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Kerry pins loss on Sept. 11
New York Daily News ^ | 1/31/05 | HELEN KENNEDY

Posted on 01/31/2005 1:24:09 AM PST by kattracks

WASHINGTON - Capping his week-long return to the spotlight, a defensive John Kerry appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday to explain his election loss - and was hit with yet more questions about Vietnam.

Kerry ultimately chalked up the results to 9/11, saying it was hard for people to forsake their President after such a national trauma.

But host Tim Russert's lengthy grilling about details of a mission on the Cambodian border 36 years ago showed how well Kerry's opponents undercut his valorous record, and how badly Kerry fought back.

"I believe that 9/11 was the central deciding issue in this race," Kerry said. President Bush "obviously connected to the American people in those immediate days. When a country is at war and in the wake of 9/11, it's very difficult to shift horses."

He said a videotape of Osama Bin Laden that appeared days before the election may have sunk him. "We were rising in the polls up until the last day when the tape appeared," Kerry said.

But he noted he came within 60,000 votes of the White House, raised more money and got more votes than any Democrat before him.

Russert spent a good part of the interview asking if Kerry would release every item in his military record, which Bush has never done, and reading a Daily News editorial questioning Kerry's account of spending Christmas 1968 in Cambodia. Kerry said he was in Cambodia but not that night. "It was on another day. I jumbled the two together," he said.

The Massachusetts senator has made little effort to hide his expectation to run again in 2008, and he has the money - about $20 million left over - the organization and the name recognition needed.

However, many Democrats are still baffled at how a candidate with so much money and such a united party could lose against a relatively unpopular President who sent the nation to war for weapons that didn't exist. The loss must be Kerry's fault, they think.

"Lenny Wilkens has a better chance of coming back as the Knicks coach," sniffed a top Democratic strategist with no love for Kerry.

Billionaire George Soros, who spent $26 million on anti-Bush efforts, also blamed Kerry, telling Bloomberg News yesterday, "Kerry did not, actually, offer a credible and coherent alternative."

Experts say Kerry shouldn't be counted out. "There are only about 25 people in the country who can look in the mirror and credibly say they could be President, and Kerry is one of them," said Stephen Hess, senior presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Originally published on January 31, 2005



TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: kerrydefeat; mtp; whykerrylost
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To: Bahbah

No doubt


41 posted on 01/31/2005 3:40:21 AM PST by UpHereEh
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To: gop_gene
Exactly. Flipping 60,000 votes in every state would change a lot of things. Wasn't the spread in Pennsylvania around 120,000 or so?

This is a bogus Democratic talking point and should be countered at every opportunity. It makes this election seem much closer than it really was.

42 posted on 01/31/2005 3:54:06 AM PST by GnL
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To: kattracks

Considering 2001 happened well before Kerry's point of no return commitment to run for the presidency,

The Headline should be--

Kerry chooses to run even after events made a win impossible. (Ambitious, Dumb, Totally Selfish Rat Alert).


43 posted on 01/31/2005 4:00:09 AM PST by rod1 (uired 4 more hours).)
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To: sgtbono2002
2. you cant win with lies
4. when you have a nasty wife with a foul mouth keep her hidden.

Not sure I agree.
2. Witness Clinton.
4. Witness Clinton

44 posted on 01/31/2005 4:06:40 AM PST by night reader
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To: kattracks

He still doesn't have a clue.


45 posted on 01/31/2005 4:07:10 AM PST by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
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To: kattracks

What tripe. Both from Kerry and the author. Relatively unpopular president?? Yeah, right..


46 posted on 01/31/2005 4:09:41 AM PST by cardinal4 (W's 3.5 million pop vote isnt a mandate, but algores .5 million is??)
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To: Manic_Episode

Or that he openly admitted committing sedition, bragged about committing treason …


47 posted on 01/31/2005 4:09:48 AM PST by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
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To: kattracks
Kerry ultimately chalked up the results to 9/11, saying it was hard for people to forsake their President after such a national trauma.

Wrong Mr. Skerry!! America didn't want to vote for the weaker America (in typical French fashion) that you would have given us!

48 posted on 01/31/2005 4:10:32 AM PST by CurlyBill (The difference between Madeline Albright and Helen Thomas is a mere 15 years.)
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To: kattracks

No more Kerry, please, please ... No, I do NOT care what he says or thinks. I am not interested in his opinion in the least, ever since the danger of the terrible catastrophe has passed the last November...


49 posted on 01/31/2005 4:13:32 AM PST by eclectic (Liberalism is a mental disorder)
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To: RVN Airplane Driver

If kerry had signed form 180 it would probably show that he was given a dishonorable discharge for aiding the enemy and should have never been able to run for any public office. My belief is that he does have a dishonorable discharge. He's a traitor!


50 posted on 01/31/2005 4:16:02 AM PST by Road Warrior ‘04 (Kill 'em til they're dead! Then, kill 'em again!)
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To: xJones

sounds kind of like an expresident we know of, eh?


51 posted on 01/31/2005 4:17:16 AM PST by InvisibleChurch (Look! Jimmy Carter! History's greatest monster!)
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To: niobe527

Bingo


52 posted on 01/31/2005 4:21:40 AM PST by StonyBurk
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To: kattracks
I believe that 9/11 was the central deciding issue in this race

Oh? Didn't sheer stupidity have something to do with it?

53 posted on 01/31/2005 4:22:52 AM PST by Marauder ("I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: kattracks

"If you take half the people at an Ohio State football game on Saturday afternoon and they were to have voted the other way, you and I would be having a discussion today about my State of the Union speech."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6886726/


54 posted on 01/31/2005 4:23:42 AM PST by maggief
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To: gop_gene
....I find it absolutely hilarious how the dems have done a total about-face--they are only concentrating on the electoral vote (if Kerry had prevailed) when I thought they cared SO MUCH about only the popular vote.....

Maybe this is why.

Conservative pro-life Christian voters made monumental contributions to GWB's 2004 vote totals. Pres Bush won with 63 Million Votes (13 million more than 2000).

The map, though impressive, conveys the misleading impression that blue state Catholics voted for Kerry (a CINO).

According to EWTN "The World Over Live" analysts, with the exception of VA, where Catholics spit 70/30 in favor of Bush, the majority of Catholic voters split 55/45 for Bush.....a whopping number of votes since Catholics number about 52 million Americans.

According to CNN exit polls, Bush voters included 38% of union members, 40% of those with union members in their households, 42% of those earning $15,000-$30,000, 44% of those who earn under $50,000 and 44% of Latinos, 45% of youth (aged 18-29), 13% of liberals—even 11% of Democrats voted for Bush.

If you look closely, the map appears to place the insignificant "Other Voters" in the ocean.....that's accurate, because "Other Voters--RINO Republicans" were on cruise ships.

(MAP UPDATE Bush won Michigan, Ohio, Iowa and New Mexico later.)

55 posted on 01/31/2005 4:23:49 AM PST by Liz (Wise men are instructed by reason; lesser men, by experience; the ignorant, by necessity. Cicero)
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To: kattracks; sauropod
However, many Democrats are still baffled at how a candidate with so much money and such a united party could lose against a relatively unpopular President who sent the nation to war for weapons that didn't exist.

Amazing. I keep looking for quotes around this statement, and they keep not being there.

Time for Helen Kennedy to run a premise-check.

56 posted on 01/31/2005 4:26:16 AM PST by hellinahandcart
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To: snarks_when_bored; samtheman
Deep, deep fantasy.

THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Don "Kerry" Quioxte and Sancho "Eddie" Panza

57 posted on 01/31/2005 4:26:45 AM PST by Liz (Wise men are instructed by reason; lesser men, by experience; the ignorant, by necessity. Cicero)
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To: kattracks
So George Soros.... if Kerry didn't offer a credible alternative to Bush, why did you waste 26 million on him?

L O S E R ! ! ! ! !

58 posted on 01/31/2005 4:30:56 AM PST by BB2
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To: kattracks; sauropod
Geez, there's more.

But host Tim Russert's lengthy grilling about details of a mission on the Cambodian border 36 years ago showed how well Kerry's opponents undercut his valorous record, and how badly Kerry fought back.

How well can he fight back when he's caught in a lie? He ain't Clinton. And valorous? Woof!

Russert spent a good part of the interview asking if Kerry would release every item in his military record, which Bush has never done

Yes he did. Apparently the author slept through the AP's FOIA request and the resulting final document dump last fall. The media just never found they dirt they wanted.

Are we absolutely sure this is Helen Kennedy and not Helen Thomas?

59 posted on 01/31/2005 4:34:07 AM PST by hellinahandcart
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To: gop_gene
Absolutely correct. Their god, Bill Clinton, received less than 50% of the popular vote in both of his elections. Yet, both times, the Clintons insisted that they had a "mandate" from the voters. It is curious - when they win with less than 50% of the popular vote, they love the electoral college. We all know how they feel about it now.
60 posted on 01/31/2005 4:42:49 AM PST by Conservative Infidel
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