Kerry and Abby

Dear Abby recently published a letter from John Kerry.

Abby wrote,

DEAR SEN. KERRY: To say that you are a busy man these days is an understatement. That you would still reach out to help a child says volumes about you as a person.

Does Abby see Kerry's letter, sweet though it might be, as a magnanimous act rather than a calculated political move? While it has been a couple of decades since I was a reader of Abby, I thought she -- or was it her mom? -- was shrewder than that.

Not to pick nits, but Kerry seems to think the U.S. is on Mars, or perhaps Venus, when he states,

That is what makes our country unlike any place on Earth.

How about "any other place on Earth," John?