the Democratic primaries. Of course, cautioned Dean, "We don't know what happened [oh?]. . . . I can't imagine the president of the United States doing that. [That's good.] But we don't know [uh-oh], and it'd be a nice thing to know."

It is true that oil is one of the three reasons for the Iraq War. We were worried about (a) nukes and such, (b) horrible tyranny, and (c) Iraq taking over its oil-rich neighbors. Moreover, point (a) would not have been a problem if we weren't bothered by Iraq taking over the Middle East, and (b) would not have been enough by itself to get us to go to war. That said, though, Nordlinger is right that Kerry is playing to the conspiracy theorists who think Bush is trying to help oil companies somehow. And Dean seems to be sympathetic to real kooks here. I wonder if he also thinks it would be a nice thing to know whether the Jews really carried out 9-11 to make the Moslems look bad--- not that he really believes Jews would do that, but it would be nice to know for sure?

These are two of the "serious" candidates. I wonder what I'd find if I looked in the speeches of Sharpton, Mosely-Braun, and Kucinich?

[ permalink, http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/03.12.11c.htm ]

To return to Eric Rasmusen's weblog, click http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/0.rasmusen.htm.