Kerry's MTV interview

Benjamin of Ad Limina Apostolorum emailed me asking what I thought of Kerry’s MTV interview and what he said about Rap music. I had been intending to blog on that interview after hearing clips of it on the Hugh Hewitt show.

Looking over the interview of John Kerry there were some pretty strange things that he had replied. When one person asked him about gay marriages, part of his reply was the following.

That gives people the rights: the rights of partnership, the rights of inheritance of property, the rights of taxation and so forth, those kinds of treatment that are equal.

Taxation is a right? That is one right I would be glad to be rid of. Of course from a Democratic perspective maybe they see that taxation is a right. Though it is doubtful that anybody would fight for this right.

Yago: Well, we know that you were into rock and roll when you were in high school, and we know that you play the guitar now. Are there any trends out there in music, or even in popular culture in general, that have piqued your interest?

Kerry: Oh sure. I follow and I’m interested. I don’t always like, but I’m interested. I mean, I never was into heavy metal. I didn’t really like it. I’m fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there’s a lot of poetry in it. There’s a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you’d better listen to it pretty carefully, ’cause it’s important…

I would bet you that President Bush can pronounce more foreign leaders names correctly then John Kerry can name prominent Rap artists. John Kerry and Hip Hop just don’t go together or at least you would need to remove the word Hip. Then again maybe he thought they said Flip Flop instead of Hip Hop. He in intimately familiar with Flip Flop. In the interview he bashed Bush about the Kyoto treaty which over 160 other nations had signed and that Mr. Bush did not support. Of course this same treaty John Kerry voted no in a Roll Call vote to provide funds to implement this treaty. This treaty was so bad that it never even came to a vote in Senate and that roll call vote was unanimous in opposition to it.

Yago: Let’s take another question from one of our viewers. Her name is Meredith and she had a question about one of your heroes.

[Tape plays.] Senator Kerry, I heard you were really inspired by John F. Kennedy. Who do you think is an inspirational figure for my generation?

Kerry: Boy, that’s a good question. You know, it’s just a different time right now. As I talk to my daughters, who are recent graduates of college and out there, they tell me that a lot of young people just don’t have that kind of feeling right now. Certainly not about politics. And I regret that. That’s one of the things that I would like to change. I mean, Howard Dean and I just did a rally here at George Washington University, talking to young people about making politics relevant again. And a lot of what I would like to achieve in this race comes out of the inspiration of my own experience when a candidate for president, and then a president, challenged us to become involved and change the system. You know, young people have so much more power than they tend to think to be able to affect politics. And if people will organize and get involved and go out and knock on doors and hand out leaflets and make a change, then they can determine the future. And that’s what I think is at stake in this race. I hope I can inspire young people to care about the system in this race, certainly in terms of politics. I know there are a lot of musicians and a lot of artists and there are a lot of writers and other people who inspire young people, but I’d like to see somebody in political life be able to connect and make these choices that we need to make in Washington real in terms of people’s lives.

Was there an answer to the question in there somewhere. I think I would rather walk on my hands in knees in Iraq looking for WMDs then trying to find an answer in that paragraph. I guess the interviewer felt somewhat the same and followed up with:

Yago: Just to paraphrase her question, any of those writers or musicians that you think would do a good job serving in office?

Kerry: Sure there are. Of course there are people, absolutely. I mean, I’ll tell you. Carole King, who has been out campaigning for me hard in Iowa, New Hampshire and various places, is as knowledgeable about the issues as anybody I have ever seen. And she has been campaigning her heart out, not just doing concerts for me, but going and talking and spending most of her day meeting with people and engaged. There are unbelievable numbers of people in the world of arts who could serve well, but I think a lot of them are turned off by the system, unfortunately, and I don’t blame them to some degree.

So I guess the answer to the question about who is a inspiration figure for today’s generation is Carole King. Good songwriter and singer but an inspiration to young people who have probably not even heard of her? Is she supposed to be inspirations because she campaigns for John Kerry? He says that Rap music is important but he couldn’t name anybody within three decades of Carole King as being inspirations.

Senator Kerry, in the clearest terms, what would be the principal difference between the foreign policy of your administration and that of the Bush administration?

Kerry: Brian, the principle difference will be almost everything….

Well that part of the answer I can firmly agree with.

There is one part that seems to have been left out of the transcript that I had heard a clip of on the Hugh Hewitt show. Other clips that I heard also seemed to be left out. But to paraphrase it from memory. The interviewer had asked Mr. Kerry about the cultural significance ot the symbol on his hat (a Malcolm X ball cap). Kerry replied, “The Latin number for 10, or X-men”, he finally came up with Malcolm X and then related how he was such an important figure to him.

Like most MTV interviews most of the question were beyond stupid. Questions like “Senator Kerry, I really want to know, have you ever Googled yourself?” and “Senator Kerry, were you cool in college? And are you cool now?”

Of course this was the same interview where “Dr. Kerry” informed us that homosexuals were born that way. It looks like his medical knowledge is just as good as his knowledge on culture, economics, the evironment, and foreign policy.