Could someone let me know more about this killer instinct of Kerry's?

[coloradodem2005]

People say that he is a finisher and that he comes up from behind right near the end. Could someone elaborate on this?

[Touchdown]

1. Yeah. I'd like to know too.

I really didn't get how he came from behind so fast in Feb. He's got a long history of winning elections for the last 25 years...any examples of this tactic?

[coloradodem2005]

2. In January.

It looked like he didn't have a shot in hell when 2004 started and then, two weeks later, he won in Iowa. And went on to sweep the nation minus a handfull of states.

[whalerider55]

3. chasing to the cut

in '96, kerry was challenged by sitting (and very popular) governor weld here in MA. The race definetly trending weld.

at a debate in springfield, about two weeks before vote, weld pulled a stunt. he walked over to a woman sitting in the audience, pointed to her, and turned to kerry.

he said 'this woman's husband was a police officer who died ion the line of duty. i want you to tell her to her face why you think the killers life is worth more than her husband's." (cap punishment)

kerry paused, looked at her and said, slowly.
"it isn't. the killer of your husband is scum, deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his life."
then he turned to weld and said something like "we just disagree on this, governor. (weld was another repub chickenhawk) I know something about killing, and i honestly believe that the state should not be involved in it."

done. wled reacted viscerally, like someone had literally punched him in the stomach. everyone in the room realized that we had just seen the election decided. weld didn't do much campaigning those last two weeks, and conceeded the election ten minutes after the polls closed.

kerry, thinking on his feet, struck like a cobra. it was an awesome thing to watch. and weld, despite his affable arrogance, is a smart man.

imagine what kerry will do to an idiot.

whalerider55

[mbali]

5. Wow! Great story!

Thanks.

[whalerider55]

7. still...

that having been said, i'd rather he be leading with momentum two weeks beforte the election. coattails and mandate and all that. and campaigning in a state you can drive across in 3 hours is very different that a country as big as the US.

whalerider55

[fob]

12. problem is bush* is too stupid to pull a stunt like that, he just keeps

uttering inanities that make a difficult target. It's tough to hit because there's so little substance to it, but it SOUNDS big.

[Killarney]

4. The Kerry/Weld race

They were basically tied in the polls until the end and Kerry just did a great job at the end, especially in debates and won it. Weld was very popular here, too.

I don't know if he had any other close races, but that one immediately comes to mind.

[JohnKleeb]

6. Take the primaries for instance

Many here thought he wsa finished then he kicked ass, also take the Weld race. More detail about the latter below.

[mumon]

8. see my post on

Kerry's got it in the bag. We do.

Stick a fork in Bush. He's done.

[cally]

9. I've read several interesting articles about what happened in Iowa

Kerry just had a better organization. He had folks who knew Iowa and he encouraged folks to give accurate information about voter's preferences. His team also kept it from the press. I think Kerry won over Iowa with his campaigning. It's similar to what he's doing in the swing states. The national media ignore his rallies but the local media picks it up. He's winning over one voter at a time.

[cam75219]

10. I have heard this, and wondered......

if it is a good or a bad thing that an incumbent Democrat in Massachusetts "comes from behind" or "is a strong finisher". I am concerned because JK has been coming from behind in the northeast a so called liberal part of the country.

[JohnKleeb]

11. the coming from behind was against a very popular governor

who had won 72% in his last election and had liberal stances and was popular with members of both parties. Weld was no everyday republican, pro choice, pro gun control, and generally decent on some issues, Kerry also came back in the primaries.

[whalerider55]

13. actually

they were demographic peers- both from "good" families, in the $$$$$$$$$ NE tradition.

interestingly, when you looked at weld's positions thoroughly, he was much more libertarian than republican. he helped the republicans win and continue nto win in MA, but the conservative repubs in the rest of the country hated him.

remember, it was clinton who nominated his to Ambassador to Mexico, and Helms who screwed him bigtime.

so in some ways, the race and the region and the two men were atypical.

you can conclude that kerry does know how to trigger and ride momentum, however.

whalerider55

[Dick_Tuck]

14. IMHO...

He has to deal with the same crap over and over. He has to deal with what he did during the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He has to deal with "liberal" label. He's good at it. I hope he doesn't get distracted by the insanity of the opposition, and keep the message about the voters, not himself.

I think his stump message is really starting to sharpen. From labor day, he'll make it all about the voters, how Bush screwed them, and what he'll do differently. I expect him to anihilate Bush in the debates. He comes across as sincere, knowledgeble, informed, and intellegent, without seeming to be patronizing (Gore's biggest problem). He'll keep his head. He knows that Bush is good on the stump. Every Bush speech has a good sound bite, that really hits the uninformed. That's what gets the 30 minute news play. He gets 15-30 seconds a night, free. Kerry can do the same thing. One positive soundbite about the voters, and what he'll try to do. One negative soundbite about how Bush screwed them over.

[Irishladdie]

15. Do some google-ing on his prosecutor days...

Your answer lies in their my friend!!!

[whalerider55]

16. aye laddie

but the truth be told, kerry may be a skilled prosecutor, but you'd have to go a long way to find someone as skilled as W in avoiding prosecution...!

should be a chess match.

whalerider55
lol

[DrFunkenstein]

17. From The New Yorker Profile:

The 1996 Senate campaign between John Kerry and William Weld was the rarest of events in latter-day American politics: a civil, closely contested, intelligent, and wildly entertaining brawl. "Both candidates were incredibly popular," the Kerry consultant John Marttila said. "Both had sixty-per-cent favorable ratings, and negatives in the twenties. And they maintained their popularity throughout the race."

Both were Brahmins, but Weld, with a shock of strawberry hair and irony to burn, seemed an honorary Hibernian-once again, Kerry was faced with an opponent bound to be favored by the reportorial romantics at the Boston Globe. "We were both comers," recalls Weld, who had just been reelected governor, with seventy-one per cent of the vote. "We were both at the height of our powers. If I'd won that race, I was going to turn straight around and run for President in 2000. I think he was, too-although I guess he eventually decided that Gore had too big a head start."

The campaign began with a remarkable agreement to limit campaign spending, negotiated face to face by the two candidates in Kerry's Beacon Hill mansion. They also agreed to a series of eight debates, some of which would be Lincoln-Douglas style, with the two candidates questioning each other directly, without a mediator.

Weld figured that his issues-crime, welfare reform, and tax cutting-and his charm would see him through, but mostly his charm. "John isn't really a cold person, but he does seem aloof," Weld said recently. "The truth is that he's courtly to the point of gentility. We were pummelling him through August, but his campaign turned on a dime when Bob Shrum was hired as his consultant. It went from flaccid to sharp in a week."

Kerry's aides insist that it was more than Shrum. They say that Kerry was distracted in Washington, that he didn't really focus on the campaign until the Senate recessed. "It wasn't a lack of focus," Kerry says. "It was a strategy. I figured people wouldn't really be paying attention until the fall debates."

The last four debates were fabulous political theatre-two very smart men having at each other. "John's at his best under pressure, when he's being seriously challenged," Paul Nace, an old Navy friend, says. "He gets really cool, very calm. He really is a warrior-he just loves it. I took one look at him as he was walking into Faneuil Hall for one of the last debates and I thought, Bill Weld has no idea what's about to hit him."

Weld-who calls the debates a "bloody draw"-says that Kerry successfully attached him to the national Republican Party. (Weld had said some embarrassingly positive things about Newt Gingrich two years earlier.) "The turning point came when he asked me if I'd vote to keep Jesse Helms as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. That was a killer."

I asked Weld how he responded. "I ducked it, of course," he said, with a smile. "I mean, I hated Jesse Helms. But what could I do?"

Kerry won the election by eight percentage points. "John has always been underestimated politically," Marttila says. "But that race had the quality and intensity of a Presidential campaign, and he won. I don't see how they can underestimate him anymore, but they probably will."

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?040126fr_archive02



Kerry playing without a helmet too long? Not a chance!

[Irishladdie]

18. Good One!!!!!