Democrats have misgivings as Kerry tests waters for '08

Philadelphia Daily News ^ | 3/20/05 | By Dick Polman

[bitt]

Some backers won't count him out. Others don't want a "shopworn" candidate.

WASHINGTON - John Kerry had come so close; on election night, before the dream died, his chief strategist had even said, "Let me be the first to call you Mr. President." Yet there he was on Inauguration Day, a mere spectator wearing a wan smile in the cold wind.

And when President Bush took the oath of office, Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa seated beside Kerry, placed his gloved right hand on the vanquished candidate's spine. He rubbed up and down, repeatedly. And as Bush intoned, "... so help me God," Harkin finished with a pair of gentle pats.

Those gestures spoke volumes about Kerry's sense of loss. And Kerry would not have the luxury of recuperating in private. He couldn't grow a beard and vanish, as Al Gore did; he couldn't go to Hawaii and teach college, as Mike Dukakis finally did. No, Kerry had to go back to his day job - becoming the first losing presidential candidate to return to the Senate since George McGovern in 1973.

But unlike McGovern, who stayed low-profile after a landslide defeat, John Kerry is already working hard on a resurrection. In a rudderless, leaderless Democratic Party, he is determined to fill the vacuum.

And don't be shocked if he launches another presidential candidacy in 2008, despite the fact that no U.S. senator has ever run, lost, and won a subsequent nomination. History notwithstanding, however, it may not be easy for Kerry to simply walk away, not after winning 59 million votes - although there are plenty of Democrats who wish that he would.

There he was Thursday, for example, in a Washington hotel, with that familiar ramrod posture, and the familiar portentous voice projecting...

[Valin]

Forgive me if I read with glee about his demise.

Mind if I join you?

[Coop]

At least Kerry has a spine

Could have fooled me.

[Airborne1986]

"...But the remark that most galls his party critics is his contention that he'd be president today if only 60,000 Ohioans had switched votes - as he put it the other day, "half the people in a football stadium in Columbus, Ohio, on a Saturday.""

The worm has really turned for those guys. If the Ohio State Stadium scenario had actualy happened, would all the fools with their "Re-Defeat Bush" and "Re-Elect Gore" bumperstickers have sung the same tune and complained about a "stolen" election? I think not. I also don't think that the media would have condone the use of a filibuster or other Legislative tactics by the GOP to obstruct the Kerry agenda.