During the Q&A session that followed his speech at City College in Harlem on April 14, John Kerry had a telling run-in with former college professor and assistant dean, Walter Daum. Now, it should come as no surprise to political junkies that the hardcore Democratic base Daum represents expects John Kerry to lurch left (“keep going, go on. That’s it — now don’t stop until you find yourself sharing a conch salad with Professor Chomsky”), so the good doctor’s comments are hardly shocking. But what’s truly telling here is Kerry’s reaction to Daum’s slavering paranoia — which the newspaper accounts I’ve read have been careful to telescope. Here is a transcript of the actual exchange:

DAUM: You have said, “Stay the course.” George Bush calls the people there “thugs;” you call them “extremists.” But they hated Saddam Hussein, and they now hate us. They wanted Saddam Hussein out. Now they want the United States out. And you say, “Stay the course.” What the United States is doing is bombing hospitals, bombing mosques, sniping at civilians, killing hundreds of civilians, wounding thousands of civilians. And you say, “Stay the course.” Is that the criminal course that you want to stay? This is an imperialist country that’s fighting an imperialist war. You say, “Stay the course of this imperialist war,” and you say you are a stark difference from George Bush. People hate George Bush. By the end of your presidency people will hate you for the same thing. You may fool some of the Americans that you are different from George Bush on this war, but you’re not fooling most of the world and you’re going to fool Iraqis.

KERRY: I have consistently been critical of how we got where we are, but we are where we are, sir. And it would be unwise beyond belief for the United States of America to leave a failed Iraq in its wake. And I want the Americans out, and so do Americans want —

DAUM: No you don’t. You say, “Stay the course,” senator.

KERRY: Let me just finish. Stay the course of leaving a stable Iraq. […] If you don’t leave a stable Iraq with a legitimacy to whatever entity is going to transform the government, you have the potential for a civil war, you have the potential for Shi’a vs. Sunni vs. Kurd. There are all kinds of potentials. Let me just finish.

DAUM: They are united against the occupation.

KERRY: Yes, but…but…but the point is this, sir. You’re not listening to me.

DAUM: Oh, yes, I am.

KERRY: Well, then you haven’t, frankly, listened, because in fact the course that I have proposed is to you turn over to the United Nations the full responsibility for the transformation of the government and for the reconstruction.

DAUM: No, he said he was going to bring in the UN and NATO as the solution, and that’s not different from an American imperialist occupation.

During this exchange, Kerry allowed a litany of leftist fantasies to proceed unchallenged — a few of which he even obliquely agreed with. No wonder he could muster little more than a sputtering defense. Among the charges Daum presents as fact:

1) The US military is “bombing hospitals, bombing mosques, sniping at civilians, killing hundreds of civilians, wounding thousands of civilians.” (Daum forgot to mention that soldiers are also raping women and goats, looting puppies, pillaging ophanages, installing Windows-based operating systems, and committing countless other indecencies — but in his defense, he was upset.) One wonders if hearing that list didn’t give Kerry flashbacks to his 1971 Senate Foreign Relations Committee testimony. And, y’know, how trippy is that…?

2) The current US action in Iraq is “criminal.”

3) The United States is an imperialist country.

4) The current war in Iraq is an imperialist war. [cf. Inigo Montoya, speaking to Vizzini: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means” – ed.]

5) People hate George Bush [well, some do, sure. But c’mon, John. You’re supposed to be a statesman. Howsabout sticking up for your Commander in Chief?]

6) Shi’a and Sunni and Kurd are “united against the occupation.”

7) UN and NATO are no different from the US militarily.

Had Kerry bothered to challenge Daum forcefully on any of these points, he could have easily won each of them — the upshot being that he would have looked stronger on defense than we all know him actually to be. In fact, a thorough and public thwacking of this blustering moonbat could have helped Kerry immeasurably with swing voters.

Instead, Kerry had his potential Sista Souljah moment teed up for him and he struck out. Worse, he fanned looking. Which hardly inspires confidence that he’ll be able to get the bat off his shoulders when it really matters — when, say, North Korea decides to posture with nukes, or when a drunk Teddy Kennedy asks to borrow the Town car so he can give a young staffer a lift home.

But then, you already knew all that.