John Kerry announcing his presidential bid on C-span right now

[lindashaw]

[rabid_nerd]

1. Who?

I saw him on Cheers once I think...

[rabid_nerd]

2. Yup...

http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/GuidePageServlet/showid-66/epid-14316

[LightTheMatch]

3. Ah...

It's "all military all the time" with this speech so far. Must be a way to defend against Clark and Dean at the same time.

[Vis Numar]

4. Did John Serve in Vietnam?

Does anyone here under 45 give a flying F?

[WindRavenX]

5. Yes he did and he's been decorated for his service

And yes, people SHOULD care he's served;John Kerry isn't an AWOL Chickenhawk like the current squatter in the White House.
I am happy to support Kerry.

[Northwind]

7. Yes and No

Military service or not needs to be a non-issue.

[TahitiNut]

17. Military service will be a "non-issue" when ...

... all citizens equally share a national service obligation. Laying that burden almost solely on the socioeconomically disadvantaged is predation of the worst kind, particularly when the benefits increasingly accrue to the wealthiest and most powerful.

[Zero Gravitas]

21. It should be a non-issue

But Smirk will run as the Stong Leader Who Protects Us Against The Heathen Terrorists, so contrasting someone who actually put his life on the line with a swaggering fake like * who avoided meaningful service might help in bursting the post-9/11 rally-around-the-flag bubble that is the only thing * has going for him.

[GainesT1958]

8. Sure, and he's not even my first choice!

We should care because of the behavior, at that time, of the unelected Moron occupying the Oval Office today. And because of that moron's behavior at THIS time, too! x(

The case is going to be laid out to him in debates, however, that voting for pre-emptive, unilateral war was the wrong call, even though removing Saddam from power was the right thing to do. Oh, well, at least Kerry has disagreed with Joe "Brutus" Lieberman that "Iraq is better off today". Iraq SHOULD be better off today, but the fact that it is not, by any means, shows why this war, its aftermath, and the ones who formulated it and rattled sabres for it all last fall have let us down. I hope that John Kerry can get this message across; he DOES have some leverage--in his past service--to do that.

B-)

[demnan]

6. It's funny

Here's a guy who was a war hero and came back from VietNam to protest the war. He supported the resolution to give the chimp leeway to start a war in Iraq and now critcizes it?

Some kind of pattern here?

[Northwind]

9. Now that I have watched it for about 10 minutes or so

I have to say, if I wanted to see Dean's stump speech this morning I would go to DeanTV and download it. Very disappointing that Kerry cannot come up with his own lines.

[Karmadillo]

11. What lines did he lift? Thanks

n/t

[liberalnurse]

13. Northwind caught it too!

Kerry even tried to close his speech like Dean's, "We have the Power" tone......

I watched it out of respect to fellow Kerry supporters here at DU. I was rather miffed at the plagiarism. I had no intention of criticism when electing to listen to his speech......Just got to speak up....

[Karmadillo]

16. I'm not sure Dean thought up "we have the power" or its variants.

Politicians have know for a long time we like to hear that sort of thing.

[liberalnurse]

10. He taking his stand on issues such as healthcare right

out of Howard Deans playbook. He too wants Americans to have the same healthcare as Congressmen and Senators.

Do you think he can sell it?

[w4rma]

18. That's good! It means that Dems are getting on the same page! (n/t)

[Neecy]

12. pfffft

As expected, the second that Kerry started to criticize the chimp by name, CNN cut away from the speech. Can't have the American people hear anything nasty about our fuehrer.

[Karmadillo]

15. Better for Candy Crowley and Bill Schneider to tell you later on what

he said so that the appropriate cautions and criticisms can be added. Direct exposure to information is always a potentially dangerous thing.

[Neecy]

19. ACK!

Just reading the name "Candy Crowley" makes my blood boil. I still haven't forgotten or forgiven her knee-pads coverage of the chimp in 2000. She's a hideous example of everything that's wrong the our corporate-owned-conflict-of-interest media.

And you're right - CNN will spin this against Kerry without giving the public the benefit of hearing what he actually said.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

14. kerry's saying all the right things

[cspiguy]

20. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! ZZZSNort!

wake me when it's over...

[2cents]

22. Excellent speech, as expected... but

why did he box himself in with the specific promise to create 3 million jobs in his first 5oo days?

I would expect the media to jump all over that and call him on it.

Maybe he has a plan - I hope so. But if he doesn't, that will be a "read my lips" moment.