The JOHN KERRY Advantage!

[Sensitivity]

Word from the campaign trail is that Kerry is a
surprisingly powerful factor in rallying folk
and raising money for congressional races.

Lets forget all the 2004 "flip-flop," and "did not fight" debates.

Kerry really seems effective on the trail today.

What's the Kerry Advantage?

I think it is his genuine really anger about what was done to him.

They "did him wrong." His unimpeachable character,
combined with this anger is pushing him past his aristocratic
and senatorial scruples into righteous indignation:
In 2004 he'd mumble privately about the lying crooks.
Now, he is using a megaphone without a shred of embarassment.

http://www.johnkerry.com/video/NH_JJ.html

This anger may have made Kerry the best fighter in many key '06 congressional races
as he quickly speaks out in fierce response to Repub smears.
In the upcomming primaries it also empowers him to rail
passionately against the illigitimate dope in the White House with more
gut sincerity than leading competitors for the '08 nom
such as H. Clinton and J. Edwards.


The Democrats may finally have the "Man On Fire" they need to win.

[whistle]

1. Any video clips of Kerry as a "man on fire"?

[TayTay]

7. Lots of them here

http://www.johnkerry.com/multimedia/

Of all sorts of recent stuff.

Kerry played well in South Carolina in July according to the paper:

Kerry finally plays well in S.C.
Columbia State, (08-13-2006)


When U.S. Sen. John Kerry announced he was coming to South Carolina to talk about health care and raise money for the state Democratic Party, one could almost hear the groans from Greenville to Charleston.

What's that liberal Yankee doing down here? We showed him two years ago what we thought of him.

South Carolina voters preferred President Bush by a wide margin, 58 percent to 42 percent.

Skeptics said the Massachusetts Democrat would be lucky to draw a dozen or so people.

Kerry had the last laugh when he hit the state late last month. The reception also seems to show the could-be presidential candidate will treat the state differently than in 2004.

Overflow crowds greeted Kerry at a Charleston town hall meeting and a Democratic rally in West Columbia. Charleston Mayor Joe Riley introduced him at the town hall gathering.

Party officials say they were not prepared for the response.

Some 400 people jammed into the Woodmen of the World hall in West Columbia to hear Kerry. An estimated 250 were turned away, organizers said.

"We ran out of food," said Kathy Hensley, chairwoman of the Lexington County Democratic Party.

Hensley said she has not seen anything like the reception Kerry received in her 50 years around politics. "I was pleasantly surprised by the whole thing."

[whistle]

8. None of the videos will play that that link

[TayTay]

11. I had no problem with it.

Just went to the site and clicked on a video and watched it.

The last speech from Manchester NH was available from C-Span

www.cspan.org

Look for Road to the White House and then click it. The video works in RealPlayer or Windows Media.

[MH1]

24. Can you play YouTube videos?

I think these are in the same format - flash video.

Do you know there are also mp3 files of some Kerry appearances here: http://www.johnkerry.com/podcast/

[nam78_two]

2. k&r

*Running away before the Kerry-bashers inevitably show up*

[nam78_two]

3. dupe-self delete

delete

[blm]

4. Respect the public and open the books, JK, people are ready to be CITIZENS

if leaders will TREAT us like citizens and share the relevant information that has been kept from us for decades.

No more coverups. No more BushInc.

Stay mad at the corruption. Many of us are.

[sui generis]

5. that's the problem though

you can't just say "let's all forget" and hold hands and sing kumbaya.

In reality there are people who won't and don't and aren't going to take two chances on the same guy. Kerry himself has to win them back directly and himself, not just by having happy shiny supporters go try to rally the troops.

That's the real battle that has to be won before he wins that lost support.

[MrCoffee]

12. Outstanding post n/t

[saltpoint]

17. Should Senator Clinton opt to wait for 2012, say, on condition that

she would enjoy a winning percentage of support to be Senate Majority Leader, John Kerry would be the best-financed front runner in the history of the party. HClinton leads in cash raised at the moment but Kerry is a strong second, Bayh a surprising third.

No one on this earth gave John Kerry more than a ghost of a chance for the nomination in 2004 and he won in Iowa with almost 40% of the Democratic caucus vote. Edwards finished a very respectable second with 34%, Dean third with I think 17%, and Gephardt buried alive with 11%.

In 2008 I think it would be a fool's errand to bet the farm on Senator Clinton winning the Iowa caucus. I believe she will finish no better than third, and likely fifth.

I believe the contest there -- and by extension the frontrunner status for the 2008 nomination -- will be between Sens. Kerry and Edwards. Bayh third. Feingold fourth. And Clark and HClinton duking it out for the number five slot.

[sui generis]

19. I'd like to be able to say "any ol' democrat will do"

but in those primaries I will have to vote for who moves me best intellectually, and on the issues that impact me. If I don't vote for the candidate that recognizes those issues, they will never be addressed.

Strategically speaking I understand that if any old dem will do, then by all means vote for the one most likely to win.

Unfortunately, not everyone believes that any old dem will do, and that is a reality that the democratic party is going to have to very humbly deal with.

I've been in enough knock down drag outs here alone to see how the "strategic" voters despise the rest of us, and unflaggingly browbeat with the mistaken notion that people who vote the best lineup of issues will vote for someone who doesn't support us. Neither Hillary nor Kerry support civil marriage for all Americans. Both say they support states rights, and "civil unions" as an afterthought. Gerry Studs was actually "married" to his partner and the OMB refuses to pay the pension conversion because his partner happened to be the same gender instead of the opposite gender.

It's going to take more than just voting the likely winner to serve as criteria for many of us.

[saltpoint]

29. I understand the dilemma you outline. Many of us have had to

navigate those same waters for many years.

But specific issues aside, the U.S. caucus/primary/nomination process is front-loaded to favor regional strategies and/or candidates with significant bucks or backing. In a matter of speaking, it means Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire cast more important, stretgic votes than Democrats in Indiana, yet in fair terms, they ought to be equal.

Were they simultaneously cast, the outcome would still grant nomination to the winner, and those majority votes would be the determinant. If that's Clark, we should support him. if it's Kerry, same. Edwards, same. Dodd, same. And so on.

I'd prefer that all our candidates align with my sensibilities on specific issues, including the one you mention. But that isn't the world I live in at the moment. We push to reach critical mass among the population so that they aren't frightened like little kittens at two women or two men loving each other, and we build our party infrastructure so that candidates are less risk-averse on issues knowing a broad and deep party organization will buoy them against right-wing criticism and attacks.

[ProSense]

6. Wow!

Talk about backhanded compliments! I believe Senator Kerry has an advantage, but he is going to have to earn the nomination.

[Sensitivity]

18. Wow to you, hard-charging, good-hearted one. Kerry has other good traits

as well. I just dawned on me that he has an advantage against the current odds that
the MSM gives him.

[Warpy]

9. Both Gore and Kerry have been effective

and charismatic once they shed those corporate lobbyists turned campaign handlers the DLC saddled them with.

Whoever runs in 2004 (and I don't much care except Hillary Clinton is a sure loser) will need to ignore one hell of a lot of advice from these particular candidate "packagers," because they will be back. Count on it.

This isn't just our party. I remember seeing Dole on some late night shows after he was long off the campaign trail and he was surprisingly witty. I still wouldn't have voted for him, but he was HUMAN, not the caricature of the mean old man down the street yelling at you to keep your cat out of his rose bushes.

[Sensitivity]

10. I agree. I loved the Gore firery speeches. The people are ready for it.

[blm]

20. It's a matter of respecting the public enough to tell the TRUTH. Gore

learned that. Kerry was always a truthteller, but the party had no spokespeople who could relate to that concept.

Kerry, Cleland, Clark and Dean had to pretty much go it alone when it came to countering the GOP and their lineup of bignames every night.

[frogmarch]

13. I've spoken to lots of Dems about Kerry

recently (around 50, which is lots for my area), and every one of them has said they'd love it if Kerry ran again for the presidency. The only Kerry dissing I'm aware of - except from republicanz - is right here.

[_dynamicdems]

25. Same here!

Right after the election people I know said Kerry would have a tough time beating Hillary Clinton. Now they are saying he just might do it. And they prefer him to anyone else.

There are a lot of people here with other agendas.

You just don't find any anti-Kerry sentiment among Dems. And whenever the senator appears in public, he's surrounded like a rock star. It's kinda amazing if you think about it. Who mobs a pol like that?

You're right: only here (and on Repug sites) is he dissed.

[democraticinsurgent]

14. The other big advantage: Nothing the Pubs can to him now

Same with Gore. They've both been through not only the typical "vetting" process of a national campaign, but also they'be been swiftboated. I would love a Gore-Kerry team in 08 that basically says to the nation, "Hey, we already won. Now let us actually serve!"

Rick

[calimary]

15. THAT is the BEST idea yet. Great ticket, even better slogan!

I'd vote for that NOW if it were possible. Gore/Kerry. Absolutely! With Dr. Dean running the party machinery and Wesley Clark as Defense Secretary.

[_dynamicdems]

26. Gore really wants to concentrate on Global Warming, IMO.

I don't really think he was ever a politician at heart, but politics was a way to advance his environmental activism. And I think he's happy doing what he's doing now.

Maybe he will run, but I doubt it.

[blm]

28. IMO starkest view - it's going to take a best TEAM of great minds working

together to right the course this country and the world is on.

[_dynamicdems]

32. AMEN! We are set back so far we need ALL GOOD DEMS working

their asses off to fix our country.

[saltpoint]

16. I respect Kerry's likely opponents for the 2008 nomination but prefer

Kerry himself as a first choice, which has to do with his tough-spirited intellect.

The man is intelligent. He is someone I can learn from.

Think what a huge, huge difference it would make to have an intelligent man in the White House instead of a lizard-souled organ grinder and his petulant little monkey.

It is possible that Kerry is motivated by what Rove and the Swiftboaters visited upon his campaign, but I think it's just a matter of his being able to dig down deeper than most to find the core, to examine and weigh it, and then project it into the future.

He is able to graft himself onto the national narrative. I believe he's known this for decades.

Bush-Cheney cheated Kerry-Edwards in Ohio, and that fact aside, I think it's Kerry's character and intellect that motivate him, even as they inspire others.

[Sensitivity]

21. Kerry's full trottle campaign schedule in '06 is doing him and the Party

a world of good.

All the new little-known challengers need his name to draw the crowds and Kerry probably needed
to test his own readiness for political battle.

[Unbowed]

27. It's doing wonders for Democrat pride too.

He's breathing new life into the party.

[saltpoint]

30. Thank you for that observation & excellent analysis.

I think you hit the bull's eye.

[roseBudd]

22. One advantage is voters already know who he is, he has gotten press

attention and coverage ever since 2004. And they can't reuse the Swift Boat Liars for the same reason the terror card is no longer working.

And for those who don't remember Iraq is looking more and more like Viet Nam

[blm]

23. It brings tears to my eyes to read Iraq is looking more like Vietnam.

If the men and women in the armed forces had the same medical treatment and access today that they had back then, the death toll would look even MORE like Vietnam. And that is what hasn't sunk in with most people.


Would this war be going on if the death toll was at 15,000 now?

[wisteria]

31. It is a wonderful experience to see Senator Kerry so passionate and

focused on Democrats winning in 06.His speeches have been wonderful. I got an opportunity to see him in person deliver one of those on fire- passionate, speeches in New Hampshire, last Friday evening. It is an experience I won't forget. I have been told this is the real John Kerry. All I can say is wow.

[Sensitivity]

33. His strength of character is truly impressive -- to deal with all the

dissapointment and recriminations from 2004 yet still fight on.