Tell the truth. Fire the incompetents. (And 8 more!)

Maybe losing nasty presidential elections to George Bush is what it takes to make Democratic presidential candidates start talking like they're serious about leading.

On Friday, John Kerry pulled out the stops in attacking the incompetence and dishonesty of the Bush administration, and advancing a short and sweet 10-point plan.

The first two are in the post title, above. Here are the rest:

• Find Osama bin Laden and secure our ports and our homeland.


• Bring our troops home from Iraq.


• Obey the law and protect our civil rights.


• Support health care


• Support education.


• Support lobbying reform.


• Support alternatives to oil.


• Reduce the deficit.

The response of RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt, reduced to attacking Kerry personally, since she had no remotely plausible rebuttal to any of his substantive points:

"John Kerry deserves credit for continuing to take himself so seriously, despite the fact that no one else does."

In fairness, it's a tough job for Schmitt, reduced to snark when the record clearly shows that the White House and the GOP-controlled Congress have ignored, torpedoed, defunded, privatized, or appointed boobs to manage every one of those points.

I'm not warming to the idea of a 2008 Kerry candidacy--which this speech was clearly testing the waters for--but no one's ever explained to me why you only have to tell the truth if you're trying to get nominated.