Oh, please, God, don’t let it be true…Don’t make me go through it again (I don’t have the disposable income for the amount of Red Bull required to sit through his speeches)…Oh, please, Lord, I’ll be a good boy, but as a former Political Science major don’t force me to watch a campaign as poorly run like that ever again. DO YOU HEAR ME??!!!
It’s almost as if Sen. John Kerry never stopped running for president. He still jets across the country, raising millions of dollars and rallying Democrats. He still stalks the TV news show circuit, scolding President Bush at every turn.
His campaign Web site boasts of an online army of 3 million supporters.
The Massachusetts Democrat, defeated by Bush in 2004, insists it is far too early to talk about the 2008 race, but some analysts assume he has already positioning himself for another shot at the White House.
“Obviously, Kerry has all but said he wants another crack at the thing,” said Neal Thigpen, a political science professor at South Carolina’s Francis Marion University. “He’s going to make a second try.”
While most losing presidential nominees quickly fade into the political landscape, Kerry has worked hard at maintaining a high public profile.
“He’s continuing the fight he began in 2004,” said Kerry spokesman David Wade. “He wants to make it very clear he’s a fighter who is going to continue to fight for his agenda.”
The problems with Kerry running again are multifold:
(1) His campaign was one of the most poorly-run in recent memory — almost as hugely bungled as the campaign of Former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis’.
(2) He started out being charisma-challenged and got better but it was always hard to find people truly enthusiastic about John Kerry: he was more the anti-Bush candidate and if he had won it would have been due to his improved performance at the end of the campaign and for being a viable Bush alternative.
(3) He showed poor personal judgment in some of his staffing choices and a political Pollyanna streak by seemingly not being prepared to face an effort to discredit his military record when he tried to pitch his military service as an asset. If his folks were touting it so loudly, didn’t it enter into their heads that the GOPers would move heaven and earth (and talk-radio and blogs) to knock it down? Was the way that was handled an example of the kind of contingency planning we would have seen on foreign policy in the White House?
To many Americans (including Democrats and independents), John Kerry running again would be akin to being forced to watch uncut videos of all of Al Gore’s 2000 Presidential debate performances.
Question: Are either of these events included in the the torture bill recently passed by Congress?
The bottom line is that the only person who came back from the Presidential political dead in modern times was Richard Nixon in 1968. And HE did it by skillfully marketing himself as a “new Nixon.” Nixon went on “Laugh-In” and said the then-popular catchphrase “Sock it to me!” and went on talk shows and played the piano.
What’s new about Kerry this time? Not much, except perhaps he has used a roll of duct tape or two on his outspoken wife.
In 2008 the Democrats would have a better strategic advantage if they run a fresh face on the Presidential ticket — meaning, someone who hasn’t run in that spot before. Unless the news pattern has changed, it’s likely there will be more controversies breaking as more details come out about issues such as Plamegate and warrantless spying.
The Democrats can’t win with only Democratic activists. They’ll need independents and some Republicans. If the spying controversy not only grows but gets hotter the Democrats could peel off some Republican libertarians. Kerry is not just damaged goods but pretty much the same goods.
Still, the AP piece makes it sound like Kerry is poised to be a front-runner. However, this time, we predict, he’ll be a front-runner like the late Texas Governor John Connally was — a front-runner until actual votes are taken and a long-shot in arousing the passions from party activists of any segment of the party.
Borrowing a page from Republican Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record)’s 2000 postelection playbook, Kerry has kept much of his presidential political organization intact. He has also used his fundraising prowess to aid Democrats across the country, collecting chits that could be called if he seeks the party’s White House nomination.
“He believes in his heart and soul that he came just a whisker away from being president,” said Ronald Kaufman, a veteran GOP operative with Massachusetts roots.
Traveling extensively since his 2004 loss, Kerry generated nearly $5.3 million for dozens of Democratic candidates, state parties and charitable causes, according to aides. He gave more than $200,000 to help Washington state Democrats prevail in Christine Gregoire’s gubernatorial recount.
Kerry has expanded his campaign’s e-mail supporter list, a vital organizing tool if he runs again. He has bought TV and newspaper ads promoting pet issues such as children’s health care and his opposition to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He also reunited several members of his campaign policy team.
“No other past presidential candidate, with the exception of McCain, has done what Kerry has done in terms of converting his presidential campaign into a grass-roots political and legislative operation,” said Wade. “He’s dedicated to electing Democrats.”
That’s fine. But will Democrats (the party’s left wing and the DLC loyalists) really want to go with a re-tread in 2008…especially when the tread was proven defective in 2004?
UPDATE: On the other hand, there are those who defend John Kerry.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.