A Question for Marjorie.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills

Marjorie Williams, one of my favorite people on the planet, has written a column in the March 7 Washington Post that is unremittingly hostile to John Kerry. She calls him "Flipper," a nickname that I have a deep foreboding will be enthusiastically embraced by the GOP. A question for Marjorie and for other liberal journalists: Is this the time to afflict our friend and comfort the enemy? Isn't Bush a far worse threat to everything they care about than Kerry at his worst?

It's not as if the traits Marjorie identifies are such unredeemed failings that they disqualify him from the presidency. Indeed, the same characteristics appear in a considerably more favorable light in an article headed "Kerry Dots Deliberation with Decision" that appeared on the front page of the same edition of the Post that carried Marjorie's column. Its author, Laura Blumenfeld, finds that Kerry "researches and analyzes carefully before choosing. He always deliberates, even if only for a second. What differs is how close he is to the ground."

She tells a story of how a plane was plunging towards the Nevada desert. "10,000 feet, 6,000 feet, 2,000 feet and falling. Young Kerry, sitting next to the pilot, reached for the controls. 'Give it to me,' Kerry said, over the screams of the engine," and landed the plane safely. His brother Cameron explained to Blumenfeld: "It's the deadline thing. He is not going to act when he doesn't need to. He's incredibly decisive when he needs to be."

Kerry is a relentless questioner, often playing devil's advocate with his staff--a quality especially esteemed by presidential historians, and the very opposite of George W. Bush, described in The Price of Loyalty, who dislikes arguing with himself, who is profoundly incurious, and who does not encourage his staff to provide him with carefully researched alternatives, disliking the kind of debate that would explore options.

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