November 11, 2004
And So It Comes Out
Marty Peretz has a personal beef with John Kerry. Given the treatment of Kerry during the lead-up and prosecution of the primary campaign, I figured as much. It was the only way to explain why they didn't get behind a man so ideologically similar to them even though Dean was close to a primary victory. Anyway, I think this should have been out on the table earlier.
I'm not saying Marty Peretz's opinions determine everything TNR writes. But it is deluded to act as if they don't have a decisive influence. Editorially, TNR's ideological slant is molded by Peretz's whims. If the editors come to disagree with him, all he has to do is fire them.
The problem with these sorts of articles is that they're entirely speculative. Maybe he's right, maybe he's not, but there's absolutely no way to know. He marshalls very few facts in support of his argument. Why does he think Lieberman would have won, for example? What about his positions or support would have got him to 270? What specific failings caused Kerry to lose? He seems completely to ignore the fact that Kerry did better than Gore in 2000 while claiming that Gore would have won this time without even attempting to provide support for that argument. I give it a C-.
He also ignores Kerry's specific strengths and overstates Gore's positives. For one thing, Kerry actually has combat experience, while Gore was in the journalist corps. And who besides geeks know, for example, about Gore's efforts on defense towards the close of the Cold War? And might such things not be explained in reference to the values of the states Gore and Kerry represented?
Peretz is clearly prejudiced in favor of his former student and friend. I just didn't realize until now that Peretz had a hand in foisting Liebermann upon us.