"ARE YOU A REPUBLICAN?"

By now, you may very well have read or heard the browbeating that Kerry gave a potential voter in a townhall meeting in Bethlehem, PA on Sunday:

Kerry: No, wait, wait, wait, wait you asked me if I’d met with any leaders. Yes. I have had conversations with leaders, yes, recently. That’s not your business, it’s mine. I’ve met with foreign leaders for any [inaudible] purpose–I never said that. What I said was that I have heard from people who are leaders elsewhere in the world who don’t appreciate the Bush administration approach and would love to see a change in the leadership of the United States. I’m talking our allies, I’m talking about people who were our friends nine months ago, I’m talking about people who ought to be at our side in Iraq and aren’t because this administration has pushed them away in its arrogance, that’s what I’m talking about. Are you a registered Republican? Are you a Republican? You answer the question. That’s not an answer. Did you vote for George Bush? Did you vote for George Bush? Thank you.

James Taranto (who set the above lines in bold) has a great slant on this exchange:

Apparently the man said he did indeed vote for Bush. Perhaps it hasn’t occurred to Kerry that if he is to win the presidency, he will have to persuade some Bush voters to support him instead. The only thing Kerry seems to stand for so far is hatred of Republicans, and that’s not going to be sufficient to win him the White House.

How many people who voted for Ike in ’56, or the first President Bush in ’88 did Kennedy and Clinton get to switch allegiances during their campaigns?

Remember the Reagan Democrats of the 1980s?

Kerry doesn’t. Of course, neither did Dean.