Posted on 09/23/2005 4:05:17 PM PDT by RWR8189
emember John Kerry? It's been a busy week for the 2004 Democratic nominee. On Monday, Kerry delivered a long speech at Brown University blasting the Bush administration's inept response to the Katrina disaster and just about every other thing it's laid a finger on. Two days later, Kerry gave a floor speech in the Senate declaring his unsurprising opposition to the John Roberts nomination.
Make no mistake: Kerry designed these to be attention-grabbers. His staff hyped both of them relentlessly. Four e-mails from Kerryland popped into my inbox before and after his Brown speech, which Kerry aides billed as a "major address." Meanwhile his Roberts speech was garnished with no fewer than six e-mail alerts, a pace that might embarrass some Viagra spammers.
And the net result was ... well, not much. Kerry's "major address" was ignored by The New York Times, while The Washington Post lumped it in with a similar anti-Bush speech delivered by John Edwards. His Roberts broadside earned only fleeting mentions in both papers. No one seemed very interested. Even bloggers didn't pay much attention. (New York Times columnist David Brooks did use the occasion to slam Kerry as a cheap partisan--hardly the attention Kerry wanted.)
So it goes with John Kerry these days. Had 60,000 Ohioans voted differently, he would now be leader of the free world. After the election it seemed possible that Kerry would soldier on as the voice of national Democrats. Yet in a matter of just months he's gone from the face of his party to another face in the crowd.
It's not that Kerry isn't trying. Kerry has done anything but slink off into a post-defeat hibernation the way some other recently vanquished presidential nominees--Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis, even Al Gore (remember the beard and the European vacation?)--have done. Well before this week, Kerry was traveling the country campaign-style to promote a children's health care plan he has, at least for the moment, made his top priority. Even as I write this, I see from the latest Kerry, Inc., email that the senator is touting another new plan to fight global AIDS.
No, Kerry seems hell-bent on redemption at the ballot box in 2008. You can see it in his strident attacks on the Bush administration, which he laid out in rhetorically goofy fashion on Monday:
Brownie is to Katrina what Paul Bremer is to peace in Iraq. What George Tenet is to slam dunk intelligence, what Paul Wolfowitz is to parades paved with flowers in Baghdad. The bottom line is simple. The "we'll do whatever it takes" administration doesn't have what it takes to get the job done. This is the Katrina administration.
You can also see Kerry's '08 ambitions in hints dropped by his political operation, which has never shot down speculation that Kerry would run again. As The Boston Globe's Peter Canellos wrote, Kerry's Katrina speech "had the air of a major political moment," surrounded as he was by his family and several top aides who "scrutinized his performance from the front row somewhat like the judging panel on 'American Idol.'"
And you can see it in that most reliable barometer of political activity: fundraising. As of August 15, Kerry's leadership PAC had raised around $750,000 this year, second only among his potential 2008 rivals to Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, who has practically declared his candidacy.
Yet while the political world hangs on every word from Hillary Clinton's mouth, and Joe Biden seems to be getting more airtime than Anderson Cooper, no one appears terribly interested in what John Kerry has to say anymore.
It's not just the media--it's Democratic voters, too. Kerry placed second in an August CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll which asked Democrats whom they preferred as a 2008 nominee. That doesn't sound so bad until you consider the numbers. Kerry finished with 16 percent, while the front-runner, Hillary Clinton (of course), had a whopping 40 percent. And Kerry was barely ahead of John Edwards, who placed just one point behind him. A June Fox News poll yielded similar results.
And it gets even more ominous. Kerry is especially unpopular within the world of netroots Democrats--the blog-based crowd who nearly lifted Howard Dean to the Democratic nomination and whose influence over the 2008 primaries will only be more powerful. The bloggers and their acolytes are still trying to figure out which candidates to promote for the next presidential nomination. But at the moment there seems to be no groundswell for the last nominee. In a summer straw poll conducted by DailyKos.com, perhaps the Grand Central Station of netroots liberals, Kerry finished with a pathetic 2 percent--putting him behind the likes of Biden, Virginia Governor Mark Warner, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, and the estimable "No Freakin' Clue." (Wesley Clark finished a clear first with 34 percent.) Meanwhile in another recent straw poll over at the Kos-like site MyDD.com, Kerry tallied just 3 percent among 14 Democrats.
None of this should come as a shock. Kerry was never an inspiring candidate. He overcame Howard Dean at the last minute in large part because he could afford to give his primary campaign a huge loan. His feeble response to last summer's swift boat attacks revealed his clumsy political skills. Everything good about the Kerry campaign--its phenomenal fundraising, the passions it harnessed--derived mainly from Democrats' Bush-hatred, not from Kerry himself.
In the midst of Kerry's typically windy John Roberts speech, he paused and looked up to the Senate rostrum. "Mr. President, how much time do I have left?" Kerry asked. "The gentleman's time has expired," came the reply. And so it has.
It's all past history. I was interested in this article because it suggested that someone in the Democrat mainstream was nervous about Kerry trying to get press attention. The article's a bit of a letdown really. When you think about it, every New Republic article is just some pundit repeating the MSM news headlines in the form of complete sentences and better grammar.
Bush won Ohio by 118,000 votes. Now, subtract 60,000 votes from Bush's total and add them to Kerry's.
Besides which, Marty Peretz, the New Republic's publisher, is a Gore guy. He never did warm to Kerry.
...and, last but not least, what John Kerry is to the truth. We're still waiting for him to authorize the release of his military records. He said he would do that on Meet The Press last January but hasn't yet. Until he does he's a non-issue. I'm sure he won't be back on that program anytime soon because, regardless of his flaws, Russert won't let him off without addressing the issue as to why he hasn't.
Apparently Kerry didn't get the memo that explained that Democratic presidential candidates get one chance and one chance only. If they fail, they're out. That's why Biden isn't a credible choice.
DEMS: Didn't you run in '88?
Biden: Yes, but...
DEMS: Didn't you plagerize a speech?
Biden: Yeah, but...
DEMS: Go sit down.
Wolf,
You'd have thought that with her dough she could'a done alot better among money grubbers.
I cannot for my life imagine John Kerry ever saying anything interesting, spontaneous, engaging, or passionate.
What's most off-putting is that Boston highborn broad 'r' indifference and the impression that he feels entitled.
What a chucklehead.
"Please, someone explain this logic to me, Bush won by over 100,000 votes!"
You have to remove the 60k from the Republican column. That is now 40k votes. Add the 60k back to the Dem column and Kerry wins by 20k votes.
Problem here is Bush won by 136,000 votes. In Wisconsin, Bush lost by 11,000 votes and there was voter fraud detected and convictions made. Bush lost Wisconsin, PA and NJ by less votes than he won by in Ohio.
Those 3 states are known for RAT voter fraud. In all fairness to Kerry, this election wasn't close.
"Is his wife still zonked on ludes?"
C'mon man. It's the 21st century...Vicodins. 'Ludes are so last millenium.
"Kerry-Gore in 2008!"
I'd tell you to bite your tongue, but you probably already did just so you could maintain your composure long enough to keyboard that!
Actually, I think that would be a very defeatable opposition for just about any warm body who claimed to be a Republican. Maybe we should all join that campaign, at least temporarily?
I think you misunderstand me, I was referring to tersa heinz KERRY and Tipper GORE in 2008!! Just kidding, a John Kerry and Al Gore presidential campaign would almost be as funny as "Blazing Saddles" or the twits in the double decker bus that drove from London to Baghdad to be human shields..
"I think you misunderstand me..."
I did, in fact, misunderstand you, but my post still stands, becaus that would probably be a very defeatable pairing, too. (Oh, I certainly HOPE so, anyway!!) Heaven help America if it isn't. ;)
I did understand you meant it as a joke, but I didn't understand the depths of your depraved humor... You are sick and twisted. I like that.
Think about it! Kerry's nuanced foreign policy experience coupled with his war hero status in tandem with Al Gore's enviornmental and technical savviness would produce a United States with all the appeal of the Edsel with all the Charm and Charisma we can handle!
No, if some 60,000 Bush supporters in OH had supported Kerry, then Kerry would have won the electoral votes of OH and with that the presidency.
The presidency is decided by who wins the most states. As it turned out, Ohio was the critical state in the 2004 election. The total number of votes cast nationwide makes no difference...SSZ
"Think about it! Kerry's nuanced foreign policy experience coupled with his war hero status in tandem with Al Gore's enviornmental and technical savviness would produce a United States with all the appeal of the Edsel with all the Charm and Charisma we can handle!"
You seriously malign the Edsel with this post. Edsel's were actually very nice cars, they were just too advanced for their day. My brother has one he intends to restore, so I have some familiarity with the make. How about comparing that candidacy/line-up with an AMC Gremlin? Much more suitable comparison there, I believe, having owned a Gremlin, myself. The only good thing about it was the engine. Thin beer-can metal for the body, incredibly complex curves in the glass... Yep. Gremlin would definitely be a better comparison. Likewise for charm and charisma, for that matter! ;)
LT ping = thanks, KB.........
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's true, Kerry got less than the usual margin-of-error. That cracks me up. Keep going Kerry, you got 3 votes today. You'll do twice as good tomorrow!
No, Kerry seems hell-bent on redemption at the ballot box in 2008.
Damn this guy is an idiot. If he had the IQ of a can of spam, he'd be on vacation spending some of his wife's hard-earned money instead of slinking around DNC headquarters and giving speeches where the only people showing up are hippies and old people that are bussed in with the promise of a free lunch. This is as pathetic as Dan Rather hosting his own farewell tribute.
Thanks for the ping!
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