This excerpt is from a brief article in the Globe from 1999. I only bring it up (not to bore you) to show what Sen. Kerry does to move on and learn from his mistakes. I sometimes think about this and ponder the tea leaves about what lessons he will learn from the '04 race and what he will do to correct perceived mistakes.
KERRY'S ABOUT-FACE WINS OVER MAYORS
Boston Globe, THIRD, Sec. Metro/Region, p B2 12-11-1999
By Globe Staff BRIAN C. MOONEY
(SNIP) Re: the fallout from the '96 Senatorial race agsint Weld.
For all his political stature and skill, Kerry was considered by many local pols to be aloof and preoccupied. Foreign affairs and national headlines shape a senator's image, but grinding local problems affect constituents every day. Kerry, many mayors complained during the 1996 campaign, was out of touch.
After his close call with Weld, the junior senator vowed to pay more heed. Skeptics rolled their eyes, but then, in August 1997, Kerry hired Newburyport Mayor Lisa Mead as his state staff director. That turned heads. She was responsive and effective - "brilliant," Kerry said - and the impact was immediate. (Mead won back the mayoralty last month. Jeffrey A. Bean, regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and former mayor of Fitchburg, will succeed her.)
"I went from having no relationship with Kerry to the point where it seems he's here all the time," said Medford Mayor Michael J. McGlynn, a Democrat who sat out the Kerry-Weld fight. Kerry has worked tirelessly on TeleCom City, a plan to convert 200 acres along the Malden River in Malden, Medford, and Everett into a vast complex of telecommunications-related research and technology development, said McGlynn, describing himself now as "one of Kerry's biggest cheerleaders."
Malden Mayor Richard C. Howard is also sold. A Democrat who backed Weld over Kerry, he said Kerry "has worked very well with us" on TeleCom City, police department funding, and a drug-elimination grant for a local public-housing project.
"I have to admit that Kerry's been very gracious, especially to someone like me, who took the position I did in that election," Howard remarked.
Telling a similar story is veteran North Adams Mayor John Barrett III, another Democrat for Weld.
"I once wrote Kerry a letter saying he spent more time monitoring the elections in the Philippines than he did job losses in North Adams," Barrett recalled. "Now, he's done a complete turnaround. He's done everything right."
Now, I believe Senator Kerry met with the CBC this week and
asked them to critique his run last year and tell him what went wrong. He got feedback that he conceded too soon and that Dems need to fight election fraud and voter suppression harder. (Among other things.) Doesn't that want to make you go, 'Hmmmmm!'
Oh, and that bastard * blocked people who had supported Kerry from even serving on a global Telecom commisssion. Kerry doesn't tend to burn bridges with people, he went and courted them back to him.