Great ADL Kerry speech from '04. Funny flying story,

[_dynamicdems]

If you have never had the opportunity to read this speech that John Kerry gave at the ADL's National Leadership Conference, it's packed with a lot of gems of wisdom and wit, including this story about a little flying lesson the senator took in an Israel fighter jet.

Senator John Kerry
Address to the Anti-Defamation League
National Leadership Conference
Washington, D.C., May 3, 2004

(excerpt)


But at Ovda Air Base -- I'm a pilot, and I was longing to get up into Israel airspace. And I made several requests of Tel Aviv, and Tel Aviv kept saying, "No, we don't think this is a good idea, for the senator to go flying."

Finally, I sort of nudged the colonel that I was with. And he was an ace from the '67 war. And I said, "Colonel, is there no way we could arrange this? Would you mind going back and calling Tel Aviv and see if we could do a flight?"

So lo and behold, he gets up from the table. And we're starting to eat. And he comes back about 10 minutes later, and he says, "Senator, I hope you don't eat too much. We're going flying."

So the next thing I know, I'm whisked out to the airport, which is right there, out to the airstrip, and he tells me, "Look, I'm not going to have time to give you all the instructions, but the minute we take off, it's your airplane."

Now I had never explained to him whether I'd ever flown a jet before or anything.

And he was very trusting. And I got out to the tarmac and I got into my suit and my helmet and jumped into the airplane. It was a trainer, a Fuga trainer. And I got in the front seat, he got in the back. He was indeed very trusting. That's why he was an ace! And we take off.

And literally, you know, we're about five feet above the runway and he gives me this signal with a stick, says, "Your plane." So I take it off. We go up into the sky. Climb up, head down towards Aqaba. And I wanted to look at Aqaba, so I'm coming down over Aqaba, and I suddenly hear this voice in the intercom and he says, "Senator, you better turn faster, you're going over Egypt." So I started to wrap it in and do a faster turn.

Then I asked him if I could do a loop, a little aerobatics. And he said fine. So I went up to about 12,000 feet and proceeded to go in and do a loop. And I want you to know, ladies and gentlemen, that to be able to come out upside down and look down and catch the horizon in back of me, and see all the way down into the Sinai, to the old base that had been given up, all the way across into Jordan, all the way out into the Gulf of Aqaba, and to see Israel beneath me, and the lines contained, and to see it all upside down was the perfect way to see the Middle East and Israel.

But in all seriousness, it was an extraordinary lesson to look off into Jordan and Syria, to see the Mediterranean, to see the entire Sinai, to get this tiny sense of how compacted and small it was -- reinforced, may I add, by a drive along the green line looking down those eight miles or so at the thinnest spot, to see the ocean and to recognize how just absolutely extraordinary it is.

read the rest here: http://www.adl.org/adl_in_action/conference_2004_kerry.asp

Man oh man. This is the guy I want for my President! Shades of Bill Pullman in Independence Day!

[sandnsea]

1. Kerry's flight jacket

I was looking for something the other day and ran across a blog post on JK and the Swifites. Part of it referred to that flight jacket he wears and ridiculed him for supposedly not knowing the difference between that and Navy gear. So apparently people didn't even know he flies. Argh.

[_dynamicdems]

3. He doesn't just fly...he can fly just about anything and does stunts too!

Flying, kite-boarding, hockey, skiing and snowboarding, biking and riding a Harley...and he's not unfamilar with guns or swords either.

Good grief, anyone who says this guy is dull needs their head examined.

JK is literally an action hero and a polished a savvy diplomat as well. Jeez...he's James Bond (without the women, of course...though quite a few would line up for the er...privledge, I daresay)!

Kerry, John Kerry. hehe

[sandnsea]

4. Oh, I think more than a few

Even my daughter said he's hot, for an old guy. That probably really should be something we work harder on, how do we create an image of him and our party that is more than the bookworm Alan Colmes image we've got going on now.

[JohnKleeb]

5. yeah democrats are regarded as being whiny wusses

I hate that image, it wasn't always that way though. I think I read Kerry learned to pilot at 16 or something like that. That's ppretty damned impressive.

[sandnsea]

6. Maybe a new web site

That includes unions, military, organic farmers, sustainable loggers, fishermen, recreationists, firefighters & cops, wildland firefighters, small business, big business, and weaves in the real Democratic platform in short quotes and stories.

[JohnKleeb]

8. That ain't a bad idea

It doesn't help matters of course when you got our idiots in GD insulting hte middle class and middle America. Middle Class Americans are those people you talk about, they work hard and make sacrifaces to help their families out. My dad had a small business when I was young so I know that small business owners don't have it easy and they're not like the corporate world at all.

[_dynamicdems]

7. All the damn whining is hurting us too. Until Dems stop bashing

Dems we are going to look like a bunch of spoiled brats fighting each other over a piece of candy.

As for bookworm images, the is no doubt that Dems have been considered the intellectuals and nobody likes the smart kid in class. Intellectualism has been associated with effete snobs, socially inept nerds and bookworms who analyze but never do anything of note. That perception is what needs to be attacked somehow.

I think that's why people who had never heard of John Kerry before 2004 had a hard time believing he was for real. He was too smart to be cool. He had to be pretending. The fact that he's hunted all his life didn't matter: they saw a guy dressing up to show people he wasn't an intellectual wimp. That's so wrong. The perception is that you are either a high-brow or a tough-guy. John Kerry has always been both. That's not so unusual, but in common stereotyping it is unheard of. We need a little enlightenment because the collective mind of America has atrophied.

[JohnKleeb]

9. That too and if we are to be smart

We can't look down on people. I am sick of my party being regarded as the anti religion party, it's just not true. When I was in school I was regarded as smart in history but I didn't treat people who didn't know stuff like they were dumbasess. The intelluctual image I have to say hurt Adlai Stevenson when he ran against Eisenhower big time. The whining does make us look like whiners though. People want to hear what we're going to do not "George Bush sucks" blah blah, some of our arm chair stragetists think that's a way to win votes. It's not and they're part of the problem not the solution.

[ProSense]

2. Cool story! Thanks! n/t

[globalvillage]

10. That is a wonderful speech.

Thank you for posting it.

"This is the calling of all Americans who believe in our country and in our principles, and it is the calling of all those who believe in our common humanity across this planet. I believe we can harness that spirit to lift up our land again, to lift up our aspirations, to change our politics, and to change the direction of this nation."