Time to bury the past

I was perusing an old Reader's Digest whilst on the toilet the other day (okay, okay, this is not a high-class blog), and came across an article about the thought processes of men and women. The gist: women like to talk about the past, men like to talk about sports and the future. Though that's obviously a gross generalization, it got me thinking about the dynamics of the Bush-Kerry campaigns. Kerry and the boys are -- mistakenly and potentially disastrously, I think -- focused on the past. In today's National Post (sorry, no link), Robert Fulford compares the current campaign's fixation on Vietnam to the would-be absurdity of Harry Truman recalling his service in WWI during the 1948 presidential campaign. 30 years later, nobody cares. And if they did, they already would have made their minds up by now. No way of substantiating this, but I think most Americans want to believe that going into Iraq was the right thing to do, and want to elect a president who is going to improve the current situation there. Bush is the status quo, but he's talking about the future. There *will* be free elections in Iraq in January, he stresses. The march of freedom continues. Whatever. But it beats lamenting the past and placing blame with everyone in sight. Kerry had to hammer away at Bush's record, no doubt, if only because the election is a referendum on the incumbent's first term. But it's time to turn the corner. Vietnam is again turning into a quagmire for Kerry, three decades after his tour of duty. For God's sake, man, if you have any real (and realistic) ideas about how you'll change national policy on Iraq, out with it, and hammer it home. This is not helped by the fact that Kerry has not put forward a consistent and coherent expression of his stance on Iraq -- past, present or future. Kerry's high point was the convention speech, and it's because he used it to talk about his plans for the nation if elected president. The complaining act is getting tired. Girlie men dwell on the past. Alpha males get on with their business and look to the future. Let's see what direction JFK's facing as we enter the home stretch.