Some time ago I wrote that all we needed to know about John Kerry is that if Osama bin Laden could vote in our election Kerry would be his choice in November. Most commentators, Democrat and Republican, tacitly acknowledge this when they discuss the possibility of a terrorist strike on American homeland this summer or autumn to pull the electorate to the left, as they succeeded in doing in Spain.
Now there is a runner-up for the honorific "All We Need to Know About John Kerry" An article in the Washington Times sums it up for us in a single sentence. In a piece discussing how Kerry is being advised to keep quiet about religious matters, the Times explains how Kerry's new religion advisor, a twenty nine year old Unitarian socialist named Mara Vanderslice, who majored in Peace and Global Studies at a Quaker college and who somewhat paradoxically participated in the violent rallies against the IMF in Seattle in 2000 and 2002, is now being marginalized by the Kerry campaign. The article then quotes the fateful sentence:
Think about that for a moment. Someone who probably doesn't know Kerry personally, at least not well, is permitted to define his positions on spiritual issues. This certainly gives a new twist to the concept of "deep convictions". A man's spiritual beliefs, if they are genuine, are surely the most important, most personal, most profound beliefs he holds. How can someone else, someone who doesn't even know the candidate, be allowed to define those positions for him unless, in fact, they're not all that important to Senator Kerry in the first place? Perhaps for Kerry the only purpose religious beliefs serve is to endear him to whichever segment of the electorate he can bamboozle with them. Can you imagine George Bush having his spiritual beliefs defined by someone other than himself?