Reply #17: Here's my take. [View All]

[DjTj]

Kerry has a very liberal voting record.

He believes in almost everything that liberals believe in.

However, he doesn't really STAND for anything anymore, which is a problem with most Senators that run for President. After you've voted on so many things and had to make so many compromises, it's going to be hard to retain your passion about specific issues. I think this is part of why Edwards didn't really want to run for Senate anymore.

In his youth, Kerry made a name for himself by standing against an unjust war, and I'm not sure he ever rediscovered his passion for any issue later on, although he's found a bit of a voice in criticizing Bush.

Basically, President Kerry would move things in a liberal direction on most every issue. We wouldn't make huge progress in any particular area, but it would certainly be a step in the right direction. To some extent, Clinton was like that with maybe some passion about getting away from the Reagan economic model. Clinton basically delegated health care to Hillary and Al Gore got a lot of environmental progress. A Kerry Presidency at the very least would have a similar effect by allowing the people around him to pursue liberal agendas.