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
Hold on....... what's that.........Yes..Mama Cass is singing!
It sure as hell ain't a news article.
I pin his loss on the fact he lied the all of us.
Since it rained in Ohio, there were not enough dead people who could get to the polls and vote for Kerry.
And,all this time I thought it was his lying.
You can lump the Clinton's in that group!!!!!!!!!!
Kerry and his "I coulda been a contender" role. Nothing is as inept and boring as monday morning quarterback.
He doesn't have a clue, he never had a clue. Every vote he got was either a yellow dog democrat vote or a ribid anti-Bush vote from the socialist left - none of them were for his positions on policy. His whole campaign was based on nothing other than to defeat Bush. To call him unsubstantial is an overstatement. A midget among giants.
I dare anyone to name ONE redeeming quality he had.
I watched him 'til I was bored stiff (didn't take long) and I still can't tell you what he was running for other than the glory of the office and self-deluding dream that he was meant to be president.
I would call him a wanker but it would give wanker's a bad name.
Typical Rat. It is never their fault. Just because he is a lying, traitorist POS had nothing to do with his losing.
I was a little confused by that myself. I wonder if he is trying to make that a new talking point. That he lost by a smaller and smaller margin.
Can't do much about the 4 million nation wide!
Integrity, Integrity, Integrity!
LOL!
So they tell you at PBS. Not a scholar, rather - Stephen Hess, loyal ultra-leftist Dem. If he didn't want sKerry, I would guess he'd prefer not Dean, but the other failed Senator from MA - they guy who never did answer questions raised by the family that can never get their daughter back. How Teddy is still in office is a mystery, and a horrible reflection upon those who continued to put him in office.
"Kerry pins loss on Sept. 11"
I agree with him. He lost the election before he ran for it.
There are certain key records, particularly concerning his discharge from the military. The Navy refused to investigate, previously, during the campaign (or they did pretend to investigate in word only). There was some incompetent who has just been appointed. And it might be nice if the Bush Administration looks into all that, and gets an officer in there who takes matters seriously, and would investigate such, particularly as Kerry is again attempting to gain attention for himself.
Even John Lehman had no idea why documents bearing his signature or stamp existed on Kerry's behalf.
Not much gets past him, does it?
Ummmmmm. He's not Bush? *snrk*
LOL
I'm sure Peggy (Wanker) Bundy would agree!!
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