That aint all Johnny!
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...
Mama T has a bit of Sybil in her, doesn't she?
For your information, I thought he was talking about Thersa.
And what the hades does your second part mean....'don't ask me to feel sorry for you?'
You need to re-read what I asked you.
What went wrong was that Kerry was concieved before Roe vs Wade.
Yes ... we've stumbled through this life, avoiding all the pitfalls that come with it, so it certainly cannot be you, or I. ;)
Pathetic
"Liberal" on what issue?
Yikes!! When one of your own top advisors admits your flip flopping positions were based on polls and focus groups, you're in trouble, Mister!
And a whole lot of gin.
I actually voted against him before I voted for GWB...
That aint all Johnny!
Yep, the bunny suit, staged pfoney pfotos and the botoxed orange pface, pfuey!!
sKerry pfoney lying windbag - to put it mildly, get it JF'nK?
"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."
"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.""
The Bush team only accused him of taking two sides to an issue. Looks like the advisors say he takes four sides.
Do you think he'll finally put his PLANS for a better America into the Senate hopper, or will he save them for HIS OWN new and improved campaign in '08? (sarcasm)
Oliver Stone & John Kerry are reading from the same
"I didn't fail, there are just too many stupid people out there" book.
Lieberals see what they believe and conservatives believe what they see....
About those flowered spandex windsurfing outfits.......
You know, I always wondered, especially if He had won, if sometime she woul flip out in a hotel lobby somewhere and fend off the police with a bottle of gin in one hand and a tiny, nickel plated 25 automatic in the other.
"Chhhome and get me you mudder fruckers.I am de firsht laydeeeeeeee."
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