Posted on 06/04/2006 5:29:44 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
While Al Gore is commanding all the attention of those searching for the "un-Hillary," there's another candidate who is quietly doing the work it actually takes to run for president.
While Al Gore continues to protest that he isn't running, there's another candidate who is privately making no bones about his future prospects.
While Al Gore has yet to acknowledge that he lost, there's another candidate who is belatedly addressing the mistakes that caused his defeat.
The "un-Gore," "un-Hillary" is John Kerry.
He is doing everything Gore isn't doing to prepare for a presidential run in 2008.
He is running hard and running smart.
Watch him, and you know Gore has a lot of catching up to do - that it isn't just a matter of making a movie and then standing back and waiting for the votes to come in.
Running for president is a lot of work, and John Kerry is working hard.
He is finally addressing the Swift Boat lies that, more than anything else, undermined his campaign. He is working his lists, traveling the country and re-recruiting his old backers, one-by-one.
Don't count him out for a minute.
How does he get past the electability argument? I asked one of his supporters. After all, electability was his claim last time, and it isn't an argument you can easily make twice. He's a different man, this friend and supporter told me.
That is certainly evident in his approach to his military record.
Last time, with his record under attack, he basically did nothing. He let them attack his heroism, his integrity and his manhood, and he simply didn't answer.
It was positively Dukakis-like, and it killed him.
Since February of last year, he and his team have been fighting back, lie by lie. Maybe it's all for the next run, but his friends tell me they would be doing it anyway, because he cannot bear leaving the record where it was.
In the immediate aftermath of the campaign, he was ready to blame this one or that one - those days are past. It's not about blame any more, it's about getting it right.
What Dick Nixon did between 1960 and 1968 is what John Kerry has been doing and will do in these four years. Unlike Gore, it isn't a show about him. It's about each congressman and woman who calls and asks him to come to their district and do a fund-raiser.
He comes. He spreads money around. He contributes to everyone.
He has a list of 3 million voter contacts, and they hear from him regularly. He is generous with time. He is easy to get to.
It's not like getting in an endless line to get into the Hillary campaign, or fighting half of Hollywood to get close to Gore. It's not like negotiating the intricacies of Clinton Inc., where you are expected to give endlessly and might someday get an invitation to lunch with a hundred others. If you want to have dinner with Kerry, you can have dinner with Kerry. Alone, or with one or two other people. You can spend real time.
He'll listen.
Maybe the arrogance is still there, but he isn't wearing it on his sleeve. He doesn't talk about all the votes he got. He knows that the people he had last time have to be re-recruited, one by one, and that's how he's doing it.
His vice presidential nominee, John Edwards, may well run - but so what?
No love lost between those two. What one does won't matter to the other, one way or the other. My guess is that he wishes he'd picked Dick Gephardt. Whether it would have mattered or not, who knows? Would Gephardt have been a better debater? Fought harder?
That's the past.
It won't stop Kerry from running against Edwards.
Or Gore.
Or Hillary.
Lies???? What lies???? What a line of crap. Between the Swift Boaters and Kerry, I am 1000 times more confidence the Swift Boaters are telling the truth.
"What about the last one???"
You mean Clinton? Clinton was a bad man, but he was not a fop.
He'll always be the "Un-Winner".
"Kerry is still a treasonous, prententious fop"
LOLOLOL!! That seldom-heard three letter word speaks entire volumes!
;^)
Susan Estrogen wrote this GARBAGE.
Uh, that's `pretentious'.
(Spell checker momentarily disabled)
yes, has he released his records yet?
George Allen
How about Mitch Daniels from Indiana?
That said, IF Hillary runs, and Kerry gets in her way, he'll be another victim of Arkancide!!! Kerry would be a fool to go up against Bill Clinton, and he's going to make sure Hillary becomes the next President. I hope that Kerry, Gore, Hillary, Richardson, and as many RATS as possible run. They will destroy the RAT Party through their back stabbing. Worse than the last Primary.
"Mother, tell me again about how I shall be President one day."
.
NEVER FORGET
JOHN KERRY came back from Vietnam to call us American Soliders fighting for the Freedom of others there...
...rapists & terrorists,
instead of the Communist terrorist enemy we were fighting who actually were.
Actor MEL GIBSON, however, came to a completely different conclusion while filming our real Vietnam War story of LOVE & Sacrifice:
MEL's -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLIDERS-
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts
Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer
Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965, Landing Zone Falcon
(Pictures)
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_set1.htm
http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm
NEVER FORGET
.
Because he couldnt-he lacks integrity, did nothing heroic, and I would submit anyone who married Teresa for her money is not a man..
LOLOL! True enough.
In that dodge is a helluvan admission..The Swifties got him. BTW, the Swift Boat Vets would be happy to keep the issue going, especially the part about how forthright the Senator is in addressing the "lies".
he's been fighting back lie by lie for years, not just months.
When I read this I thought that the author meant that Kerry's finally going to come clean on the lies he told and deception he created during the Vietnam War. Can't say I was shocked that that wasn't what she meant. Still in denial I guess.
Well, he certainly has the face for it.
Right. We're still waiting for a SIGNED and SUBMITTED Form 180 on this girly-man.
Kerry is "making no bones" because he has no spine.
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