There Is a God: John Kerry Quits Race
John Kerry, who plucked defeat from the jaws of victory in the 2004 presidential campaign, has announced that he will not run again in 2008.
Kerry was last in the news for unleashing an ill-timed firestorm of criticism just before the mid-term election by telling college students that they’ll “get stuck in Iraq” if they don’t work hard in school.
He later issued the inevitable clarification, explaining that the remark was a “botched joke” meant to target the president, not U.S. troops. Ha, ha, ha. And then relievedly excused himself from further campaigning.
Let’s get this straight: In 2004, Kerry ran the worst presidential campaign since Michael Dukakis in 1988 and handed the election to Bush, who by most rights should have lost. Kerry was utterly unable to craft a message, let alone stay on it.
There was nothing to suggest that anything would be different in 2008 if the Democrats decided to nominated him. According to one report, the fallout from the botched joke may have actually turned his head around and made him realize that he faced a long slog against a formidable field of rivals.
Kerry said he will seek a fifth term as a senator from Massachusetts.
More here.
9 Responses to “There Is a God: John Kerry Quits Race”
I am also glad this poser and Bush type phony is not running again. The Swiftboat campaign and his weak response is not CinC material. Andrew Sullivan has a post from TPM about Obama fighting back against Fox and Insight.
OBAMA TAKES ON FOX NEWS
Now, if only Hillary, McCain, and Giuliani quit there’s a chance we may get someoe who’s not a bad Prez.
Kerry is staying where he belongs, in the Senate. There’s no Democratic clarion call for his candidacy. He’s smart and passionate, but often bores listeners to death, going on and on. The big question is what he’s going to do with the extra millions from his 2004 campaign.
Good news.
The fact is Kerry did better than any other Democrat would have done at the time. Having received 48% of the vote against an incumbant war time president is very good, despite what revisionists are now saying. I believe also at the time, the majority of Americans supported the Iraq war, and Bush’s approval rating was above 50%. I fail to see what Democrat would have fared better in ’04.
“Let’s get this straight: In 2004, Kerry ran the worst presidential campaign since Michael Dukakis in 1988 and handed the election to Bush, who by most rights should have lost. Kerry was utterly unable to craft a message, let alone stay on it.”
Let’s get this really straight, Shaun: People are pissed off that Kerry underperformed in his campaign and left them with horrible George Bush, but everybody should fact check the presidential elections of 1988 and 2004 before writting such utter nonsense. Kerry needed 18 electoral votes to beat Bush II., Dukakis 158 against Bush I.. So, Kerry’s campaign was much better than Dukaki’s and people who complaign should explain if they themselves did everything possible to help beating Bush. After all, Kerry sure wasn’t a perfect choice for president, but still much better than Bush.
Don’t misunderstand me: I’m glad he doesn’t run again, too, but only because the candidate roster is already overcrowded, showing many interesting personaliites, and the choice will be hard enough.
“The big question is what he’s going to do with the extra millions from his 2004 campaign.”
Maybe the primary winner will pick him up as VP because of this war chest…
Gray- I agree that Kerry was better than Dukakis. He was leading in the polls early on, but did not come back after Karl Rove’s swiftboating campaign. As there is currently little or no enthusiasm for him in the Democratic Party (other than as a voice against Bush’s conduct of the war), I sincerely hope that his excess millions are not used to purchase a berth for the Vice Presidency. The one thing that this administration has taught us is never to underestimate the power of that usually powerless office.
Ack, Kim. I’m against smearing the man, but he had his chance. And the VP seat would be put to better use by giving a young Dem talent like Obama the chance to distinguish himself in an executive position.