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...
The following 6 homes belong to FnKerry. And we are to feel sorry for him? I think not.
"The pundits have never liked me,"
Despite the scandals, incompetence, vindictiveness, arrogance, elitism and nonfeasance which were concealed or distorted by the press, Kerry lost. Now he blames those who sold their jouranalistic souls for his candidacy. Ingratitude lengthens the list of his failings.
That's it in a nutshell. That's the difference between Kerry and President Bush. President Bush doesn't have to sit there and figure out how best to speak with the "ordinary voters". He doesn't need to analyze his words, or run speeches by focus groups in order to try to sound authentic. He is authentic. Unlike Kerry, he isn't patronizing to the voters, and doesn't pander. When he speaks, he says what's in his heart, and because of that, President Bush has no trouble connecting with the people of this country. Kerry failed to understand that you cannot manufacture that quality.
He Connected Plenty!
Okay, fess up people: Which Freeper wrote this? LOL
Even SHE couldn't stand him! |
|
Compare |
Contrast |
* Pro-Life |
- Pro-Abortion |
Good grief. Yet another dysfunctional Democratic candidate! We'd have had another four years of a national therapy session!
I've already saved ALL my bookmarks to a CD just in case he pops his head up again.
Reading this except, its clear the Demorats and the MSM still don't get it. They keep denying the real reason Bush won. And that's a good thing.
yes sir, it boggles the mind!
i want a refund for the democrats messing up my life during the 70's and since.
that's right..."reparations", for destroying my country.
You've never seen his nails if you think his legs are freaky.
And frankly, I don't want him to do anything more than that.....
Needs a little work.
1. He is the definition of Northeastern "elite" liberal, something that many Americans dislike.
2. His speaking style with its monotone drone just drives many listeners to annoyed distraction.
3. His campaign refused to completely disassociate themselves with a number of vitriolic Anybody But Bush Democratic 527 organizations such as MoveOn.org and Americans Coming Together.
4. His campaign pretty much supported Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 with its looney bin assertations.
5. The success of "values" (e.g., the incredible success of The Passion of the Christ, the horror of the Super Bowl halftime show as produced by MTV, and the issue of same-sex marriages) just flummoxed the Democrats to no end; Senator Kerry pandered too much to this crowd, especially that fundraiser show with Whoopi Goldberg's obscenity-filled vitriol against President Bush.
6. The disastrous response by the Kerry campaign to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 527 organization.
7. Senator Kerry's photo ops that screamed PHONEY! in description most of the time.
8. The mainstream media being too supportive of Senator Kerry even to the point of doing fraudulent stories (read: the phony Texas Air National Guard memos, the phony story about missing explosives in Iraq).
9. Kerry actually "blowing" the first Presidential debate with that stupid remark about a global test.
10. Teresa Heinz-Kerry making WAY too many flippant remarks.
Is it small wonder why Senator Kerry lost?
LOL.
A house is not a home, regardless of size-poor Kerry is for all intents and purposes, h-o-m-e-l-y.....strike that, h-o-m-e-l-e-s-s.
You look good in vampy nails...John Kerry looks, well, creepy.
Didn't he say they were for his classical guitar playing? LOL
Me too. I think Kerry was the last gasp of the MSM and the old establishment Dem Party. But they couldn't make a silk purse out of this sow's ear!
Kerry chased the reporter out of the house down the street to show him a letter from a schoolgirl who said she really liked Kerry? OMG
And then he fretted about the way he looked!!!!!!!! ROFLMAO
"Sow's ear" is giving him too much credit. The sows of America will be offended...:-)
LOL
Oh man, Kerry's like the Prince of Whales!
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.