Kerry - flip/flopping in the '60s
Thanks to
Curmudgeonly and Skeptical we can see a page from John Forbes Kerry's Yale Yearbook from 1966. Under activities we see:
bq. Yale Young Democrats , 1962 - 63 ; and
Yale Young Republicans , 1965 - 66
Terpsboy also points us to an article in the blog
Off the Fence. The subtitle of this blog gives you some insight as to where we are going here: "Politics, gossip, and witticisms
from a Yalie." (emphasis mine)
The entry points us to this article in the
Yale Daily News:
bq.
Kerry's leadership in YPU was lackluster performance
If you ever wander around campus on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, you may run into a curious spectacle. You are likely to see a bunch of people with seemingly nothing better to do than sit around college common rooms drinking, banging gavels, and discussing some terribly obscure or dreadfully obvious "resolutions." Sadly, I am usually one of those people, and you probably ran into a meeting of one of the parties of the Yale Political Union (YPU). The political union is by no means a "cool" organization. If you ever come to its events you will find that the proportion of people with a fixation with becoming president and those who like to drink on weekdays is abnormally high, even for Yale. Surprisingly, some of the political union people do make it big. The most famous example right now is John Kerry.
And just what did Kerry do in the YPU?
bq. The Yale Liberal Party, of which I am a member and John Kerry used to be chairman, passes on many unpleasant stories about him. According to Liberal Party lore,
Kerry was among the worst chairs in its history. Jorge Dominguez, currently a professor at Harvard and a member of Kerry's Liberal Party Executive Board, reports that under Kerry's leadership the party went on YPU probation. Probation means that the party's leader could not get enough of the party's members to sign a YPU attendance roster. Although getting people to sign in turns out to be a surprisingly arduous job, very few chairmen fail to do it in the end. Not getting enough signatures suggest one of two things: either the chairman faced some unfortunate circumstances or he has some personality problems. According to Dominguez, Kerry's leadership caused his probation.
(emphasis mine)
And how did the Liberal Party react?
bq. In order to get back at Kerry, members of the Liberal Party formed the Dixwell Society. By now, the group is largely defunct, although it still officially meets during Liberal Party reunions and its story gets retold for everyone wishing to hear. The society's major point was to include every former chairmen except one who most people disliked. You can guess who. In addition, the News' article reports that due to its conflict with Kerry part of the Liberal Party split off to form the Party of the Left.
And the authors commentary about Kerry's leadership qualities?
bq. Personally, I would not let Kerry circa 1966 run a public toilet, let alone a country. Hopefully, today's Kerry is a different man. Perhaps his service in Vietnam changed him for the better. Perhaps time has changed him. But maybe he has not changed. Recently Kerry mentioned that George Bush remains the same guy he was in college. If Bush didn't change, why would Kerry?
Interesting insight - as much as I think George Bush is having problems with his domestic leadership (his work on Terror is just fine), Kerry will never ever get my vote. Having this person in office, even for the minimum four years, would be a disaster for this nation...
Posted by DaveH at March 18, 2004 1:46 PM