Reply #6: The problem is that the input implies the output

[karynnj]

I think their analysis on Bush is way too benign. (my bias - yeah, but there is nothing there that suggests the level of anger he displays.

On Kerry, the worst thing "is tend to lay claim to greater accomplishment than is borne out by their actual achievements". In reality, there are more times when Kerry quietly does good for the sake of doing good and seeks no credit or publicity. The first time I noticed this, was seeing the reunion with Rassmann on TV where after Rassmann spoke of Kerry saving his life, Kerry looked slightly embarrassed and said that anyone would do that. It was a very compelling moment and totally not scripted.

The accounts others told about what he did in Vietnam, gave him more credit than his own accounts. It was Skip Barker who told Brinkley that Kerry saved the 40+ villagers in the free fire zone - a story that impressed me as much as any of the medal stories. We also saw any number of times where Kerry's work ended up without Kerry's name on it to get it passed.

Also, though he is now incredibly rich (through marriage to Teresa), he clearly was not motivated primarily to seek the good life - he made decisions that kept him poorer than all his friends. How many Senators (who didn't start rich) ended up through the contacts they had rich - Kerry didn't. As to the status and connections - that was the world he was born into. (Oddly it fits Bill Clinton better - and he had to be ambitious/dominant as well. (in fact he was more ambitious and would sacrifice anything for it and far more dominant.) With Kerry it ignores the times where he choose to do the right thing (as he saw it) even when he knew it was more likely to hurt him than to further his career.

What you see in Kerry's is that the input ignores almost everything about him. It is one dimensional (with a sub category) versus the 2 dimensions for the others. The conscientious category they give Gore fits Kerry to a tee (as it does Gore). It leads to integrity being a root - which would contradict the result they wanted.