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Kerry hints White House run in his future: reports (It's over Johnny)
AFP ^ | Tue, Nov 09, 2004

Posted on 11/09/2004 10:47:20 AM PST by presidio9

Defeated Democrat John Kerry has dropped hints he may run for president in 2008, as glum party officials debated the way forward after last week's Republican sweep of elections for the White House and US Congress.

"Sometimes God tests you," an aide to the Massachusetts senator quoted Kerry as telling friends and supporters, the Washington Post reported. "I'm a fighter and I've come back before."

Kerry's younger brother Cameron told the Boston Globe newspaper the senator was "profoundly disappointed" about narrowly losing last week's election to President George W. Bush (news - web sites), and deems another attempt fully possible.

"That's conceivable," the paper quoted the brother as saying. "I don't know why that (last week's loss) 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," Cameron Kerry added.

Kerry's role in the party became the subject of intense speculation, as Democrats try to chart their future following last week's demoralizing losses at the polls.

A Kerry aide told AFP that the nearly two-year-long presidential campaign made the Massachusetts senator the de facto leader of Democrats, and he would play an active role in opposing the Republican-led Congress and White House.

"He is not he is not going to go away quietly," said Josh Gottheimer, a speech writer for the campaign.

"He plans to continue to carry the mantle" for Democrats into the future, said Gottheimer. "He will be at the forefront of the party in the months and years ahead."

The debate about Kerry's future comes as Democrats planned meetings around the US capital Tuesday to deliberate about the future of the party.

Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives were holding a day long strategy meeting, while top officials with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, a network of top, elected Democrats, planned a open forum to discuss the way forward.

Kerry seemed to make the case for continuing his role as de facto party chieftain, issuing a statement last week touting the inroads made by his campaign.

"Kerry's popular vote total in aggregate numbers not only exceeds (2000 Democratic presidential candidate) Al Gore (news - web sites)'s popular vote victory in the last election, but also (ex-President) Bill Clinton (news - web sites)'s in the 90's" the statement said,

"John Kerry has built a solid foundation for the Democratic party to build on -- in voters, in resources and in substance. The party would be well advised to build on the foundation and not turn our back on it."

According to press reports, Kerry has mostly remained at his Boston, Massachusetts home since his defeat. The Globe reported that he was spotted in Washington on Monday, but kept a low profile. According to news reports, Kerry is considering creating a political action committee and think tank to keep his policy initiatives, and himself, in the spotlight.

"He's in a position of national leadership," Cameron Kerry told the Boston Globe.

"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."

Some Democrats however seemed less inclined to consider Kerry the head of their party, or at the top of the 2008 presidential ticket.

Louisiana's US Senator John Breaux told US television this week that top Democratic White House contenders appear to be party luminaries like Senator Hillary Clinton (news - web sites) and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh.

"Either one of those who can articulate a moderate, mainstream message can be successful," he said.

Breaux, who is retiring from the US Senate this year, said the party would be well advised to try to duplicate the charisma and centrist message of former President Clinton (news - web sites).

"When he won, he was able to keep the party base, which is a tradition of minorities and labor, but he was also able to expand it into moderate, mainstream individuals," Breaux told CNN television Monday, hinting that Kerry lacked the pizzazz to appeal to a broad-based public.

"You have to have the right message, but you also have to be able to deliver it," he said.


TOPICS: Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: delusionsofgrandeur; giveitupalready; itsoverjohnny; kerrydefeat; nevergonnabepres; onceorahundredtimes; thepeoplehavespoken; theydontwantyou
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To: presidio9

41 posted on 11/09/2004 11:58:45 AM PST by smith288 (I have posted over 10,000 times. The more I post, the more intelligent you become!)
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To: per loin

They should limit the primaries in 2008 to those who have run before--McGovern, Carter, Mondale, Gore, and Kerry, and perhaps include those who failed to get the nomination like Biden, Babbitt, Bradley, Dean, Sharpton and Lieberman. The winner of the nomination would be the best of the worst.


42 posted on 11/09/2004 12:00:54 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: presidio9
Kerry has deluded himself into thinking that he hasn't joined the McGovern/Mondale/Dukakis/Gore Irrelevancy club.

He'll be lucky to hang onto his Senate seat, in fact. ......and his meal ticket wife.

43 posted on 11/09/2004 12:01:01 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo
He'll be lucky to hang onto his Senate seat

In Massachusettes? Not likely. Losing a presidential election never hurt Fat Teddy Kennedy. Then again, neither did murder.

44 posted on 11/09/2004 12:04:05 PM PST by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does)
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To: presidio9
In Massachusettes? Not likely

To another lib/Dem, not a Pubbie.

Losing a presidential election never hurt Fat Teddy Kennedy.

He lost in the primaries, not in the general election.

45 posted on 11/09/2004 12:14:47 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo

And he lost to the worst president in the country's history...Jimmah Cahtah. How embarrassing.


46 posted on 11/09/2004 12:20:36 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: presidio9
Breaux told CNN television Monday, hinting that Kerry lacked the pizzazz to appeal to a broad-based public.

You noticed.

Actually, great numbers of "broads" they expected to vote for him turned their backs on his pizzazz-free campaign. Nixed his alcohol-and-drug-addled wife as First Lady too.

47 posted on 11/09/2004 12:32:06 PM PST by Veto! (Happy denizen of BushWorld)
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To: presidio9

Of course this is assuming that his bag lady is still around to co-sign for any loans...


48 posted on 11/09/2004 12:34:39 PM PST by Hatteras
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To: Repealthe17thAmendment
Hey, if you're gonna bring someone back, why not George McGovern? Jimmy Carter? Michael Dukakis? Walter Mondale?

Didn't they dust this guy off 2 years ago?
49 posted on 11/09/2004 12:42:16 PM PST by BlueMondaySkipper (The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. - George Orwell)
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To: Michael.SF.
Potential slogans:

We can't lose three in row!

The third time is the charm!

Two losers can be a winner!



Two wrongs make a right!
50 posted on 11/09/2004 12:44:45 PM PST by BlueMondaySkipper (The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. - George Orwell)
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To: presidio9

ROTFLMPO ...

The chances of this are even less than those of Hitlery winning in '08

But, anyway, JoKe, BRING IT ON!!!

Schadenfreude is a wonderful thing...


51 posted on 11/09/2004 1:12:34 PM PST by AFPhys ((.Praying for President Bush, our troops, their families, and all my American neighbors..))
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To: BlueMondaySkipper

In 1984 Mondale lost everywhere except Minnesota (winning there by a microscopic margin) and the District of Columbia. In 2002 he managed to lose Minnesota in the Senate race, thus having a clean sweep of the states. Now if he will just run for an office in DC and get beat...


52 posted on 11/09/2004 1:39:13 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: presidio9

3 words of advice for Kerry: Swift, boat, vets.


53 posted on 11/09/2004 5:40:17 PM PST by citizencon
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To: johnfkerrysucks

By conceding too quickly, you mean before january 2005, right?


54 posted on 11/09/2004 6:40:55 PM PST by texasflower (Liberty can change habits. ~ President George W. Bush 10/08/04)
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To: presidio9
Kerry will NOT get the nomination in 2008, that's one everybody can take to the bank. He may very well run, but he won't get the nod. The only reason he got it this time was by default, he was seen as "electable"--the dems thought his Vietnam background would innoculate him from the dems' achilles heel of being soft on defense.

Also--about 2/3rds of Kerry voters only voted for him because he wasn't Bush, not because of love for Kerry. Any other generic dem would have gotten the same amount of votes. Bush won't be on the ticket in 2008 to run against. Most of the dems couldn't give a rat's a$$ for him, and are mad because, like Al Gore, he blew an election that he should have resoundingly won. He won't have another shot at the big prize.

55 posted on 11/10/2004 12:29:09 AM PST by gop_gene
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To: presidio9
He made a terrible mistake. He actually conceded! His party has decided that you ain't the President until the judges say you are or aren't and then you still argue for years that you were cheated! He is toast.
56 posted on 11/10/2004 12:39:40 AM PST by ladyinred (Congratulations President Bush! Four more years!)
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To: presidio9
"Kerry's younger brother Cameron told the Boston Globe newspaper the senator was "profoundly disappointed" about narrowly losing last week's election to President George W. Bush and deems another attempt fully possible.

"That's conceivable," the paper quoted the brother as saying. "I don't know why that (last week's loss) should necessarily be it."


What a hoot. He still doesn't get it. Robert Novak proposed "Is Kerry even Relevant?". His point being that the Dems really didn't care about Kerry or even what he took as positions during the campaign. They just wanted anyone but Bush. Kerry used the Dems, the Dems used Kerry. Kerry thinks he was picked because of him. He was picked because he was not Bush.

This is the height of delusion. He has started his long march to obscurity.

Mr Sol
57 posted on 11/10/2004 3:05:36 AM PST by Solar Wind
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To: Mr. Mojo
To another lib/Dem, not a Pubbie.

Please. He has done nothing for 18 years and they keep electing him. They will all drink the kool-aid again. I was just up in Boston last weekend. They LOVE him up there.

58 posted on 11/10/2004 6:39:28 AM PST by presidio9 (Islam is as Islam does)
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To: presidio9

He must have enjoyed his candidacy more than we did.


59 posted on 11/10/2004 6:51:48 AM PST by altura (Has Kerry taken off the yellow bracelet yet??)
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