You remember Bob Dole's problem back in 1996, though? Dole was Majority Leader. He was trying to move appropriations bills through the Senate in the Spring. The Dems were tying him up in knots on orders from the Clinton White House to show America that if Dole couldn't move legislation, how could he be a President? Dole chose to retire at the end of his term and gambled on a run for the White House. Kerry could have done that and risked everything on one turn of pitch and toss.
But he didn't, and I'll tell you why.
Without that Senate seat, no one has to pay any attention to John Kerry. Nobody has to give a rat's ass about him. Dole has paid his dues and is neither a prisoner of an inflated ego nor is he possessed of a romantic attachment to the heroics of a bygone youth. Kerry doesn't have what Dole has: security in one's own skin. Kerry needs attention. Bush doesn't, nor does Dole, nor did Reagan.
No one will put John Kerry in a Pepsi commercial with Britney Spears, and that's what Kerry is afraid of. He doesn't want to go through the rest of his life being Theresa Heinz-Kerry's boy toy.
So he'll be in the Senate next year, a forgotten backbencher, but a vote that people have to go to to get what they want. And that will be okay, because he'll still be invited to all the right parties in Georgetown.
Be Seeing You,
Chris