ASHINGTON - Senator John F. Kerry says the 2004 presidential campaign he is contemplating will be modeled on the maverick, straight-talk bid that Republican Senator John McCain made for the White House in 2000. Posted on 11/26/2002 4:18:19 PM PST by PJ-Comix
ASHINGTON - Senator John F. Kerry says the 2004 presidential campaign he is contemplating will be modeled on the maverick, straight-talk bid that Republican Senator John McCain made for the White House in 2000.
In a long profile in today's New Yorker magazine, Massachusetts' junior senator said winning the Democratic nomination will depend on making connections with people across party lines and winning the support of Republicans and Independents who can vote in Democratic primaries.
''People are jaded, people are cynical - there's a breach of faith,'' Kerry told writer Joe Klein. ''You have to reestablish a way to connect with people. John McCain did that.''
McCain, from Arizona, pulled off an upset victory in the 2000 New Hampshire primary. He went on to win delegates in seven states by wooing Democrats and Independents on the strength of a compelling personal story of Vietnam prisoner-of-war valor, an engaging town meeting strategy, and a reputation for candor and humor at campaign stops and aboard his bus, the ''Straight Talk Express.''
Kerry said that combination helped McCain build trust in New Hampshire, the critical early-primary state.
''I think it was built partly on his manner, his approach, and partly on who he was, the story of his life,'' Kerry said. ''Whether I can do that, I don't know. I'm not cocky enough to say that absolutely, I can do what he did, but I know it's worth trying.''
McCain is one of Kerry's closest friends in the Senate, a relationship forged over a shared experience as Vietnam veterans and their bipartisan work on a 1991 Senate committee that investigated the possibility that American prisoners of war were still being held in Vietnam, Klein writes. Kerry told Klein that on a trip to Vietnam he and McCain visited the cell where the Arizona senator was imprisoned.
''We found this common ground in this far-off place,'' Kerry said.
On ABC-TV's ''This Week,'' McCain said ''no'' when asked whether he could consider being Kerry's running mate.
Klein reports that as McCain did, Kerry would stress his military and foreign policy expertise in a presidential campaign and use veterans groups across the country as a base of support. Kerry was wounded three times in Vietnam and received a Bronze Star and a Silver Star.
Kerry has not formally declared his presidential candidacy, but recently he said that, barring a ''revolution'' in his family or among his advisers, he would soon make his decision known. The senator has spent months preparing to seek the Democratic nomination, has traveled to key states around the country, and met with party leaders and advisers to frame a message and craft a strategy. He has appeared often on television talk shows as a party spokesman, and he gave Klein access to family members for the New Yorker profile called, ''The Long War of John Kerry: Can a Massachusetts Brahmin become President?''
Klein writes that Kerry is trying hard to dispel an image that he is pompous and stiff. Taking a chapter from McCain's book, which showed McCain to be a rascal, Kerry confides to Klein that as the captain of a swift boat in Vietnam, he instigated chicken races between boats and organized water balloon battles. The military brass was not happy, Kerry said.
''What were they going to do to us, send us to Vietnam?'' he quipped.
Oh you rascal you! Next thing you know, John F. Kerry will be leading a panty raid on Mrs. Heinz's closet.
Kerry won't be abel to dispel the above image, because he IS pompous and stiff.
McCain's 'secret' is that he sucked up to Kristol. Anyone who can advance Kristol's neo-con agenda will get good press.
No problem. She keeps him in line with her gold-plated jerk chain.
The California Governor, Gray Davis, is know for the same lethal attraction to rolling cameras. The joke with the local press was that the most dangerous place to be in the state was between a rolling camera and Gray Davis.
Does Kerry spend 3hrs. everyday on his hair like Davis?
God help us, it's Herman Munster.
And just like Nancy Pelousy, he's going to be workin' hard to dispel the REALITY that he - a man of the working poor, the downtrodden, the minority, the disenfranchised - has millions and millions and millions of dollars.
Man you are totally out of it.
Kristol is what the media puts on when they want a Republcian character to make fun of. Kristol is a media play thing. He has no clout.
McCain tried to come off as popular RINO. The media would very much liked to have had the choice between a Lefist Rino and Gore. It would not matter to them who won. They would have prefered Gore but they could have lived with McCain. Kristol has nothing to do with what the media does. He has zero clout. He is a media toy.
Kerry does not understand the media attraction to McCain. If McCain were to become a Democrat he would get less media attention than Jeffords does now. The media is not looking for a Democrat to take the nomination away from a real liberal. The democratic party is looking for an old style liberal to take them back to the good old days. Kerry is clueless.
Their will be a bit of struggle in the Democratic party. On one side will be the true believers.There are more of them than any other faction. Al Gore is positioning himself to be the one true believer. There will be the centrist candiates like Kerry. The most the centrists can hope for is to be booed at the Democratic convention.
Gore has the nomination. What the others are doing is gaining name recognition in hopes of getting to pick up the pieces for 2008.
He's probably up in heaven laughing his a** off that Kerry is now stuck with that insane b*tch.
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