Why the wailing and gnashing of teeth over Kerry's endorsement of Obama?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

I haven't followed the board that closely lately, the unpleasantness of many of the threads is a bit hard to take sometimes...

Is the problem that he endorsed anyone at all (prior to the convention/nomination), or more that the angry DUers are upset that he endorsed Obama rather than their own preferred candidate?

Is it the "unkindest cut of all" aspect of having chosen Edwards as a running mate but then forsaking him at endorsement time?

Sorry if the principles involved have been hashed over already in a billion threads.

[tekisui]

1. Maybe Edwards and Obama have a deal.

Kerry endorsing Obama, will turn out to be support of Edwards by proxy. He is helping to push Obama as the most likely to win anti-Hillary candidate.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. All this is possible, I just don't understand the seeming outrage of some board members over the

endorsement.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

3. Likely just due to them having wanted their candidate to get it

Its like that with most Endorsements it seems

One candidate gets an endorsement, a few supporters of the others will act all angry or just try to smear the endorser(no matter how respected). Luckily tho it seems to be a minority in all camps(they are just more vocal)

[Bicoastal]

5. Maybe they're the SAME person! Have they ever been spotted together in public?

Oh wait...the debates, I forgot.

Nevermind....

[jgraz]

4. It's wailing and gnashing of teeth at John Kerry injecting himself into the news cycle...again

I liked it much better when he was just watching college students get electrocuted.

[AnneD]

6. I thought....

Edwards was the best thing on the ticket when I voted the first time. He was the only one wanting to kick ass in a serious way.

Edited to add that I think this shows the DLC has made their choice.

[LittleClarkie]

9. Kerry has very little to do with DLC. Hillary is the DLC candidate.

.

[politicasista]

7. Cause people love to hate Kerry

He could cure cancer or AIDS and people here would still complain and moan about it being "too little, too late" or it's just not good enough for some people. He has more integrity in his bare hand than people that constantly diss him here ever will.

Go figure.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

8. I guess it confuses me, because.. aren't people entitled to endorse who they want? You may not like

the choice, but some of the OPs of threads on the topic I glanced at seemed to imply Kerry was the worst person in the world for endorsing Obama, and I just wasn't seeing it.

Maybe it's because Edwards seems to have the highest support on the board of all the candidates going into the primaries, so the "OMG BETRAYAL" factor is higher here. :shrug:

[politicasista]

24. People can endorse whomever they want

The vile, and mean-spirited, personal attacks are over the top and uncalled for. I can see people are bitter, but the childish attacks are something you would leave to the Republicans.

It's always funny to read people complain and moan about the MSM, then buy into everything they fabricate, by doing Rove's work for them.

[Bongo Prophet]

10. Supposedly, Edwards promised not to run again in 08 if Kerry ran.

And then he proceeded to work on Iowa long before Kerry decided NOT to run.
Is this a betrayal? I don't know for sure, they may have discussed it.
Elizabeth did some dissin' of Theresa and planted the idea (true or not) that the Edwards wanted to fight and Kerry did not.

So there is some possible background there.
I don't know the real story and neither does anyone here, unless they are WAY insiders.
That doesn't stop people from having strong opinions as if they DID know it all.
Human nature.

The Kerry obsessives who spammed every thread with his name on it, to spread their opinions about how he "betrayed us all" can be refuted, and has been.
Again and again.
There will be some here on this thread, no doubt. Familiar faces.
Doing damage to the party for their personal grudges.
Do they care that Kerry had so little support, or that the GOP played the media, or the media hated Kerry for several reasons, and would not cover his enorpmous events, etc etc?
Do they care about whether two elections with long battles afterwaed could have damaged the party and the country?
I would say no. Their grudge is more personal and less strategic. They call it principled, but a mature and nuanced discussion is beyond them, and I won't even try anymore.
I would characterize it as a betrayal of Kerry, not the other way around.

In general, democrats abandon their "losers" while Repubs honor them as elders, and give them extra chances, or they go into thinktanks.
Imagine if we did that, giving post 200 Al Gore the respect he deserved? Post 2000 Gore was giving GREAT speeches (FAR beyond any Obama speeches) and was RIGHT about everything. Same with Kerry on the war, the environment, nuclear proliferation, North Korea, childreren's healthcare,and so on.
It is tragic.

And finally, it also happened when RFK Jr and Wes Clark endorsed Clinton. Though not to the extent of the Kerry endorsements, for reasons listed above.
It doesn't bother me so much that they endorsed, but that people would be so upset that they did to go into character assasination mode against them.

This shit hurts our party, imo.

[Darth_Kitten]

11. You don't do things like this to another person......

it's like well, what was WRONG with Edwards to make Kerry want to do this? Maybe nothing out all, but suspicions come up. After all, he must have done SOMETHING not to have been endorsed, right? :shrug:

[cadmium]

12. In my opinion people are over-thinking or over-spinning

this. Kerry, Obama, and Gary Hart are all allies. Kerry has been talking up Obama for a long time. I like political soap opera sometimes myself. Lots of people have endorsed Hillary because they like her.

[Rosemary2205]

13. I don't even understand why Kerry is relevant.

I didn't understand why the Dem's chose him in the first place for 2004 nor why they were SHOCKED when he lost to a complete freaking pathetic excuse for a human being like GW. The man was bound to lose. He was below the bottom of the barrel in the first place. He may be a nice guy, I don't know, but Kerry should never have been a presidential candidate to begin with.

So from my perspective, someone who claims they vomited/cried/etc because Kerry stick himself into the election, is either exaggerating or else has some issues. In no way shape or form is Kerry relevant enough to warrant any such response.

[LittleClarkie]

16. Then why did both Obama and Clinton court his endorsement

They apparently didn't think he was irrelevant. Meanwhile, he does have resources that he can lend to a candidate that might be helpful. He's a good fundraiser, and then there is the email list.

[Rosemary2205]

18. No doubt it's all about the benjamins.

There I things I like and respect about John Kerry - but the man - himself - is irrelevant with regards to this election, IMHO. It's just MHO. Now the benjamins he's hiding in his sock drawer left over from 2004 are another matter. That would make the money relevant, not John Kerry.

I voted for him. Of course. And hoped against hope he would pull it out. But I was certainly not surprised when he "lost", nor that he gave up so fast afterwards.

The gnashing of teeth over him bewilders me.

[Shakespeare]

14. I don't care who he endorses, but the timing and location were blatant and tacky. n/t

[LittleClarkie]

15. Then blame Obama. It was his time and his place.

Meanwhile, seeing as it's the next primary state, I'm not getting why the placement was tacky. And I thought the timing was kind of brave for Kerry, considering he could have just waited for the nominee to emerge.

Both Obama and Hillary had been courting his endorsement.

[Shakespeare]

17. It's Edwards' home turf.

Therefore, it looks as much like a deliberate swipe at Edwards as it does an endorsement for Obama. For me, it diminished the power and effectiveness of anything Kerry had to say.

[LittleClarkie]

19. Well sort of. He actually represented North Carolina

But still, I think it was Obama's choice, not Kerry's.

[Shakespeare]

20. No, it was Kerry's choice. I doubt Obama held a gun to his head.

Obama may have asked him to do the endorsement there, but Kerry could've easily demurred and suggested another location.

You wanted to know why some of us were bothered by it, I'm simply trying to explain why.

[LittleClarkie]

21. And I'm rebutting your opinion, that's all.

I suppose he could have demurred.

But it wasn't a "may have asked" it was a "did ask". And if it has to do with the primary coming up there, then it would be hard to say "No, send me someplace else."

[Shakespeare]

22. LOL--you can't rebut my opinion any more than I can rebut yours.

You can rebut facts and allegations, but not opinions. And no, it wouldn't have been hard for Kerry to do the classier thing and suggest a different location.

It's not unlike making a very public, very graphic pass at your new girlfriend while standing in front of your ex wife. It's just fucking tacky, and everybody who witnesses it assumes your motive is to piss off the ex, and not to turn on the girlfriend.

[politicasista]

23. No one will ever blame Obama here

Beacuse Mean old Kerry slapped Edwards and Clinton in the face.


No matter what Kerry does here, people will always hate him for it. Sad cause he is one of the few that does more than most, only to get crap thrown at him every single time. :(

[UTUSN]

25. Ain't much "wailing & gnashing" - nobody cares. JK shoudda crapped on the Swiftbots! n/t