HughHewitt.com

HughHewitt.com:
From Hugh Hewitt's blog:

"KERRY: 'Right now the president is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to research bunker-busting nuclear weapons. The United States is pursuing a new set of nuclear weapons. It doesn't make sense.

You talk about mixed messages. We're telling other people, 'You can't have nuclear weapons,' but we're pursuing a new nuclear weapon that we might even contemplate using.

Not this president. I'm going to shut that program down, and we're going to make it clear to the world we're serious about containing nuclear proliferation.'

This is may be the most astonishing part of Kerry's presentation last night, an authentic moment for the nuclear-freeze favoring, weapons-system hating Senator with 20 years of anti-military votes in the Congress. Kerry's voice actually rose with outrage when he said '[t]he United States is pursuing a new set of nuclear weapons.' 'It doesn't make sense,' he exclaimed.

How I wish Jim Lehrer had asked him why not. Then the authentic Kerry would have responded on the dangers of American power and American unilateralism. Notice Kerry's dismissiveness of the prospect of even using nuclear bunker busters. Does he prefer that a president of the future not have that option when confronted with a rogue nation threatening us or an ally but whose command and control facilities are buried deep in mountains or below a mile of concrete? Kerry states simply that seriousness about containing nuclear proliferation begins with 'shutting down' American weapons development. This is profoundly at odds with mainstream American defense thinking. It is a radical position, and Kerry is a radical candidate. Kerry expresses amazement that anyone can believe that America can say nukes for us but not for others, but America has been saying that since the dawn of the nuclear era, and must continue to say so. Follow Kerry's logic, and it is the iron logic of unilateral disarmament.

D.C. punditry talked itself into a corner on last night's debate. They should have listened more closely. America will not vote for this guy. He makes Carter look strong.