Kerry says he’ll be ready next time

[2rth2pwr]

http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2007/11/05/news/news0d.txt

RANDOLPH n John Kerry said Monday there might be a next time for his presidential aspirations, and if there is, the 63-year-old U.S. senator from Massachusetts says he’ll be ready for the political torpedoes that helped sink his 2004 White House bid. Kerry, whose service as a U.S. Navy Swift boat skipper during the Vietnam War came under attack in his race against President Bush, said he has compiled a dossier on his war record critics that he wishes he had as the Democratic presidential nominee.

``We have put together a documented portfolio that frankly puts their lies in such a total light of absurdity and indecency, that should they ever rear their ugly heads again, we have every single ‘t’ crossed and ‘i’ dotted, and I welcome that in a sense,'' Kerry said following a morning address to the South Shore Chamber fo Commerce. ``It’s a shame we weren’t able to produce all that at the time.''

Kerry said he regrets his slowness to counter accusations from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which faulted Kerry’s war record and his subsequent anti-war activism.
``I think the bigger problem was the campaign should have spent more money putting the truth out there,'' Kerry said. ``I think there was an assumption that is was out there, it was sufficiently out there.''




``There is a willingness to try to exploit 9-11, to scare Americans to try to move this debate to a place that it frankly isn’t,'' he said. ``I think the artificiality of that will be seen by many Americans, and it certainly does not represent real leadership.''

``I don’t think I’ve change in my willingness to tell things as I see them, I did that when I ran for president,'' he said. ``I’m not sure I did it quite as directly and effectively as hopefully I can do it now.''




`I think the bigger problem was the campaign should have spent more money putting the truth out there,'- Who was in charge of your campaign?

[Sequoia]

1. "the political torpedoes that helped sink his 2004 White House bid"

Forget it, you let them take your bid away, you just caved in without a recount. I won't vote for you.

[rox63]

5. The DNC would not support a recount in 2004

And without the support of the party, he had no chance of mounting a successful challenge. Also, there's the subject of Carville's pillow talk to his wife (Mary Matalin, R-Evil) about Kerry's plan to challenge the OH provisional ballots. Matalin took that right to Cheney, who called Ken Blackwell, who made over 100,000 of those provisional ballots disappear. It's all documented in Bob Woodward's last book.

Keep in mind that Terry McAuliffe was head of the DNC at the time. He is now HRC's campaign chair. Coincidence? I think not...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

14. I'll never forget the look on John Edwards' face during Kerry's Faneuil Hall concession speech.

I'm not enough of an Edwards scholar to recount in detail what he said privately or publicly on the matter, but one look at his televised face was all I needed.

I felt the same way in that moment, and I know a lot of other Kerry voters did too.

I also remember the month of silence that followed the Swift Boat ads. I remember reading the issue of Newsweek that came out after the November 2004 elections. It told of Kerry being furious with Mary Beth Cahill for not organizing a counter-offensive. It also talked about his complaints to his daughter Vanessa. Behind closed doors, he was pissed. In public, he was out to lunch.

When Democrats say something that the Republicans don't like...say, for instance, the recent remarks from Pete Stark about soldiers' heads getting blown off in Iraq for Bush's amusement. What happens? The Republicans reach out to every right wing talk show host on the planet...to cable news...to right-wing Web Sites...and just keep stirring the pot. They create a sustained and unrelenting air of "outrage," and what happens next?

The Democrats apologize.

What happened with the Swift Boat pricks?

For a month, nothing. Just the continuing, regular airing of those ads on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox...free of charge, because they classified them as "news" and not "paid political advertisements."

So I thank Senator Kerry for his military service and his service in Washington. I voted for him, and sent about $600 in campaign contributions (at the time, I gave till it hurt. In hindsight, it STILL hurts).

And when I saw John Edwards' face on my TV, I knew how he felt, because I felt the same way.

Sorry, Senator Kerry. Others may be willing to give you a second chance, but I'm not among them.

[karynnj]

25. Did you look at the Kerry daughters?

They looked devastated and were holding onto each other. Kerry himself was fighting back tears when he spoke of people he had wanted to help. You may think Edwards felt worse - but I would assume the bigger concern for him was Elizabeth's appointment later that day.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

34. I remember watching the concession speech...

...and I remember John Edwards specifically, but not Kerry's daughters.

You're right, there's a lot more to this than many realize...including me.

[rox63]

32. Edwards had also just found out that his wife had cancer

That may explain other reasons he would have looked especially upset.

[wyldwolf]

2. Hey everyone. THIS is why our candidates need so much money.

[FoxNewsSucks]

3. He had his "chance"

and he blew it. Deliberately, or not, the result was the same.

He ran a lousy campaign, and surrendered immediately. Then, last year, he popped up out of the blue again to open his mouth clumsily just in time to give the right wingnuttery a soundbite to use against Dems and distract from their scandal-du-jour.

No more of this. It's time for a REAL Democrat that actually WANTS to win.

Kucinich '08.

[karynnj]

12. He didn't pop out of the blue in 2006

He was fighting hard each and every day after the Senate broke to help Democratic candidates, especially the vets running in the House of Representatives. He raised more money for 2006 than any other Senator. By the way, the soundbite bit the RW in the behind - they made everyone listening to the echo chamber hear "stuck in Iraq" endlessly. The tracking polls never saw it hurting anyone - except Kerry.

In Kerry's defense he skipped one two letter word in reading a joke written for him- in the prepared text that the media had before the speech.

[FoxNewsSucks]

45. I don't dispute that, BUT

To the average American sheeple, he did indeed "pop up out of the blue". WE know the intent of his botched joke (and it would have been a good one), the problem is that many Americans DIDN'T, and that it gave ammunition to the rightwing.

Yes, I know that the problem is the "librul" media, but until that can be changed, Dems have to keep that in mind and NEVER forget that their words can and will be used against them.

[karynnj]

48. It did give the RW a field day - but looking at the daily polling

data reported then, it backfired on them. No matter what it did to what they thought of Senator Kerry, it never caused the numbers to move in the direction of the Republicans, the trend accelerated in favor of the Democrats. If you go back to the talk shows the day of Kerry's joke, no one was predicting that we would take the Senate in the election 9 days later. I am not saying that the joked helped - but the main thing many people heard was "stuck in Iraq". It did not help the Republicans.

It was used to hit Senator Kerry. It is interesting that his 3 decade support of veterans did not give him the pass given to McCain when he misspoke on wasting the lives of troops. Had he run the work that he has done and the fact that he has a connection to veterans and troops that few Democrats do would have put this in perspective and it would have been what it was - a blooper.

What you are ignoring is that by November, Kerry/Feingold had in fact become proof that the Democrats had a plan to get out of Iraq - countering the Republican line that we didn't - and in early 2007, every Democrat except Leiberman voted for Feingold/Reid that contained language similar to Kerry/Feingold. (Not to mention, that is when variations of that became HRC and Obama's position - even though they voted against it and called it cut and run only 6 months before.

As to not forgetting that their words could be used against them - no one knew that better than Kerry. He did not intentionally misspeak - he skipped a 2 letter pronoun in a joke written by him. It happens - he is actually human. Every candidate out there now has also said something they shouldn't have - and in many cases, it was on purpose and written for them, as spoken.

[Downtown Hound]

4. You said you would be ready last time John

You told us time and again that every vote would be counted, and then you caved within 24 hours. You had your chance.

You blew it.

[Mass]

6. I would rather know what he said about MA. Bad reporting at his worst.

[AndyA]

7. I supported you in 2004, Sen. Kerry. I donated money.

I did everything I was supposed to do.

And you allowed the Swiftboaters to crap all over you, instead of outing them for the hypocrites and liars they were.

You allowed the GOP to define the issues.

And you gave up too soon by not standing firm and insisting every vote truly did count. From what I've heard, you very likely won the Presidency, but you gave it away.

I won't support you again.

[fedupinBushcountry]

17. Wawawa

Funny you are supporting someone who did jackshit for the campaign, where was that John Edwards in '04? He was hiding to the I'm the sweet guy, I don't attack bs. :crazy:

Grow up and get over your childish disappointment.

[Adelante]

22. Where was the Edwards in Kerry-Edwards?

:D

[sniffa]

33. these peopLe make me sick

:puke:

[bullimiami]

8. john. you had your chance. you completely underestimated rove.

[Mass]

9. An idiot reporter spining a 30 sec remark and some on DU get crazy.

He is not running for president. So may be we can focus on something else.

[ProSense]

10. Another interview

here.

It's awesome!

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Just like all the generals in history.

Preparing to fight the last war.

Sorta like entering WWII with a foolproof plan to blow the Red Baron out of the sky.

[sampsonblk]

15. That's the state of our party, unfortunately. (Kudos to Kerry)

We really need new blood. For years, our party has been working tirelessly to block the last punch. Its time to start anticipating where the next ones are coming from and hit first.

Listen closely to the ones who always recommend weakness. They are the same ones always trying to fight with last year's playbook.

Kudos to John Kerry! I think he gets it now. Definitely a smart guy.

[karynnj]

24. Although that effort was done by Kerry friends to protect Kerry,

he is also involved on a personal level in trying to fight the RW smear machine. Here is a Kerry diary from last week on Dkos - http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/11/2/134457/004

Between this and the extraordinary defense he gave the 3 freshman Veteran candidates in 2006, he is doing more on this than any other major politician. (How many former Presidential nominees played attack dog for 3 new people running for the House?)

[jgraz]

13. We'll be ready too, John

And we'll pick someone who has a fucking clue how to run a campaign.

[karynnj]

16. Senator Kerry and his friends spoke of this effort in 2006

It was not being done just to defend Kerry in a future Presidential race, but because as one of his close life long friends was quoted as saying because that part of his life is very close to who he is - and he (and they) wanted the record 100% - or as close as they can get - proven. The SBVT were enabled by a shameless media to distort the Senator's very honorable service. More than most politicians, Kerry has lived a life where he has held himself to very high standards. His integrity and honor clearly are important to him. The friend quoted said that this effort would be done even if it were Kerry's decision to leave public life in 2008.

In 2004, it wasn't that Kerry did not respond - as he says here they thought the truth was out. In fact, had the media played even remotely fairly, it would have been. Kerry had 140 pages of Naval records on his web site - including fitness reports that spanned the interval he was in service. He had Brinkley's book over which he had no editorial control - Brinkley, an historian interviewed over 100 people including SBVT and their stories in 2004 were at variance with what they told Brinkley a few years before. Nixon had investigated him and found he was a clean war hero. All the guys in his boat when he got any of the medals were 100% behind him. Against this the SBVT had nothing, not one photo, message sent upwards complaining about Kerry - nothing. The media didn't even ask them when precisely many were in Vietnam - many had no overlap with Kerry.

This to me sounds as much like Kerry wanting to avoid the SBVT in the Senate campaign he is running - as well as to try to correct the record as much as he can. It has to be infuriating to see the AP always refer to the SBVT "questioning" Kerry's service. Nice way the Republican pay back a 25 year old kid with a wonderful future ahead of him, who risked losing his life. Kerry dated Jackie Kennedy's step sister a few years earlier and roomed with a nephew of the Bundys in the JFK/LBJ administrations, there is no question he had the contacts to get out of going to Vietnam.

[2rth2pwr]

18. Not that I really want to revisit this

but the Christmas in Cambodia thing was harmful.

[beachmom]

21. You're kidding me, right? The guy should not be president because

he thought he was in Cambodia in December, but it actually was March. And believe me, Swift Boats WERE in Cambodia, and then later we BOMBED Cambodia. That was the whole point -- the fact that American forces went into Cambodia which IS A FACT. I can't believe you are allowing yourself to slip into the vortex of SBVT Lieland. Trust me -- don't go in there.

[2rth2pwr]

27. Thanks for the warning

But I never said anything about him not deserving to be president.

[karynnj]

23. You've got to be kidding

They took a quote from a Kerry Senate speech where he was comparing the things being done covertly in Central America with the FACT that we violated Cambodia's neutrality. He spoke of the bombing of Cambodia by Nixon, which is history - it happened. In fact, Nixon stepping up the war against Cambodia led to the Kent State protests. Kerry then inserted some personal comments that spoke of these illegal border crossings from the soldiers' point of view. In Tour of Duty, Kerry started near the border and traveled in the direction of Cambodia - from the quoted comments from Kerry's journal - it sounds as though he thought they did cross the border or at least he thought they did. He does not write that - which he wouldn't as it would be an extremely stupid thing to do - but he was clearly upset about something. Later in January and February of 1969 per Brinkley, he most definitely crossed the border to drop soldiers off.

The RW account made several claims, that Kerry said that Nixon was President - he was for the bombings, but Kerry did not name the President who at the time he was in Vietnam denied they were in Cambodia - both Nixon and LBJ did. Kerry was commenting nearly 20 years later - the essential truth was there as to what he experienced - even if they did not cross the border on Christmas Eve in 1968. (They were placing soldiers there that definitely continued into Cambodia. I assume that any Senator who spoke of anything in his own life from 20 years before might have minor facts wrong. The other point is that Kerry was not claiming this as a heroic activity - his point was that it was wrong. O'Neil actually did lie. He said he never was in Cambodia, but he was on tape with Nixon speaking of having been in Cambodia.

[2rth2pwr]

26. Kerry Says Tasered Student ‘Seared’ in His Memory

"Later, the professional Vietnam veteran expressed concern that the student’s freedom of speech had been squelched in “a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan…that is, if Mr. Khan had been able to buy a high-voltage stun gun.”"
http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=2689

[karynnj]

28. Well with that you pretty well outed yourself as someone who should be given no credibility.

1) Kerry was not a 'professional Vietnam Veteran"

2) As to the Ghengis Khan comment - it is, of course taken out of context - from a long list of things other soldiers said they did. The Senate committee had the transcript and Kerry was simply relating what they said - as reporting on the Winter Soldier event was what he was asked to speak about.

3) As to the immature Fl student, did you read the report? http://www.president.ufl.edu/incident/
He planned the drama - and is now appearing on various news shows. He wanted attention and got it. There was a Dkos journal the day after the event that explained that the Senator did not know that the kid was tasered.

From all accounts, the Senator went further than any other public figure would to let this troubled individual speak. The police were already going to remove him when he first created a scene after the moderator cut off questions, interrupting the Senator answering another person. The Senator then told the police that he would answer a question.

If the student genuinely wanted his election question answered, he could simply have asked after the Senator said he read Palast's book, what he thought of the conclusions. This would have got an answer - and he would not have been ejected.

4) Do you quote RW sources on all Democrats or just Kerry?

Maybe you should just go join the SBVT - and many of us have a good idea where they should go.

[2rth2pwr]

31. C'mon , that was a joke site

I was trying to lighten the mood a bit, I always said that Andrew was an idiot.

[karynnj]

40. Ok - I apologize

It's just strange that there is this thread and the 2 threads on inside the bubble, in spite of the fact that Senator Kerry did nothing. Look at the actual article there is no Kerry quote suggesting he is speaking of running for President. He is up for relection and, as I pointed out, in a NYT article about a year ago speaking of this - this was a very concerted effort on the part of very close Kerry friends and Kerry to completely nail this all down.

What was clear from the comments of the friends (more than Kerry's comments) was how important it was to them that Kerry's good name be restored. He did nothing wrong - other than running for Prsident against Bush and being by far the better man. (as was Gore)

[beachmom]

19. Sorry, but this is bad reporting. Lots of paraphrasing. He's running for Senate.

And as to "who was in charge of your campaign", the answer is John Kerry was, and he has been very candid in admitting mistakes. Unlike so many politicians these days, he takes full responsiblity instead of blaming others. He even won't let people pin everything on Bob Shrum, saying Shrum wasn't "the only one in the room". I think it foolish that John Kerry be forced to give a Sherman answer FOR ALL TIME on running for president. But clearly, he is working very hard for the State of Massachusetts, a state that is seriously lucky to be so well represented.

[AtomicKitten]

20. What the Swift Boat Liars did to John Kerry was reprehensible.

It is disgraceful that the Liars were given such extensive media coverage.

This woman should have had her Purple Heart bandage slapped right off her head:

[vankuria]

35. This should never be forgotten

To this day,it amazes me that the GOP got away with this disgusting smear of a sacred symbol. This pig of a human being should be plastered all over the news media everytime a GOP candidate opens his trap about "supporting the troops". Even though Sen. Kerry should have responded sooner when the SBVT started spreading their lies, he never had a chance against such a biased news media. What if the tables were turned and Bill Clinton, when he ran in '96 against Bob Dole, ridiculed his medals and made fun of his service? The outcry from the media, the public, veterans groups would have destroyed the Clinton campaign.

Sen. Kerry is a good man, a dedicated public servant, a decorated veteran and a true war hero. He buried Bush in all 3 of the debates, and made him look like the ignorant moran he is. The Bush team knew their boy wonder couldn't win on his own merit so they had to lie, smear and steal the election.

And we are all poorer for it.

[Inuca]

36. "And we are all poorer for it."

YES.

As to the picture you reacted to, it is indeed a symbol of vileness and mindless, destructive stupidity.

By the way, welcome here :-).

[karynnj]

41. Welcome to DU

That is a great description of Senator Kerry - we are all poorer both because without it Kerry would likely have won in a landslide and because it seems to have set the tone to come. It really is nasty out there.

[slick8790]

29. No thank you.

You screwed the pooch, kerry. you only get one chance, and that was his.

[sniffa]

30. my god

i Love aLL the saLivating kerry haters on this thread. you don't deserve him representing you.

[rockymountaindem]

37. Well said

Unfortunately they're dragging the rest of us into the muck with them.

[sniffa]

39. i'm usuaLLy not dragged with them

as i've had a quick trigger finger on the ignore List. (though i haven't tagged and bagged anyone on this thread yet)

beLieve me, i have huge issues with some dems (some to the point of hate/rage) but i'm stunned to see the venom towards kerry of aLL peopLe. i'm more enraged when some of these same haters, are supporters of some current presidentiaL candidates that are beyond contempt if you're a true LiberaL.

[rockymountaindem]

43. I know what you mean

but I think their criteria for judging their candidate as "better" than Kerry is their supposed ability to beat the Republican candidate. Nevermind of course that the 2008 election is a totally different animal than the 2004 election and that, as I said, any of our candidates' abilities to win in the general are still speculative at this point.

That doesn't seem to stop the haters, though.

[politicasista]

38. Wow! This must be Bash Kerry Day or

Trash Democrats Underground Day. And people think that this will help their 08 candidates?. :rofl:




:boring: :boring: :boring:

[wisteria]

42. Kerry is focused on his senate race in 08. Of course he wants to clear his good name and counter the

lies told about him in 04. There is a lot of speculation from the writer of this piece.

However, if Senator Kerry ever decides to run for president again he will have my continued support.

[Lucinda]

44. Me too most likely.

I think Kerry is great.

[mtnsnake]

46. John Kerry is about as electric as the famous Northeast blackout of 1965

Kerry couldn't even get ready for an imbecile who had already proven to be the worst president in history and he's supposed to get ready for someone who might have half a brain next time?

Hey, he's a good senator with a fine record, but he's a horrible presidential campaigner. Please, never again!

[Yukari Yakumo]

47. Please no.

You proved yourself when you let the RePukes and their cronies completely steamroll you.

Sorry, but no matter what year it is, we can't take the risk of having that happen ever again.