Sen. John Kerry was on David Letterman the other night after a promising speech at New York University earlier in the day. In both instances, he acted and sounded more like the pointed, sharp, on message, offensive and passionate presidential candidate that I've been desperately seeking rather than the weak, scattered and defensive candidate we've been seeing.He explained his "flip-flop," he put the blame on Bush for an unjustified and costly war, and mounted pressure on Bush with four next steps on how to extricate ourselves out of Iraq (see New York University Speech to get the details.) Kerry also performed the infamous "Top Ten," list bashing Bush's tax plans and the audience responded with some hearty chuckles. So kudos to his new advisors and keep it going.Kerry's "Top 10 Bush Tax Proposals" are:10. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents.9. W-2 Form is now Dubya-2 Form.8. Under the simplified tax code, your refund check goes directly to Halliburton.7. The reduced earned income tax credit is so unfair, it just makes me want to tear out my lustrous, finely groomed hair.6. Attorney General (John) Ashcroft gets to write off the entire U.S. Constitution.5. Texas Rangers can take a business loss for trading Sammy Sosa.4. Eliminate all income taxes; just ask Teresa (Heinz Kerry) to cover the whole damn thing.3. Cheney can claim Bush as a dependent.2. Hundred-dollar penalty if you pronounce it "nuclear" instead of "nucular."1. George W. Bush gets a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.
Tracy Van Slyke, a former publisher of In These Times, is the project director for The Media Consortium.
