In a response to George W. Bush’s weird speech last night, John Kerry says: “Leadership isn’t a speech or a toll-free number.” I agree, as would EVERYONE. But there’s another oddness to such a response, as if John Kerry and most other politicians don’t love a speech or slobber at the sight of a camera. We know that “leadership” isn’t a “speech” but pardon me if much of the public square hasn’t been filled with the holy mugs of too many lens lovers over the last weeks, especially during the Robert’s hearings.

Here’s some further dislogic. Bush said in his advert

[. . . ]And that poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality.

When the streets are rebuilt, there should be many new businesses, including minority-owned businesses, along those streets. When the houses are rebuilt, more families should own, not rent, those houses. When the regional economy revives, local people should be prepared for the jobs being created.

Excuse me. The poverty issue has been around for some time. NOW’S the time to confront it, as if the eyes have suddenly come open? There are many kinds of poverty and many people who live in it and with it and who fight it. We know this. The locus of poverty isn’t New Orleans. Connecticut has plenty of it and in many forms, as do all the states. The reasoning in the president’s words is “Let me talk for the love of what the camera can give me” crap.

“Let us restore all that we have cherished . . .” Well shucks. Let’s.