I really don’t know if John Kerry is a hunter or not. I hope he is simply because it will give him a broader perspective on issues ranging from gun control to access to public lands.But I have some doubts.Here’s why. Back during the primary season before the senator from Massachusetts had won the Democratic nomination for president, there were a variety of commercials and advertisements that showed Kerry in differing guises – Kerry in home movies playing soccer with his daughters, Kerry flying an airplane, Kerry hunting.The idea, of course, was to show him as something of an everyday guy, which of course he isn’t. And, for that matter, neither is George “Dubya” Bush. Face it. Everyday guys don’t have Ivy League degrees, net worth in the millions of dollars or a family heritage of noblesse oblige.Everyday guys worry about making the mortgage, who won the game this weekend and trying to keep the wife or girlfriend happy.

And when politicians portray themselves as everyday guys, well it’s both laughable and disingenuous. But this is politics, after all, and why would we expect anything else?Anyway, one of the ads included a photo of Kerry hunting. In it Kerry is pointing a double-barrel shotgun. The picture was taken during a “photo op” pheasant hunt in Iowa last fall.When I first saw the photo I couldn’t help but wonder if Kerry is actually the avid hunter he and his ad proclaim. In the picture, he has the thumb of his left hand wrapped across the top of the barrels strongly suggesting he’s hunting for photo ops rather than upland birds. Either that or he has a really different grip than most shotgunners I know.Trying to shoot with this grip is roughly akin to trying to write by gripping a pen in your fist the same way you would grab a knife if you were going to stab someone with an overhand blow.Hang on, it gets better.

A friend pointed this out to me. If you hit the stop button when Hunter Kerry appears on the screen, there are guys standing to his left but in front of him. They aren’t exactly in the line of fire (as if any firing were to happen), but I bet any hunter education teacher would have a problem with where Kerry’s pointing the shotgun and where all those folks are. I wouldn’t want to be standing there, especially not when the man with the gun is holding it with such an odd grip.Now here’s what really cracks me up and why I suspect this is clearly just a photo shoot.Take a close look. It appears the dog behind Kerry is pointing in the opposite direction from where he’s poised to shoot.Come to think of it, maybe this scene is symbolic. Here’s a politician who has been given information (in the form of the point) on the location of sought after targets from a highly trained professional field operative (the dog), and he turns his back and looks resolutely in the wrong direction, under the watchful eye of his advisers off to the left.

Think what Michael Moore could do with this if only Kerry were a Republican!Now, to be fair, I should point out that candidate Bush’s hunting reputation is less than stellar.Way back when George Dubya was running for governor of Texas, he decided to invite the press along on a dove hunt. It probably seemed like a good idea right up to the moment he executed a killdeer that came flying low over the field. The nice shot notwithstanding, the story in the next day’s paper was headlined, “Bush fined $100 for shooting song bird.”Publisher Jim Morgan writes a Tuesday column.