Dish on campaign trail follies (JOHN KERRY: "I Can't Believe I'm Losing To This Idiot")

NY Daily News ^ | November 4, 2004 | TRACY CONNOR

[West Coast Conservative]

In the biggest fight of his charmed life, John Kerry swung between bewilderment and anger when things didn't go his way on the campaign trial.

"I can't believe I'm losing to this idiot," the Massachusetts Democrat sighed to a staffer when President Bush's poll numbers surged in April.

"Why the f--- didn't he take it?" he wondered when Republican Sen. John McCain refused to be his running mate a half-dozen times.

"It's a pack of f---ing lies, what they're saying about me," he shouted at an adviser as a group of Swift boat veterans stepped up attacks on his Vietnam War record while his team refused to let him respond.

Those are some of the behind-the-scenes stories from the year-long race for the White House revealed in a special Newsweek report out today. The magazine says Kerry's courtship of McCain to be his vice presidential candidate was far more intense than the public realized.

It started in August 2003, but kicked into high gear after Kerry nailed the nomination. He even offered to expand the veep's role to control defense and foreign policy. "You're out of your mind," McCain told Kerry. "I don't even know if it's constitutional, and it certainly wouldn't sell."

Kerry seemed stunned that McCain rebuffed him "after what the Bush people did to him," referring to the 2000 GOP presidential primary.

[geekchick]

"Ah yes, the pack is already turning on the injured leader. It won't be long before they reveal his true military records, stories about Teresa and his relationship. The media is going to begin going for his throat. It's what pack animals do. "

They may also want to take him out of 2008, indeed, it's all Hillary and the Breck Girl right now....

More to it than this, I think. Looking at the incredible W/GOP sweep in this election, most of us would be hard pressed not to believe that this was a referendum on the Liberal Agenda. Voters coming out of the polls indicated that the number one factor in their decisions was "moral values."

This makes plenty of sense to us, but the MSM and other Libs are scratching their heads in confusion over this, and even deciding (a la Nancy Pelosi) that we were somehow distracted from What Really Matters by this weird "moral values issue."

They cannot accept, nor even entertain the notion, that their overwhelming loss was a rejection of their agenda by the American people (who, God bless 'em, are pretty darned smart in the end). And so we will continue to hear from them...

• The election was "stolen." (Cleopatra, Queen of Denial!!!)
• Americans were distracted, or hoodwinked.
• Kerry failed to connect with the American people.
• Kerry failed to make his message clear.
• ... or Kerry the Man was inherently flawed, Not Kerry's Platform.

It can't be the Liberal Agenda that was rejected. They all know to the bottom of their left pinky toe that the Liberal Agenda is correct, moral, sensible, and mainstream. So either it's the fault of the stupid far-right religious wingnuts (SFRRWNs) who turned out in droves, or it's the fault of Senator Kerry himself. It's the Messenger. Not the Message. The Message is good. The people just have to have it explained to them better, by a more charismatic and likeable fellow, so they will Finally Understand that the Message is Good.

Some folks on the Left will attack the SFRRWNs. But smarter ones will recognize that attacking 59 million voting Americans is not the smartest way to secure future political success. They will go for the weakest point in the failed campaign. Unfortunately for Senator Kerry (but somewhat fun for the spectators), that weakest point happens to be the candidates.

Senator Kerry's flaws are numerous and well-known on this board. But the real flaw is the agenda. The agenda represents his party extremely well. The agenda is what he ran on, and what he was defeated on. And there's no way you'll hear that from the usual suspects on the Left. Because it brands all of them with the great big L-for-Loser just as surely as it brands Senator Kerry.

This point -- that the Liberal Agenda is what really lost the election -- must be hammered home at every opportunity, sometimes gently and sometimes forcefully. The Party of Jefferson and Jackson, as some of them like to call themselves, has lost its soul. Until it finds one again, it will continue to lose. IMHO we want it to find one, because true two-party competition is healthy for the country. But I believe it will take a very, very long time.

[WOSG]

"You're out of your mind," McCain told Kerry. "I don't even know if it's constitutional, and it certainly wouldn't sell."

I can't believe how close we got to electing Kerry, this utter lunatic! My respect for McCain has just grown enormously btw.

[VOA]

bump

[IPWGOP]

I find it amusing that Kerry and the MSM think Bush is an "idiot." They are such suckers. Look how they bought their own BS... and lost. I was thinking about Howard Dean and his momentum prior to his scream meltdown. It fizzled. Kerry was a big fizzle. Edwards was a big fizzle.

Maybe we should just call the Dims the Fizzle Party...

[eureka!]

Very well done. I think too that it is their liberal, elite arrogance that results in them not seeing what is happening. They won't listen to Zell Miller/Pat Caddell and others that see it. Fine with me. Just assures further destruction of the party as a whole...

[Capitalism2003]

[reformedliberal]

It is because they are so cynical that they thought they could keep him in office as the face while the Clintonistas ran the country.

They don't want him to have any residual power, so they will now destroy him as completely as possible.

The operatives are ruthless. Kerry and Teresa will now become official national jokes to both sides and we can await the breathless puffery that will announce that Hillary is going to ignore the warnings even I have heard from the D Party ops at the state level who know she will mobilize us even more than we are already mobilized.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I lost all respect when McCain turned his back on the Swiftees.

When Bush came here to a big rally in Allentown in Sept., McCain was there to introduce him with a complimentary speech and hugged him.

[UCANSEE2]

I will answer the following statements by JFK.

"I can't believe I'm losing to this idiot," the Massachusetts Democrat sighed to a staffer when President Bush's poll numbers surged in April.

The former GOVERNOR of TEXAS, a Democratic woman who LOST to GEORGE BUSH, stated that (paraphrasing) "People say George Bush is dumb. They are wrong. He is smart, and very clever. Do not make the mistake of thinking he is dumb."

"Why the f--- didn't he take it?" he wondered when Republican Sen. John McCain refused to be his running mate a half-dozen times. He didn't take it because he was with KERRY on the SENATE COMMMITTEE on POW/MIA's where KERRY brought back signatures from foreign leaders stating there were no POW/MIA's, Kerry let them lead him where they wanted, made no real attempt to see if there really were any, (which we know there were), and when he came back to the US and sold the PUBLIC on that LIE, MCCAIN, standing behind Kerry on the stage at the press conference, LOWERED HIS HEAD IN SHAME. HE KNEW. HE KNEW HE was part of DESERTING FELLOW AMERICAN SOLDIERS.

MCCain has been supporting KERRY during his campaign. He knows KERRY IS A LIAR and wouldn't be good for PRESIDENT.

So, he is stuck supporting Kerry, as he has since the POW/MIA affair. His guilt he hides by supporting KERRY, but he wanted no part of a KERRY PRESIDENCY. He suspected KERRY would blame him for things that might go wrong.

[Boomer Geezer]

"Why the f--- didn't he take it?" he wondered when Republican Sen. John McCain refused to be his running mate a half-dozen times.

Or ... "Kin I get me a f---in' vice president candidate here?" [sounds of Dueling Banjos in the background]

[Guenevere]

bttt

[rockrr]

"I will be eternally thankful that this crass, elitist snob was rejected by the American people."

If I may offer a slight correction:

I will be eternally thankful that this crass, elitist snob was rejected by just barely enough of the American people.

[crushelits]

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

[Oztrich Boy]

"I can't believe I'm losing to this idiot," the Massachusetts Democrat sighed to a staffer when President Bush's poll numbers surged in April.

Well you know what the answer is if you can't work out who the chump in your poker game is?

[Oztrich Boy]

Yesterday, on MSNBC, a reporter went into some detail about what TeRAYsa was like on the campaign trail. It was said that she was difficult, wouldn't show up for things, was a hypocondriac and demanded a lot of attention from Kerry which was a distraction from his campaigning. Who knew?

[Oztrich Boy]

And yet, consider what it says about McCain - he's thought through how it might "sell" aspect of it more than he has it's constitutionality.

beg to differ. A leader should always know what can be done as well as what should be done. Lose sight of the first and you become John Kerry.

[mlocher]

you know, having mccain be kerry's running mate would have been like infiltrating the DU. about 2 weeks before the election, mccain could have done an opus and walked away.

[mlocher]

All made to make him look like a sweet, innocent victim who just happens to have a potty mouth.

sounds like scott peterson to me.

[Oztrich Boy]

Go read the whole article if you haven't it talks about the Bush campaign too. Funny

Meanwhile, in the Bush camp, chief strategist Karl Rove was baffled that Kerry managed to snag the Democratic nomination.

By the fall of 2003, he was focused on the threat posed by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, saying Kerry had "pissed away every advantage of the front-runner."

Rove started betting hamburgers with other White House staffers that Dean would win - and stuck to his guns even when the campaign flamed out after his screaming Iowa concession.

"Want to double your bets?" Bush needled his adviser, who insisted Dean still had the money to pull out a primary victory.

But. But. Bush is just a puppet controlled by Karl "Bush's Brain" Rove. My world is askew.

[mlocher]

LOL!!!!!!!!!