Don't think Kerry doesn't notice those 2004 bumper stickers

[globalvillage]

What got me to thinking about this was the realization this week that I cannot recall having seen so many presidential bumper stickers nearly two years after the presidential election.

If you are, today, still prominently displaying your Bush-Cheney sticker, then it's fair to conclude you're a sore winner who has ignored every coach's lecture about being "humble in victory and proud in defeat."

But what is remarkable is the number of Kerry-Edwards stickers on the road. Are these people refusing to accept the electorate's verdict or just trying to say: "See, I was right about your presidential candidate and, therefore, I was/am smarter, wiser, and more perceptive than the majority of my fellow Americans"?

Maybe history eventually will vindicate those unreconstructed non-Bush-Cheney voters. But I would bet that very few of them are aware of one major, unintended consequence of their collective refusal to scrape off their 2004 bumper stickers: They are helping to persuade, perhaps to convince, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry that all the public opinion polls have totally missed the obvious groundswell of popular support, reflected in the number of 2004 bumper stickers still proudly flaunted, for him to run again in 2008 for the White House.
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/071806/opinion_20060718002.shtml

Note to writer...it's not 'unintended'. The message, clearly, is 'Run, John, Run'.

Still, :-) . I love my Kerry bumper sticker.

[Island Blue]

1. It is amazing that a bumper sticker

has the power to either make you smile :) and feel good about the occupants of the vehicle, or to make you utter words, most of which begin with the letter "f", and feel that the occupants of the vehicle are surely too stupid to even qualify to obtain a driver's license.

[karynnj]

2. In Morristown, in September 2005, when Kerry appeared

at a rally to get people involved at the grassroots level for Corzine, as Kerry finished his speech, a man yelled out that "we still had our bumper stickers". Kerry's response was a smile, a thank you and the comment, "Keep them on!".

As with you, I think the writer is wrong to think the message in all cases is unintended. What I found interesting in late May and June when I was driving between Morris County and Princeton on a daily basis is that there were at least as many "John Kerry" bumper stickers as there were "Kerry/Edwards". Last week, I did see one "Dean" bumper sticker in Vt and many anti-war bumper stickers. (There was also a brief moment, on the NY thruway, where the two cars I could see in front of us had respectively "Kerry/Edwards" and "War isn't Working" bumper stickers. )

This long after the election, having the bumper sticker means that you opted to keep it - here in Nj, it would have been easy to replace the bumper sticker with a Corzine one. (Although I still see Kerry bumper stickers, I don't see Corzine ones.) Here on DU, in the wake of the election, there was a thread on the bumper stickers - the people who proudly labeled themselves "ABB" were proud they spend part of the day on Nov 3, scaping off the bumper sticker.

How does this same writer explain that Kerry can solicit the most money for others or that Kerry can still get packed appearances when he gives speeches? That all this still happens with a backdrop of nearly universal negative press is amazing. Also, has anyone ever gotten as much negative press as Kerry - while doing NOTHING the writer can point to as deserving scorn? (example: the NYT pushes Alito filibuster than mocks Kerry for doing it, Kerry responds to Katrina both through his position as ranking member of the SBC, a MA Senator, and with Teresa, as a public citizen - and the jokes implied he, like Bush did very little too late. In both cases, Kerry did an excellent job. His Iraq proposal - the only serious plan put out by anyone - was not given the coverage it deserved. I am not saying the opinion columns should have backed it, but the news columns should have listed the provisions accurately. (so Senator Biden could see it had a diplomatic component :) )

[ProSense]

3. Yup!

They are everywhere: on local roads, on highways, on objects that don't move! :)

[globalvillage]

5. I saw one on my way home today

It's only five miles. I see Kerry and K/E stickers pretty regularly. Haven't seen a 'W' in a month or so.

[Blaukraut]

4. Damn straight it's not unintended

I'm sorry I scraped mine off a few days after the election, but I couldn't look at it without bursting into tears at what could, should have been. :cry:

[globalvillage]

6. I have an extra Kerry '08.

If you like, I can mail it to you.

:-)

[Blaukraut]

21. I'd love one, GV!

I'll pay you back the postage, of course :-)

[globalvillage]

23. OK, I know I have your address here somewhere

but I can't find it. Will you PM me? I'll put the sticker in the mail for you tomorrow.

:-)


edit, it's this one.



Anyone else? I have one more I can part with.

[Blaukraut]

24. Sent you a pm, GV n/t

[whometense]

7. Mine's tattered but still proud.

At Trader Joe's this afternoon I parked next to a beat up old car sporting two Veteran for Karry/Edwards bumper stickers.

[globalvillage]

8. I was so sad

The guy up the street had a 'steelworkers for K/E' sticker on his ratty old work car until a couple weeks ago. Then he had the car painted.
I don't really know him, but I think I'll stick a new Kerry '08 sticker under his wiper blade tomorrow morning and see what happens.
If it ends up on the bumper, that will make my day!

[ray of light]

9. love that idea!

[ray of light]

10. Yeh, I followed one the other day...gave them the thumbs up too!

[wisteria]

11. I saw a Kerry 2008 just like mine on my travels recently. N/t

[karynnj]

12. This author would likely assume that this one simply had the year

misprinted. Even after Nixon/McGovern and Gore/Lieberman, years of similar division, I don't remember seeing the bumper stickers 2 years later. It amazes me that people continue to say that even as Kerry raises money and has enthusiastic crowds.

[whometense]

13. This brings to mind this viciously shrill

column by native Kerry-hater Howie Carr, originally published in the Boston Herald about a year ago. He sounded so unhinged it actually made me laugh. Posted in full, since the only other place I found it was at freeperville. Talk about rage - see what Kerry has had to deal with at home???

http://capitolbanter.blogspot.com/2004/12/well-that-explains-it.html

If I can read your Kerry sticker, you're too close
Boston Herald ^ | Wednesday, June 1, 2005 | Howie Carr

I have tried to reason politely with you John Kerry voters, but you just don't seem to take the hint. So let me put it a different way:

GET THE DAMN KERRY BUMPER STICKERS OFF YOUR CARS!! YOU LOST!! IT'S OVER!!!

Let's have some ``closure'' here. Moveon.org. Get over it. What part of ``four million vote deficit'' do you not understand? It doesn't matter what Keith Olbermann thinks, you lost Ohio. Even Michael Moore conceded months ago.

I attempted to discuss this with you Birkenstock-wearing, ACLU-card-carrying, NPR-listening goateed sore losers six weeks after the election. But if anything, I see more Kerry bumper stickers now than I did then. Look, if there's some kind of social cachet involved in this phenomenon, why don't you come up with a modern variation on what McGovern voters from Massachusetts put on their cars in 1973:

``Don't Blame Me, I Voted for the Gigolo.''

Or maybe you could look ahead: ``Hillary in '08.''

Or perhaps you could even, to coin a phrase, think globally while acting locally: ``Deval in '06.''

Can't you people find something new to get your panties all bunched up over? Surely there's a tablet of Ten Commandments somewhere that the ACLU hasn't filed suit against. Can't you find a third-grade class in some remote public school and get an injunction to stop the kids from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance? And it's never too early to start making plans to picket a Christmas tree in December.

Why not organize a Prop 2 1/2 override to jack up the property taxes so high that everyone in your town who doesn't have a trust fund - Bush voters, in other words - will be forced to sell and move to some yucky red state?

I've even got a replacement bumper sticker for the back of your Lexus SUV. State Sen. Jarrett Barrios is running for Middlesex County district attorney. He's gay, and he's from Cambridge - what more do you need to know?

But no, you can't bring yourself to peel off the Kerry sticker, can you? It was seven months since he took that brutal stomping, but you still adore him. After all, he was so much like you.

Never had a real job. Lives off other people's municipal bonds. Loves those geeky rich-Yankee sports like windsurfing. Talks down to the help, asking, ``Do you know who I am?'' Thinks Garrison Keillor is a genius.

Living here in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, it is impossible to see fewer than a dozen vehicles a day festooned with stickers saying ``Re-defeat Bush'' or demanding ``A Stronger America'' (whatever those slogans mean, or meant).

Last week, in the Pru tunnel, I found myself trapped in stop-and-go traffic behind just such a bleepbox car, a '90 Corolla. On the left side was the traditional Kerry-Edwards, and on the other a matching sticker that said, ``The driver of this car climbed Mount Washington.''

In other words, not only is he morally superior to everyone else, he is also more physically fit. And above, on the back windshield, there was a sticker for an Ivy League school: Brown University.

It is at moments like this that I wish I had a loudspeaker attached to the roof of my car, so I could have heckled the rich kid for Kerry:

``Hey Chauncey, if you're so bleepin' smart, how come you don't have enough money to buy yourself a new car?''

But what does Chauncey care? He's one of the Beautiful People. He has the trust fund, and the Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker, to prove it.

[karynnj]

14. That is utterly amazing - that guy is a lunatic

It makes me want to make sure there are MORE Kerry stickers on his route to work. It is funny to see that he - getting the winner he wanted - is so unhinged and angry that we still respect and admire Kerry. I bet it really bugs him that Kerry has been mobbed in his own state after speeches, seems to have a really easy time seeing the Red Sox and even got a guitar from a rock star. (He has a weird idea of what constitutes a real job - Navy, prosecutor, lawyer, Lt Governor and Senator all seem to be very serious jobs, more real than talk show man or columnist - as a columnist, doesn't he just have to write about 1000 words - which obviously don't have to be true or make sense - a week.) I think he is jealous of Kerry.

I also suspect that the "help" who come in contact with Howie, likely don't vote him the nicest of any group he is a member of. I assume Kerry doesn't have to ask people if they know who he is very often.

[whometense]

15. Oh, that

"do you know who I am" line is so old it has a beard. I suspect it was only a figment of Howie's imagination in the first place.

I think of that column every single day on my way to work as I pass all the Kerry bumper stickers. And it makes me smile to know that he's seeing them too.

I don't understand where he gets that Kerry voter=rich person equation, as the facts point to quite the opposite. Kerry does extremely well with middle class and underclass voters. Always has. Facts are stubborn things.

I also see that he's conveniently forgotten Kerry's carefree, lazy summers whiling away the hours working as a Teamster, loading trucks in Somerville.

[whometense]

16. And if you think that one's bad,

check out this one, dated December 8, 2004. A full MONTH after the election. Talk about your lousy winners...:

Time to scrape off those Kerry bumper stickers
Boston Herald (MA)
December 8, 2004
Author: HOWIE CARR


Memo to John Kerry voters:

It's time to peel those Kerry bumper stickers off the backs of your Volvos. It's also time for you - or your butler - to take down the campaign yard signs from in front of your mansions.
What part of "It's over, you lost!" do you pukes not understand?

Around here, before Nov. 2, Kerry signs outnumbered Bush signs by a 10-1 margin. It's been five weeks since Kerry did a Dukakis, and now the ratio is maybe 20-1. Carpenters for Kerry, Firefighters for Kerry, Featherbedding Pinky Ring Union Thugs for Kerry . . .

Of course, Bush voters had good reason to get rid of their bumper stickers. It reduced the chances of having their vehicles keyed in a parking lot by a Featherbedding Pinky Ring Union Thug for Kerry.

I saw two loser Kerry stickers yesterday on a blue Chevy - amazing, isn't it, that a Kerry voter would be caught dead in such an unfashionable Detroit car? The sticker on top was your basic "John Kerry," and the bottom one said "Kerry Edwards," with an American flag between the names. And above that, in italics:

"It's Up to Women . . . Vote!"

And so they did. For George Bush.

But traditional bumper-sticker etiquette requires that if you were right and everyone else was wrong, then you wait a few months before you print up some new bumper stickers. In 1972, Massachusetts was the only state to vote against Richard Nixon. Then Watergate blew up. Anyone remember those famous 1973-74 bumper stickers:

"Don't Blame Me, I'm from Massachusetts."

All these years you limousine liberals got by establishing your Beautiful People credentials with a simple oval sticker on the back windshield that said MV, as in Martha's Vineyard. You exhorted everyone to Redefeat Bush. You asked your fellow motorists to Visualize World Peace and to Think Globally, Act Locally.

But suddenly, those traditional ways of announcing "I Don't Have a Real Job" aren't good enough anymore.

For God's sake, exit stage left. Move on (to coin a phrase). Surely there's some other way you can express your disgust. Find a Christmas tree on public property and then call the ACLU. Have an abortion. Get Michael Moore's autograph.

But lose the bumper sticker that says "A Stronger America."

I saw another one yesterday. Next to the Kerry sticker was a purple one that said, "Pro-Family. Pro-Faith. Pro-Choice."

Now that's Pro-Found.

Apparently this phenomenon spans all of blue-state America. A couple of days ago, the Minneapolis paper found a bunch of whack jobs who refuse to remove their Kerry yard signs. One was identified as "a pet nanny," another as a "filmmaker," and a third as a "peace activist."

Of course, these are, no doubt, some of the same people who think that Paul Wellstone was murdered. But still, they got beat fair and square, by 4 million votes. Why can't they get over it?

You'd think George Bush was planning to tax the municipal bonds in their trust funds. It's not like he's filing legislation to stop their worthless left-wing punk offspring from going to Harvard as unqualified "legacies."

Listen, you rich dilettantes for Kerry. If you really want to make a statement, why don't you use your Lexus' bumper to come out against the monopoly that left-wing Democrats have in our congressional delegation.

I've got the perfect statement for your bumper:

"Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Jack E. Robinson."

By the way, I think there's a distinct possibility that Howie has a bad case of Kerry envy. Here's a picture of Howie:

[karynnj]

17. I can see why he envies his naturally dignified, graceful,

athletic, classy, charming Jr Senator chosen by around half of those allowed to vote as President. Seeing that he gloats about Bush's victory, how did he deal with Kerry's 5 wins in Massachusetts? It probably really bothered him when the beautiful, brilliant, wealthy Teresa Heinz fell in love with Kerry.

[whometense]

18. An interesting challenge.

There's a column he wrote that is so vicious and so personal that I can't bring myself to post it on a public forum, dated September 28, 1992.

[TayTay]

19. Howie Carr hates Kennedy & Kerry like they were the plague

Bless me Father for I hve sinned: I find Howie Carr funny. Yes, I know Howie Carr is a low, venal sort of sinner and I shouldn't laugh when I read him, but he is so over-the-top mean and dumb and vindictive that I can't help myself. Honest Father, I tried, but I just couldn't stop the little chuckle from coming out. Carr is just so blatantly full of hate and envy that it's just, well, it's funny.

This is a priceless Howie column, except that it forgets that John Kerry must never be made sympathetic under any conditions whatsoever. (Damn Howie, did you lose your own memo or something?) Sigh! Ahm, you know, despite everything Howie does or says, the good voters of Massachusetts like John better than him. And Howie is so lonely and jealous.

Kerry's memory is so bad he forgot he was homeless
Boston Herald, First, Sec. News, p 6 10-20-1996

By Howie Carr

Now we know what the "F" in John F. Kerry stands for.

Forgetful.

It's amazing, this selective amnesia. Debate after debate, the junior senator can remember how he voted on every major issue - although, to be fair, it's a lot easier for Liveshot than most solons, because on the big bills he likes to vote both ways, just in case the political winds shift.

A couple of days ago, things were looking up for John F. Kerry-Heinz. Finally he looked to be putting a little distance between himself and Gov. Weld. His "gypsy days" were behind him. He no longer identified with Nick Nolte in "Down and Out in Beverly Hills."

But then he started forgetting.

Now we learn that when ketchup queen Teresa Heinz's hubby was asked where he lived in Boston between December 1986 and September 1988, his amazing memory failed him. He drew a complete blank on his home address.

"I don't know," he fibbed. "I'll have to find out."

What he actually had to find out was who was talking, and how much the reporters knew. Too much, unfortunately.

The scribes had already discovered that various fat cats, greedheads, coatholders and alligator-shoes-wearing lobbyists spent much of the Decade of Greed providing Kerry with cut-rate accommodations, but only when they weren't letting him totally freeload at their mansions.

John Freeloader Kerry.

"I must have forgot," he prevaricated. "It was for such a short time. I just must have forgot about it."

It's sad, in a way. Here's John Kerry, a scion of one of the oldest and wealthiest families in the commonwealth, and in his mid-40's he found himself . . . homeless.

A message was left Friday for the senator, asking him if he would like to comment on the plight of the homeless, namely himself. But you know how it is with people living on the streets. Sometimes they don't get by the Pine Street Inn to pick up their messages for weeks at a time.

"You're waiting for him to call you back?" Gov. Weld inquired Friday evening. "I hope you packed a lunch."

Naturally, the mean-spirited and un-compassionate governor is already trying to make an issue of this, since Kerry seems to have been up to the same tricks as Good Time Charlie Flaherty.

Taking housing handouts from lobbyists.

Perhaps, though, Good Time Johnny ought to take this lemon and make lemonade. Almost every debate, he mentions his plan for saving fishermen from bankruptcy - by having the feds buy back their boats. That's very thoughtful, but how many commercial fishermen are there?

On the other hand, everyone pays rent or a mortgage. And who wouldn't appreciate the same kind of deal Liveshot had - if he didn't actually spend the night in the greedhead developer's apartment, he didn't pay any rent.

For instance, I was in Florida for five days last month. No one was in my house. But did the bank give me a 16 percent break on my monthly mortgage? It did not. And that's just not fair, dammit.

Please, Sen. Kerry, introduce some legislation to correct this injustice. Have pity on the working man. Just give us the same deal you had.

Despite his six-figure salary and all the other perks and writeoffs, not to mention his per-diem rent, Kerry was still strapped for cash. So in 1989 he worked out an even better deal. A no-rent arrangement in Georgetown with Bob Farmer, then a lobbyist, now the counsel general to Bermuda.

Personally, if I were looking for a crash pad, Bob Farmer would not be the first name I'd pull out of the Rolodex. But any port in a storm, right, Liveshot?

No doubt Weld will have a 30-second spot on the air by midweek with some tasteless title like "Bermuda Bob's Pajama Parties."

But even if Kerry hangs on and rides the War Hero's coattails to victory in two weeks, Kerry still has to be concerned about his failing memory. Wrinkly old guys who can't remember where they live - we all know where they end up. In front of the $2 window at Wonderland or Raynham, with an empty wallet, sans all IDs.

And wouldn't that be a sad ending for a solon who once dreamed of being president. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Dogtrack).

BTW, about that Liveshot thing. Cheesus, at least the TV screen doesn't crack with Kerry comes on it. Jeebus, everyone in Boston knows we'd rather see Kerry's face on the tube than the fugly Carr. He's a two-bagger, for sure. (Two-bagger: Has to wear two bags on his head, in case one breaks. )

[karynnj]

20. Kerry wasn't sure of an address 8 years later?

Some how that doesn't seem a huge problem. His idea of where Kerry would end up is pretty strange.

[TayTay]

22. It was a stupid issue that year

This is the biggest, baddest, most awful thing they ever dug up on John Kerry in his tenure in the Senate. He (OMG) slept at friend's houses when he was either tapped for money or was in between condos/apartments.

Seriously, this was the biggest 'ethics' scandal of Kerry's whole public life. Ahm, maybe it's me or maybe the fact that I come from a state with a world class reputation for corruption, but, ahm, that was way less than interesting as a 'scandal.' I distinctly remember when that non issue came up because most of the people I know rolled their eyes at it. "Cheesus H Crisp, that's all they got on him? Big Dig costs just increased four-fold and they are after Kerry cuz he slept at someone's house? He's gotta be the cleanest guy to ever come through this state if that's all they got on him."

I believe to this day that the 'expose' on John Kerry gained him votes in '96. It was also the start of a lot of peole asking what the Globe had against John Kerry and why? I could never figure it out. I just chalked it up to what amounted to a personality conflict.

[karynnj]

25. It was strange reading it in the Globe book in 2004

because the immediate thought was how so many Senators/Governors etc became quite rich through "investments" not available to the general investing public - with very low risk and phenomenal gain. Kerry was investigating banks, if he had a dishonest bone in his body, he wouldn't have had any problem carrying stylish appartments in both Boston and DC.