Kerry vs. Warner: Road to the White House

[beachmom]

This past Sunday, Gov. Mark Warner was on Road to the White House when he visited NH. More people came than expected, curious to hear what he had to say. I like Gov. Warner and wanted to see him in action so I taped it and just watched it tonight. Then I took a look at John Kerry in NH a few weeks before. All I can say is that Warner is not yet ready for prime time, although he had some strong points.

First, Warner's speech was good, and I have to say he was really funny -- I laughed out loud a few times. He talked a lot about Virginia (and he mentioned that 97% of kids in Va. have health insurance because they made it a priority) and how he cleaned up the mess there. That's really his strong suit is "I cleaned up the Va. fiscal house". He then talked about bipartisanship and telling the truth even if it's not what people want to hear. He talked a little about how the U.S. needs to go back to its once prestigious place in the world. It was definitely a good stump speech.

But then came the Q & A. He didn't fare as well. He wasn't up to snuff on the environment, and had to answer "I don't know. I need to study that more". After a woman talked about the disaster in the Gulf Coast region, I didn't think his answer was enough of a zinger and how he would help them. Finally, a woman told about how her son has been to Iraq twice and is going again next fall. He didn't show any emotion about her predicament and went straight into wonk. And he gave 4 points about Iraq that sounded somehow a little familar . . . he really has the same exact position on Iraq as Kerry, but said it a little differently. No timetable, but have a plan of "milestones", have the Iraqis do construction, get the world involved. Gee, is Kerry moonlighting as his foreign policy advisor?

Afterwords, they showed him talking to people and getting his picture taken. He was nice, he listened, one guy was rude to him, and he handled it okay, he answered some press questions. He did alright, and if I hadn't seen Kerry the week before I would have been really impressed.

Compare this to Kerry. As Tay Tay was saying, he was handing out hugs like candy! To be fair, he knew a lot of the people, but he was just so warm, had total empathy with everyone, and was REALLY interested in what they had to say. But here's the thing. Remember how I said a woman named Sylvia was there, and Kerry greeted her very warmly and gave her a big hug? Well, Sylvia is two-timing him, getting a kiss from Warner the next week. What's up with that, Sylvia? (Okay, I'm half kidding; I realize they host EVERYONE in NH, but it bugged me). Back to style, if Warner only gave the speech without meet and greet or Q & A, he was great. But Kerry is extremely good at Q & A and talking with voters. Warner is more business like, and he clearly doesn't have the knowledge of the range of subjects Kerry does. If Kerry could personally meet every single American, goshdarnit he would be our president. He really is a great politician in the purest sense, combining unmatched knowledge, toughness, boundless energy, quick thinking and intelligence, and a natural empathy for others that you just can't fake.

Yes, it's early, but all of this made me feel better about a possibility for Kerry in 2008. Head to head, Kerry just does it for me better than any other pol.

[MH1]

1. I started to watch but he lost my attention.

I guess in these things the pol has to talk a lot about their personal history, but to me he just spent way too long on his personal story. I wanted to hear what he had to say about issues. I turned him off before he got there.

To be fair, I had a lot of other stuff to do and felt like I couldn't afford the time to sit and watch the whole thing. So maybe I was more antsy than I should have been.

Thanks for your recap though. It's always good to hear other people's impressions.

[ProSense]

9. Agree!

That's what got us into this mess, spending too much time of personalities and not the issues. The media spent all it's time pumping up Bush's fake charm and tearing down Kerry's very real appeal.

[karynnj]

2. Great review and comparison

I missed the Warner Road to the White House. I would imagine that this might be his first attempt to campaign outside of Virginia. As he wants to be a serious candidate , he will likely try to patch up those areas where he currently has little knowledge or opinion. So, he will likely improve on this. (that he has Kerry's Iraq position is interesting. He would almost have to develop of variation of someone's and Kerry's is a good choice.)

On the empathy comments, what is his reputation in Virginia? This may be just his personality or it may change as he became more comfortable with the process. People have said Kerry is now much much better than he once was - but it would be hard to believe that in the case of the Iraq question he wouldn't always have been more empathetic.

But it sounds like those attempting to make him fit the Clinton mold are possibly just looking at 2 factors: Governor, Southern.

[jenndar]

3. "I don't know. I need to study that more".

Oh, that's disheartening :(

[rox63]

4. He's got time

to cram for the exam over the next couple of years. But being governor of a large state like VA, I would think he'd be knowledgeable about environmental stuff.

[beachmom]

5. A couple of responses

On Warner's lack of knowledge on a specific environmental concern (emissions from utility plants), there was a write up in my local paper. They turned "I don't know" into a positive, with someone in NH saying, "oh it was refreshing that he didn't pretend to know everything". The media really does matter, folks, but he won't get that free pass forever. If Kerry or H. Clinton for that matter weren't running, that would be no big deal, but he's going against the cream of the crop, and he should know that stuff. Having said that, I agree that he can study really hard in the next 2 1/2 years, something he has been well known to do, and be amazing then. But, I guess that's why I said he has some strong points, but he's not yet ready for prime time. To be fair, he's still governor, and that has been his main focus the last 4 years.

Well, I'm not sure as far as how Kerry was back in '03, early '04. Based on the media portrayal, Warner is doing far better in the meet and greet area. I remember them mentioning Kerry awkwardly being at a firehouse, standing to the side, not sure what to do next. Warner is not shy at all, and he's definitely not a phony, but he is a little like a CEO. Of course, he knows what it's like to be poor. When he worked for the DNC in 1980, he had so little money that he was living out of his car and crashing on people's couches. I suppose his memory of that will help him empathize with those less unfortunate.

But in the meantime, something has happened to Kerry and/or the curtain has been taken away, because he wasn't shy at all in NH. And I feel like he is connecting with people simply in the shared loss of the election. This is a means for him to connect that Warner cannot tap into. Maybe some of you can shed more light on this whole shyness thing, and whether he has indeed improved on the meet and greet skills.

[Mass]

6. Kerry has never been shy or aloof or whatever

This is MSM BS at its worst. And he has been connecting well thru the election.

I know it is difficult to believe if you have only been following the campaign thru the MSM and sites like kos, but it is true and anybody in MA who knows Kerry a little bit knows it is true.

[beachmom]

7. Thanks for the clarification, Mass

Yeah, there is a monolith aspect of the MSM that's hard to let go of. Why did they get JK so wrong? Why, why, why? I just don't get it.

[TayTay]

8. It was a pre-written meme

The MSM just followed it. The MSM doesn't like 'smart candidates' who speak in more than sound bites. They just don't. It's too complicated to get on TV. If a candidate speaks in complete sentences and talks about complex ideas, then that candidate is portrayed as too cerebral to connect with the voters. (Which is hihly insulting to voters, btw.)

The John Kerry in the last campaign was the distorted Kerry that we have glimpsed in MA in past campaigns but ramped up by national money and press. (All this stuff was there before. Several of the people in the White House are from MA and knew this. They used it.)

I think the media is beginning to understand that sometimes they need to talk about more than a candidate saying Lambeau instead of Lambert Field. That maybe national affairs are more than just silly gotcha gaffes. These are not important, but they became a lot of the substance of the campaign.

[ginnyinWI]

10. I saw him too--

He seems likeable enough, but really has a thin resume as far as political office goes. Might make a good veep.

On the negative side, after *, I am very leery of anybody who was formerly a CEO becoming president! Even though he's a Dem, it makes me nervous. You simply can't run a country like a business.

On the plus side, he is also a lawyer, so should have respect for the rule of law. I think every president should be a lawyer, and respect the rule of law above all else! Then we wouldn't have a mafia running the country!

But you know which lanky liberal lawyer I would really prefer!

[beachmom]

11. Actually, he wasn't a CEO (nor, I may add was *)

He helped start up Nextel, but didn't run the co., and then he became a venture capitalist. The problem with * is he actually never ran a business successfully, so being a "CEO" was just another phony role he's played. But it seemed like people loved him in Texas. I'm just curious if there was some papering over of mismanagement in Texas, or was the presidency just too hard a job for *, and he should have just stayed a governor?