![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/kerry2.jpg\")
Quickly
\n sweeping across the blue line in efficient churning strides, Ray Bourque
\n looked down ice for another blue jersey in a promising
\n offensive
\n position. As
\n he had done so many times for Boston Bruins he found a narrow momentarily
\n open path and rocketed a laser pass into the boards just where they begin
\n to curve around. Shoving his tall, rangy body in front of a smaller
\n defender, right wing John Kerry dug the puck out of the corner, crashed
\n his man into the boards with a wicked hip check, and snapped a centering
\n pass to Ken Hodge Sr., parked like a cop at a Dunkin Donuts by the right
\n corner of the net. <\/p>\n
The stuff of fantasy, you say. A hockey rat’s
\n wet dream transferred to the fevered mind of an overworked presidential
\n candidate? Believe it or not, dear reader, the Dowbrigade saw the aforementioned
\n play with his own eyes, yesterday, at the John F. Kennedy Municipal
\n Hockey Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n
John Kerry was making a rather unorthodox campaign appearance at a What if he slips, lands on his ass, and makes a fool of himself in front Or worse, what if he pulls a ham string, twists an ankle, dislocates So it was something of a gamble, letting the candidate out on the ice And yet the candidate was obviously having the time of his life. He It The most striking thing was how Kerry carried himself with the grace We need to go back to Kennedy to find a national leader so identified Will Middle America buy a preppy jock as President? Don’t we already There Be that as it may, there is clearly a difference in the nature of the Bush, for all his Ivy pedigree and relaxed good looks (the man does What this has to do with athleticism is not entirely clear, even to Howard Dean gives the impression that the closest he ever got to organized It was good to see the leading candidate taking the time and physical Quickly sweeping across the blue line in efficient churning strides, Ray Bourque looked down ice for another blue jersey in a promising offensive position. As he had done so many times for Boston Bruins he found a narrow momentarily open … Continue reading
\n charity game between the Bruins Legends and a team of local all-stars,
\n at a fund raiser for Manchester fire fighters. Jessica<\/a> and
\n the Dowbrigade had driven up from Boston expecting another boilerplate
\n campaign
\n speech in front of a bunch of firemen and high school students, salutes
\n to a cheering crowd, some photo ops and then a quick dash to the motorcade
\n to the next feverish stop. So when the Senator himself took to the ice
\n in pads and uniform, skating effortlessly in graceful glides and sharp,
\n ice-spraying turns, obviously ready to mix it up in the real game, we
\n were moderately flabbergasted.![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/kerry1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n of hundreds of voters and fans, the merciless hordes of the press, and
\n through them millions of Americans watching the Presidential race heat
\n up like a NASCAR showdown on a slippery track, waiting for the next meltdown,
\n flameout, or fiery crash.<\/p>\n
\n a shoulder or worse yet, actually breaks a leg (all too common occupancies
\n for the aging weekend athlete)? Imagine aides pushing John Kerry around
\n to all his campaign stops in a wheelchair! Would America vote for a wounded
\n warrior? The Dowbrigade doubts it.<\/p>\n
\n to mix it up with a highly varied collection of local high schoolers,
\n University of New Hampshire varsity players, ex-Olympians of both sexes,
\n and of
\n course, the Bruins legends, including Ray Bourque, Ken Hodge Sr., Ken
\n Hodge Junior, Cam Neely, Bob Sweeney and Rick Middleton, all names to
\n be reckoned with from the dimly remembered infancy of my life as a Boston
\n sports fan. <\/p>\n
\n was smiling and cheering and waving his arms, hugging friend and foe
\n alike, and yet clearly super-competitive, desperately wanting his team
\n to win even this meaningless, pick-up charity fundraiser game. He
\n was like a big goofy kid out there on the ice, but he did not look out
\n of place.<\/p>\n
\n was a refreshing new insight on a candidate whose prepackaged TV commercials
\n make him look like nothing so much as all the other candidates whose
\n commercials are running concurrently on the other channels. All
\n dressed in variations of the same uniform, all plugging basically the
\n same message
\n – trust me, I will defend your rights, together we can win back America
\n from the domestic bad guys and defend it from the foreign bad guys. They
\n are about as varied as the boxes of dry cereal stacked in the breakfast
\n aisle of the local supermarket; at first glance a cornucopia of different
\n colors, flavors and shapes, but in the final analysis all basically sugar
\n and air in a cardboard box.<\/p>\n
\n and physical self-confidence of the natural athlete. It has been quite
\n some times since we have had a real athlete in the White House. Ford
\n played golf, with disastrous results, Poppy Bush supposedly played
\n tennis, and his son seems to be constantly running either for or from
\n something, but both Bushes seem more like sloggers than stars.<\/p>\n
\n with sports and physical activity. In addition to hockey (Kerry
\n made varsity in prep school and at Yale) the Senator is a rabid
\n windsurfer, as evidenced by the free copies of the oversized, ulta-glossy
\n Windsurfer Magazine featuring you-know who on the cover and an
\n article entitled "The Windsurfer Who Could Be President."![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/winsurf.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n have a preppy jock as president? Good questions, both. <\/p>\n
\n are some eerie similarities between Sen. Kerry and the man he wants to
\n replace. Indeed, outside the JFK Arena was a charmingly eccentric
\n political activist in a huge sandwich-board sign on which was written
\n "Bush and Kerry: Secret Fraternity Brothers in a Blood Pact to Defraud
\n America" and making multiple references to the myriad connections between
\n the Bush and Kerry families and the shadowy Skull and Bones bond they
\n do share. <\/p>\n
\n athleticism of the two men. Bush may know his way around a tennis court,
\n but he clearly seemed more in his element in the owner’s box of his Texas
\n Rangers than on the field. Kerry, again and again, has us seeing
\n afterimages in our mind’s eye, of the Kennedy’s playing touch football
\n on the Cape, or Jack lounging on his sailboat. Not only at play either.
\n The video of a young John Kerry sauntering through clearings in Vietnam,
\n with that same unconscious athletic lope, his M-16 swinging comfortably
\n at the end of his long arm unavoidably brings to mind the shots of JFK
\n at the helm of PT 109, worn and tan and savagely handsome, adored by
\n the men whose lives he held in his hands.<\/p>\n
\n look good in a flight jacket), reminds nobody of Jack Kennedy. Kerry,
\n at least potentially, seems capable of capturing some of that old Camelot
\n magic, to convince a significant portion of the nation that he represents
\n that which is best in them, and in this country: A gifted, privileged
\n son of the royal class, who chooses to dedicate himself to the causes
\n and crusades of the common people. We long for nothing so much as a King
\n who passes as a Commoner.<\/p>\n
\n the Dowbrigade, but we’ve come this far so lets try to wrap this up by
\n wandering back to the point. In any roundup of the Democratic field, Kerry
\n clearly comes out on top in terms of athleticism and incipient jockdom. Consider
\n the competition.<\/p>\n
\n sports was a rousing game of Ultimate Frisbee back in college. Dennis
\n Kucinich looks like he would break a wrist if he tried to swing a ping-pong
\n paddle. Wesley
\n Clark looks to be in pretty good shape and could conceivably be called
\n a sportsman, if you consider calisthenics a sport. Edwards, unfortunately, looks (and acts) as though he’d be more at home in a cheerleader’s uniform than in a quarterback’s shoulderpads. Joe Lieberman and
\n Al Sharpton would have probably been neck and neck for absolute last
\n kid
\n picked on the playground for dodgeball, with the nod going to Lieberman
\n on the endemic influence of racial stereotype.<\/p>\n
\n risk of playing a game and relaxing with friends at a time like this. Surely
\n the physical and mental benefits alone make it a worthwhile waste of
\n his time, but there may be fringe political benefits as well. As far
\n as the Dowbrigade is concerned, anything that makes these guys more human
\n and less robotic makes me more likely to take them seriously.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"