Bmda: Keep Kerry out of the White House!

If US Presidential hopeful John Kerry were elected it would not be good for Bermuda and it would not be good for business, according to Brian O'Hara, chief executive officer of XL Capital.

The insurance giant boss said that Kerry, who has been the most successful Democratic candidate so far on the campaign trail, was "bloody minded" about Bermuda.

Democrat Kerry, of Massachusetts, has been loudly denouncing US companies moving offshore to save on their taxes calling them "Benedict Arnold" firms – after the notorious American traitor.

"It is a little worrying, no question," said Mr. O'Hara. "An election of Kerry is not good for Bermuda, it is not good for business.

"There is an anti-business agenda. It is a very demagoguish, populist agenda and they attack anything that is not a constituent."

But he conceded that once in power the reality might be different so Kerry's pledge to wipe out Bermuda's "creed of greed" within 500 days of taking office may be harder to implement.

"Once somebody is in power, the rhetoric from the campaign trail tends to fade off, because power makes

Read the rest yourself. The writer, Mairi Mallon, does acknowledge that campaign rhetoric does not always translate into government policy.

The thing with Kerry is simply this: the guy's a weather vane. Who knows what he believes on any given day?

The Bush campaign is inclined to ding Kerry as a phony because he's been on both sides of so many issues. This, by the way, makes it difficult to tag him as an unswerving liberal. While he favors higher taxes, he voted in 1986 to cut the top rate on individual income to 28 percent. Bush's tax cuts brought the top rate down to only 35 percent. But playing both sides of an issue could hurt Kerry on gay marriage. He opposes gay marriage but isn't for a constitutional amendment to bar it. He says states should decide the matter, but he voted against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996 that allows states to do just that. Trying to reconcile these conflicts may tie Kerry in knots.

Kerry's inconsistency on Iraq is his greatest liability, not just because he's taken incompatible positions, but because he's trifled with a serious national security issue. He voted against the Gulf War in 1991, for the Iraq war resolution in 2002, and then against $87 billion to fund the Iraq effort. The only coherent explanation for these votes is political expediency. He voted each time for what would advance his political career as a Democrat. When those votes began to sour, he changed his tune. Once the war to drive Saddam Hussein from Kuwait became a popular success, he said he had backed it all along. This year when Democratic elites turned against the war, Kerry suddenly adopted an antiwar position, explaining his vote for the war resolution as merely a vote to "threaten" Iraq, not invade.

Read the follow up story on what Kerry threatens vis-a-vis Bermuda and others like her. Also, read this story, according to which Kerry's Heinz ketchup wife made a killing on Ingersoll-Rand moving to Bermuda. Kerry's has an amazing capacity to speak with forked-tongue. Man, even a pompous wind-sucker should have some shame.

Kerry's over-riding interest has always been what best serves his ambition. He dished his fellow soldiers in Viet Nam because it served his political ambitions to do so. He'll dish Bermuda for the exact same reason. A real man says what he means and means what he says. Who can trust this guy, Kerry? Not Bermuda. Not anyone.