Posted on 11/08/2004 11:47:56 PM PST by ambrose
Nov. 9, 2004, 1:34AM
Another run by Kerry possible, brother says New York Times News Service
While Senator John F. Kerry is "profoundly disappointed" with losing his presidential race last week, it is "conceivable" he will run again in four years, his brother and political confidant, Cameron F. Kerry, said Monday.
In the meantime, the former Democratic nominee will work through the Senate and perhaps a newly formed political action committee to ensure that Democrats have a superior ground organization in 2008, his younger brother said.
"He's in a position of national leadership," Cameron F. Kerry told the Globe. A Boston lawyer, the younger Kerry said he spoke with his brother several times in person and by phone about the senator's political future since the candidate conceded defeat on Wednesday. "He's going to exercise that role and be a voice for the 55 million people who voted for him. The position he's in gives him a bully pulpit."
He added: "One of the things that John brings out of this campaign is a tremendous number of people have gotten organized and that's something we've got to build upon."
Asked whether that might include another run for president, the younger brother replied, "That's conceivable. ... I don't know why that 1/8last week's loss 3/8 should necessarily be it. I think it's too early to assess. But I think that he is going to continue to fight on for the values, ideals, and issues this campaign is about."
The senator has not granted an interview since he conceded the race to President Bush last Wednesday. He was in Washington Monday, but out of public view.
Kerry's Senate communications director, David Wade, said, "John Kerry has been touched by the outpouring of support and enthusiasm in Massachusetts and around the country. There are millions upon millions of Americans who want the same change for our country that he fought for, and he has a voice in the Senate and nationally to champion these causes."
Asked whether Kerry was considering another presidential run, Wade said: "He has a job to do for Massachusetts in the United States Senate and issues to champion nationally. That's his focus."
Former aides said they have received conflicting answers about whether he might wage another campaign. One, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Kerry told a top campaign official he could not envision another run. Yet that same adviser attended a farewell party for Kerry's staff Saturday night in Washington and said that Kerry told the crowd, "There's always another four years."
The remark triggered an eruption of cheers.
Such a run could pose a dilemma for Kerry: His Senate seat is up for reelection in 2008 and talk of a presidential campaign could spur challengers from both parties and force him to decide whether to seek reelection or run for the White House. He also would undoubtedly face Democratic challengers for the presidential nomination, including possibly Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and his recent running mate, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
Kerry would also face the challenges of history and age. He will be 64 in 2008, one year younger than Ronald Reagan when he ran for president in 1976 at 65. Reagan narrowly lost to Gerald Ford in the primaries and then returned to successfully challenge Jimmy Carter for the presidency in 1980.
The last Democratic nominee for president to run a second consecutive time as the party's standard bearer was Adlai Stevenson, who lost to Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952. Stevenson was renominated in 1956 and defeated by President Eisenhower in the general election. The only candidate in the 20th century to be the party's nominee and lose the White House and then run successfully in a future election was Republican Richard M. Nixon, who was defeated by John F. Kennedy in 1960 and then beat Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968. Humphrey ran again for the Democratic nomination in 1972 but withdrew in the face of overwhelming odds at the party's convention.
In the meantime, Kerry is considering starting a political action committee to advance his ideals. He used a similar account, the Citizen Soldier Fund, to support Democratic candidates for state offices and operations in Iowa and New Hampshire in advance of his just-completed race.
Bush won last week's election by a margin of 3.5 million votes - 59.4 million to 55.9 million. The tallies were the two highest ever received in a presidential race. The incumbent president received 286 Electoral College votes to Kerry's 252. Bush claimed victory after winning Ohio by a margin of 136,000 votes.
While exit polls showed Bush beating Kerry by a wide margin among voters who declared that morals and leadership were most important to them in a president, Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist, said Sunday on "Meet the Press" that Bush won by first convincing voters he would be stronger in the war on terror and a better custodian of the economy through a program of expanded tax cuts.
Rove had a strategy of turning out more votes from the president's base, including Christian conservatives, and Democrats have said in recent days that is what won the race for Bush in Ohio, an economically ailing state that has lost more than 260,000 jobs during his term.
The former aide said that Kerry plans to work closely with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who is expected to replace Tom Daschle as Senate Democratic leader, to form the "loyal opposition" to Bush. He also plans to revamp his staff and meet this week with Senate and former campaign aides to plot strategy for his political reemergence. The Senate returns to business in a lame duck session next week and Kerry is determined to have an agenda when he steps back into public view.
Toward that end, "he has been working the phones like crazy," the aide said, and "is determined that he will never let Democrats get beaten again on the ground game."
While there had been some speculation that Kerry might challenge Reid for the Senate leadership, two top Kerry advisers said that he has already thrown his support behind Reid.
Cameron F. Kerry said that while last week's results left his brother "profoundly disappointed," he added: "I think he feels in many respects good. I think many people feel good about his performance in this race. I think he feels like he did what he had to do. But I think he's really looking ahead - at the next steps - and not dwelling on what might have been."
Major delusion going on here... First of all GWB won't be running again in 2008 and the majority of Kerry's votes were actually anti-Bush votes.
Kerry received much fewer votes "for him".
That's not masochism. It is a sense of entitlement. He is delusional enough to really believe he deserves to be president, if only those ignoramuses in the red states would wise up and leave the selection to the elite media types.
I thought I heard a very brief reference to the Swiftees gathering to celebrate, but no details. I hope they did, and had the best party of their lives.
The horse is NOT dead!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah. The DUmmies are mad at Kerry because he won't smoke on the same crack pipe as Randi Rhodes and "deconcede" the election.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.