Posted on 01/02/2005 7:48:43 AM PST by flixxx
KERRY SPEAKS: WHAT WENT WRONG Sun Jan 02 2005 10:35:31 ET
New York-In an exclusive interview about his presidential campaign and his life now, Sen. John Kerry tells Newsweek, "I'm not going to lick my wounds or hide under a rock or disappear. I'm going to learn. I've had disappointments and I've learned to cope. I've lost friends, a marriage: I've lost things in life."
Kerry has not given any formal interviews since his defeat. But on Nov. 11, he summoned a Newsweek reporter to his house on Boston's fashionable Louisberg Square. He wanted to complain about Newsweek's election issue, which he says was unduly harsh and gossipy about him, his staff and his wife. (The 45,000-word article, the product of a yearlong reporting project, is being published next week as a book, "Election 2004," by PublicAffairs.) Details from that interview appear in the January 10 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, January 3). Kerry talks with Newsweek about the campaign, why he lost and what's ahead for him. He did not wish to be directly quoted touting himself, however; he did not wish to appear defensive or boastful.
When asked why he lost the election, Kerry points to history and, in a somewhat inferential, roundabout way, to his own failure to connect to voters-a failure that kept him from erasing the Bush campaign's portrait of him as a flip-flopper, reports Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas. Kerry said that he was proud of his campaign, that he had nearly defeated a popular incumbent who had enjoyed a three-year head start on organizing and fund-raising. Sitting presidents are never defeated in wartime, he insisted (true, though two, LBJ and Harry Truman, chose not to run for another term during Vietnam and Korea).
While he quarreled with descriptions of his speaking style as "soporific," Kerry tacitly acknowledged that he failed to connect with enough voters on a personal level. Jose Ferreira, Kerry's nephew, told his uncle, "Some people are saying that your candidacy was driven by ABB [Anything But Bush]." Kerry replied: "Do you think so?" Ferreira said that once people got to know Kerry, they were intensely loyal. "Those are the people I let down," Kerry said, falling silent. In conversation with
Newsweek, Kerry seemed particularly interested in trying to find a way to speak to ordinary voters that didn't sound too grandiose or "political." Though Kerry did not directly criticize his friend Bob Shrum, it's clear he did not feel well served by his message makers and speechwriters.
The deeper problem may be Kerry's personality, which may be too distant or reserved to win mass affection. As Thomas left Kerry's house in November, Kerry called out and followed him down the street. Kerry wanted to show a letter from a schoolgirl that had been left on his stoop. The letter read, in part, "John Kerry, you're the greatest!" Kerry looked into the reporter's eye. "The pundits have never liked me," he said. "Is it the way I look? The way I sound?" He seemed vulnerable for a moment, then caught himself, smiled and walked home to his empty house.
In the heady days before the election, Kerry's top aides sat around picking a cabinet. Nowadays the foreign-policy team still meets on the assumption that it could be reconstituted for '08. But the reality is, "it's mostly sitting around some lawyer's office and asking each other if we've heard about jobs," says a member of the team. As for Kerry, says this adviser, "he thinks he's the frontrunner for '08 without recognizing that he needs to do some soul-searching. If he wants to come back, he'll have to come back as a different candidate, not the stiff who plays it safe and takes four sides of every issue."
Developing...
Clearly this is an outreach to the DUmmies about the impending decertification of election and REVOTE.
Next question.
Really, Really touching
"John Kerry Your the greatest", AWWWWWWWW, If he's good enough for a little school girl he's good enough for me! I'm going to vote for him now!
It is amazing that such a mega-narcissistic arrogant fraud could have come so close to being President. This lunatic/psychopath got 48% of the vote. If it were not for his party's rigid control of the media, he would have got 1/2 this amount of votes.
And we can't lose him.
Shame
Of course I can't really vote for him, but in my heart I can
""The pundits have never liked me," he said. "Is it the way I look? The way I sound?"
No, johhnie.........it's what you ARE and ARE NOT!
That's one reason why the hildebeast is running to the center and right to avoid being seen as another left wing lib.
Don't mention his fanatical obsession with gun control, all the while making a ludicrous attempt to fool people into thinking hunting was the only reason to own a gun.
Don't mention Gay marriage, and sure as HELL don't mention his wing nut of a wife.
The looney left still believe him though.
Interesting.
Imus returns from a two vacation tomorrow morning. Guess who his two guests are?
Alter and Fineman. Don't they both work for Newsweek?
The fact that he is a fake had nothing to do with his loss???? This Vietnam Vet saw through him since 1971, thank God the Swifties came back on duty to expose this fraud.
Too funny.
Bush never had a problem connecting with the average American that Kerry seems to have, yet both are wealthy and live privileged lives. The difference between the two seems to lie in their individual characters, and that's what voters picked up on.
I don't know, when He posed with that gun in Ohio it sure fooled me.
Oh wait wait, it didn't
...
He seemed vulnerable for a moment, then caught himself, smiled and walked home to his empty house.
.
Poor fellow. Which of Teresa's houses?
Trouble is, nobody loves a gigalo, among many other of his 'attributes'. Poor Baby.
Hey John, you basically had no message and your wife is a toad.
One of the morning shows ran a snippet of Kerry speaking from a podium during the election campaign. He looked awful. He looked as though he'd just come out of my mother's hair salon with one of those bouffant styles which accentuated his obviously recent botox treatment. Girly-man-- it was awful.
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