So John Kerry Bowed Out Of The 2008 Presidential Sweepstakes
But did Kerry get a bum rap? Read David Adesnik.
My view: When I watched one of the first debates in 2004 featuring the Democratic hopefuls, I wrote on TMV that Kerry had “a great future as a U.S. Senator.” Nothing I saw during the run up to the convention or campaign made me change my mind. Kerry was a flawed candidate and a shockingly naive one. He was Michael Dukakis after an extra cup of coffee.
The unanswered question for Kerry and the people around him remains: if they decided to make him being a war veteran a key part of the narrative, didn’t it dawn on them that since Kerry was best known as an anti-war Vietnam war veteran he would be under fierce attack as soon this aspect was mentioned? There was either no preparation or poor preparation. And, either way, it showed he and his advisors were not up to the job.
Kerry remains one of the coulda/shoulda candidates. If he had been more careful in who he selected to advise him and what words came out of his mouth, he might have edged through. But his days of dynamism were in the 1970s, when he was young. The older John Kerry had become too molded by the by-rote political process — and the politico speak that he had assumed — and emerged as an adult charisma-challenged. Even worse, he was politically smarts challenged.
So was his campaign all that bad? Maybe not as bad as some think. But it was not good enough. And — amid reports that he learned he might not raise the money he needed if he ran again — it has been clear that many Democrats would not risk giving him the keys to their shop again.
BUT THERE OTHER VIEWPOINTS ON THIS AS WELL:
Read The Democratic Daily
Read our co-blogger Michael Stickings
Read our coblogger Shaun Mullen
6 Responses to “So John Kerry Bowed Out Of The 2008 Presidential Sweepstakes”
From the beginning to the end that was the failure of his candidacy and the Democratic party circa 2004. You had candidates who were passionate about the issues but couldn’t articulate the issues and wouldn’t fight back against the Republican smear machine which was in full swing.
It’s nice to see that things have finally changed and there is actually some hope of returning sanity to our national policies!
“So was his campaign all that bad? Maybe not as bad as some think. But it was not good enough.”
Indeed. And I guess most other commenters agree, too.
However, this is the third post on the topic now. Slow news day?
We don’t limit our subjects to who posts on a subject first. I’ve told everyone if they want to give their own take on something to go ahead. The same rule applies to me. So you might see people posting on the same thing. There is no grand plan, no big assignment sheet. Everyone writes what they want. For instance, up until today due to my travel I had not really written something since Hillary Clinton announced. I do have some things to say. Others gave their analysis. That doesn’t mean I won’t give mine when I see some “hook” or feel I have a view that may be a bit different than theirs. We don’t assign posts.
“We don’t limit our subjects to who posts on a subject first.”
I know, I know, Joe. But I really didn’t want to raise this discussion again. It’s your blog, post what you want. All I wanted to say is, three posts on the same topic, with not much difference in your opinions, you have to acknowledge that this is boring.
Isn’t there an interesting speculation related to the topic somewhere? For instance, who’s likely to get Kerry’s support? Is he in Hillary’s camp now?
What does the withdrawal of the Senator of Massachusetts mean for the important New Hampshire primary? Will Hillary ‘inherit’ it?
What impact has his withdrawal from the presidential race on his Senate campaign 2008? What impact did his loss in 2004 have? Is his reelection a sure thing?
Most importantly, what’s behind this decision? Did he built up a war chest just for fun and was too lazy to declare earlier he won’t run again, or did poll results or something else trigger it?
Lots of aspects to build an interesting story on. Just an idea.
Kerry and GW Bush star in ‘Dumb and Dumber III”. One kills a song bird, the other pretends to kill a duck, both are dodo birds.
[...] We’ve said it here before: he has no political smarts. Posted on January 27, 2007 | Permalink | Categories Politics, 2008 Elections, John Kerry | | View blog reactions [...]