September 25, 2004
Flying with the Wind
If I had a newspaper, I'd want this cartoon as a lead for my letter of the day.
One of the peculiar things about this year's presidential campaign is that
the campaigns keep featuring their opponents in their ads. The latest one
everyone's talking about is John Kerry riding the waves with the wind at
his back.
Do the Republicans really think this is a strange thing for someone who's
promoting wind energy as an alternative source of power to be doing? What
could be more consistent?
I know, this is supposed to be a variant of the flip-flop theme. But
anyone who knows anything about the wind and the weather knows that neither
flags, nor vanes, nor windsocks, nor sails are flopping or flacid when
there's a good wind blowing. And they know that the direction of the wind,
which that trusty vane declares, is still a good way to tell what's coming
up. Which, of course, is what we expect of someone who's looking ahead.
People who don't pay attention to which way the winds blow are apt to be
surprised. Which, at the least, suggests that any directions they provide
us are not be relied on.