Posted on 11/09/2004 10:47:20 AM PST by presidio9
Defeated Democrat John Kerry has dropped hints he may run for president in 2008, as glum party officials debated the way forward after last week's Republican sweep of elections for the White House and US Congress.
"Sometimes God tests you," an aide to the Massachusetts senator quoted Kerry as telling friends and supporters, the Washington Post reported. "I'm a fighter and I've come back before."
Kerry's younger brother Cameron told the Boston Globe newspaper the senator was "profoundly disappointed" about narrowly losing last week's election to President George W. Bush (news - web sites), and deems another attempt fully possible.
"That's conceivable," the paper quoted the brother as saying. "I don't know why that (last week's loss) should necessarily be it.
"I think it's too early to assess. But I think that he is going to continue to fight on for the values, ideals and issues this campaign is about," Cameron Kerry added.
Kerry's role in the party became the subject of intense speculation, as Democrats try to chart their future following last week's demoralizing losses at the polls.
A Kerry aide told AFP that the nearly two-year-long presidential campaign made the Massachusetts senator the de facto leader of Democrats, and he would play an active role in opposing the Republican-led Congress and White House.
"He is not he is not going to go away quietly," said Josh Gottheimer, a speech writer for the campaign.
"He plans to continue to carry the mantle" for Democrats into the future, said Gottheimer. "He will be at the forefront of the party in the months and years ahead."
The debate about Kerry's future comes as Democrats planned meetings around the US capital Tuesday to deliberate about the future of the party.
Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives were holding a day long strategy meeting, while top officials with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, a network of top, elected Democrats, planned a open forum to discuss the way forward.
Kerry seemed to make the case for continuing his role as de facto party chieftain, issuing a statement last week touting the inroads made by his campaign.
"Kerry's popular vote total in aggregate numbers not only exceeds (2000 Democratic presidential candidate) Al Gore (news - web sites)'s popular vote victory in the last election, but also (ex-President) Bill Clinton (news - web sites)'s in the 90's" the statement said,
"John Kerry has built a solid foundation for the Democratic party to build on -- in voters, in resources and in substance. The party would be well advised to build on the foundation and not turn our back on it."
According to press reports, Kerry has mostly remained at his Boston, Massachusetts home since his defeat. The Globe reported that he was spotted in Washington on Monday, but kept a low profile. According to news reports, Kerry is considering creating a political action committee and think tank to keep his policy initiatives, and himself, in the spotlight.
"He's in a position of national leadership," Cameron Kerry told the Boston Globe.
"He's going to exercise that role and be a voice for the 55 million people who voted for him. The position he's in gives him a bully pulpit."
Some Democrats however seemed less inclined to consider Kerry the head of their party, or at the top of the 2008 presidential ticket.
Louisiana's US Senator John Breaux told US television this week that top Democratic White House contenders appear to be party luminaries like Senator Hillary Clinton (news - web sites) and Indiana Senator Evan Bayh.
"Either one of those who can articulate a moderate, mainstream message can be successful," he said.
Breaux, who is retiring from the US Senate this year, said the party would be well advised to try to duplicate the charisma and centrist message of former President Clinton (news - web sites).
"When he won, he was able to keep the party base, which is a tradition of minorities and labor, but he was also able to expand it into moderate, mainstream individuals," Breaux told CNN television Monday, hinting that Kerry lacked the pizzazz to appeal to a broad-based public.
"You have to have the right message, but you also have to be able to deliver it," he said.
They should limit the primaries in 2008 to those who have run before--McGovern, Carter, Mondale, Gore, and Kerry, and perhaps include those who failed to get the nomination like Biden, Babbitt, Bradley, Dean, Sharpton and Lieberman. The winner of the nomination would be the best of the worst.
He'll be lucky to hang onto his Senate seat, in fact. ......and his meal ticket wife.
In Massachusettes? Not likely. Losing a presidential election never hurt Fat Teddy Kennedy. Then again, neither did murder.
To another lib/Dem, not a Pubbie.
Losing a presidential election never hurt Fat Teddy Kennedy.
He lost in the primaries, not in the general election.
And he lost to the worst president in the country's history...Jimmah Cahtah. How embarrassing.
You noticed.
Actually, great numbers of "broads" they expected to vote for him turned their backs on his pizzazz-free campaign. Nixed his alcohol-and-drug-addled wife as First Lady too.
Of course this is assuming that his bag lady is still around to co-sign for any loans...
ROTFLMPO ...
The chances of this are even less than those of Hitlery winning in '08
But, anyway, JoKe, BRING IT ON!!!
Schadenfreude is a wonderful thing...
In 1984 Mondale lost everywhere except Minnesota (winning there by a microscopic margin) and the District of Columbia. In 2002 he managed to lose Minnesota in the Senate race, thus having a clean sweep of the states. Now if he will just run for an office in DC and get beat...
3 words of advice for Kerry: Swift, boat, vets.
By conceding too quickly, you mean before january 2005, right?
Also--about 2/3rds of Kerry voters only voted for him because he wasn't Bush, not because of love for Kerry. Any other generic dem would have gotten the same amount of votes. Bush won't be on the ticket in 2008 to run against. Most of the dems couldn't give a rat's a$$ for him, and are mad because, like Al Gore, he blew an election that he should have resoundingly won. He won't have another shot at the big prize.
Please. He has done nothing for 18 years and they keep electing him. They will all drink the kool-aid again. I was just up in Boston last weekend. They LOVE him up there.
He must have enjoyed his candidacy more than we did.
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