The Facts Machine

"And I come back to you now, at the turn of the tide"

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

THE REAL EXPLANATION FOR KERRY'S DELAYED-NOMINATION IDEA

Lots of people are chiming in on the motivations for Kerry floating the idea of delaying the actual acceptance of the Democratic nomination for President until well after the Convention in late July.

Some people think that money is behind the reason: Because Kerry would have to adhere to spending limits after a formal nomination, and because the Dem Convention is 5 weeks before the GOP Convention, he'd be at a potential financial disadvantage to accept the nomination in late July. That's a compelling explanation, indeed.

Other people with a lower opinion of John Kerry believe that he is doing this to lower the emphasis on the Convention, thus lowering the amount of attention the media pays to Kerry, who is of course an impotent bore on all fronts. To those who are thinking that, I'd say "Mickey, shut up".

Both those rationales aside, here's my tinfoil-hat idea for what the real reason is...

John Kerry wants to put the importance of the Convention into question, but not for the reasons cited by any of the above. Here's why...

Remember this tidbit from Josh Marshall's blog a couple of weeks ago?
Just to pass on some added information, about which we'll be saying more. There is chatter in Pakistani intelligence circles that the US has let the Pakistanis know that the optimal time for bagging 'high value' al Qaida suspects in the untamed Afghan-Pakistani border lands is the last ten days of July, 2004.
For the sake of my tinfoil hat, let's assume that this chatter is for real. (Marshall isn't one to lie to us, btw) Could there be any reason for the "last ten days of July" to be named, other than to steal the thunder of the Democratic Convention? Ok good.

Now we have Kerry floating an idea that would de-emphasize the importance of the Convention itself. To me, this strikes me as some sort of tacit game of chicken with the Bush administration. The Kerry people are saying "look, if you guys want to fuck with our convention, then we're not gonna give you anything to fuck with". People make a big deal about Kerry's political timing, but perhaps it's not his timing which caused this turn of events. (Not to mention the RNC bending election laws to have their convention so late)

I dunno, it's as plausible as anything else out there. Certainly moreso than Kaus' idea.

UPDATE: Okay, it's all moot, now let's get on with our lives.

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