A little too much repetition in debate?Page 2 of 2 -- A gift for John. Senator, I'm going to send you a copy of the Constitution. You said on Thursday that the president always has a right to wage preemptive war. Whoa! Help me out here: Where in the Constitution did you find that one? Mine (an old version, perhaps) says only Congress can declare war. Does your friend Arthur Schlesinger Jr. know you lust for an Imperial Presidency?
Remember Hubert Humphrey. Ah, the joys of the past month. Missouri, once a tossup state, swinging heavily to Bush; Ohio, too. Safe-for-Kerry New Jersey now Scary-for-Kerry. Women voters moving toward Bush. W on a roll. Here's a cliche to ponder, Mr. President. One should start counting his or her chickens when, exactly? Richard Nixon won the presidency in 1968, but if the election had been held a week later, we might be debating how good a president Hubert Humphrey had been; he was closing fast in those last days. Another cliche: It ain't over till it's over. And it's not over yet. This campaign might have been expected to be a referendum on you, Mr. President. But the Dems did you a favor and nominated John Kerry, and so the election has become a referendum on him instead. But if he wins that referendum -- it's a low bar, Mr. President; all he has to do is prove that he's up to the job and not scary -- and this race will be a tossup again. Remember: An undecided voter is a voter who has decided that he or she is willing to consider tossing you overboard. Don't give them a reason to want to do that. You said on Thursday night that you don't take the Kerry camp's attacks personally. I doubt that's true, but in any case your reactions Thursday night sent a very different message. So breathe deeply, Mr. President, put some Eric Satie in your Walkman and go for a long walk on your favorite country road. And cool it.
Mickey Edwards, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma, teaches at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International affairs. His column appears regularly in the Globe. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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