Reply #65: You are wrong on many points here, just flat out wrong. [View All]

[TayTay]

This was one of many alternative views on DailyKos, which I have heard from a lot of Kerry people who were in there fighting.

Kerry was given information that it could not be won on the face of it, the
provisional votes, the Ohio courts, a non-existent Dem party, Blackwell kept
ignoring the law and subpoenas, and the media is still not buying into the
conspiracy. In fact, he held out longer than others' advised. Mark C.
Miller's recent article in Harper's admits how difficult going against the
media at the time. We still don't have discovery on those machines, central
tabulators. So many tried to be helpful with calling about incidents, but
ultimately not helpful because we came up empty. Too much time was spent on
smoke.

That said, he and Teresa went looking for the whistleblower, something of
pattern, anything to overturn. The fraud was done in many ways, from
disenfranchisement to vote switching on the computer. No one would admit on
record. Conceding is not binding if they found definitive proof from someone
who'd come forward. He still has two suits pending, despite PDA's misleading
email. Many more discovery efforts throughout the states, but they did too
much everywhere.

The Congressional Black Caucus did not want him to stand in January, but
look to the future. It wasn't to be about him, at that point understood
lost. We are in the minority trying for election reform, and even our own
Joe Andrews went awol.

The public at the time was still under the power of the press, and more than
55% didn't want a change. It would have to be during a war, and barely
knowing Kerry. Our own media was worse on Kerry than the MSM. There was not
a groundswell to topple Bush at the time, and their internals showing those
few points drop after the Bin Laden tape proves the fear. That's where we
were.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/30/74947/6017

BTW, Edwards came out once and said for people to hang on that night in Boston. He was not there throughout the night. Ahm, doesn't anyone else remember how horrible that period was for him and his wife. They were very worried about medical problems and had other things to do. It is a myth that Edwards was there egging Kerry on. Find me one name that says otherwise. (This is not a slam on Edwards, it is a slam on people who make things up and make up memories to back fit a theory. It was not that way and understandably and humanly so.)

Why so touchy about being a transplant? That's not a slam, just what is. There are a lot of people who moved to Massachusetts expecting to find a liberal state and find out the place is pretty conservative in a lot of major ways. One of the reasons for this is the difference between lifers and people who move here after college and such. There is a huge disconnect between the groups. That is just truth.

Oh, and about those lawyers on the ground. That was messed up. I have a white paper with actual names on it from actual people willing to go on the record, not just on conjecture, that say what the problem was with the 10,000 lawyers on the ground. A lot of them were volunteers from other states. This paper mentions Florida and how there were a lot of lawyers from out-of-state who were not certified to practice election law in Florida, were not familiar with the system there and were transplants without knowledge brought in to 'help.' That was no help and confused the situation more in many cases. The Democratic Party doesn't need more lawyers, they need smarter lawyers who actually know what they are doing and who are familiar with the areas they are charged with overseeing. Same thing for Ohio. You can't just dump people into a situation and then declare that you have 'fixed the problem.' Sigh! We need a more organized effort from the DNC on down. (Which is finally starting.)

Kerry's future is uncertain, as is every other Dem potential. It was so in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. That part of the story is unwritten. What I have learned about the Dem Pres cycle is that a lot will happen between now and next summer when candidates really start to get serious. I do know that Kerry has money, supporters and the will to run. Just like all the other serious potentials.