JK on Today Show.

[Island Blue]

Did anyone else watch? I thought he did a great job. (What else is new?)

[Mass]

1. He did not announce from Damas. Gregory seemed disappointed.

Just saw Kerry on the Today Show a few minutes ago. Good interview considering. He came out strongly against more troops and reminded that the conflict needed a political solution and involvement from neighboring countries.

He seems a little less pessimistic I thought he would be, but also warned about a looming crisis in Lebanon.

However, what caught my hear was David Gregory trying to have him comment on polls and to announce on his show.

[fedupinBushcountry]

3. The Daily Show ? n/t

[Mass]

4. Oops - Corrected.

Not quite awake yet.

[Island Blue]

5. I thought the same about David Gregory's question.

When I heard him ask that, I was like "Yeah dumbass, he's really going to announce his candidacy while in Syria." :crazy:

[Mass]

21. Damascus, not Damas, of course,

Funny how foreign places are named differently in different countries.

[fedupinBushcountry]

2. He did a terrific job

To bring up '08 looked totally ridiculous, but of course JK handled it by getting back to the seriousness of the discussion of the ME.

[beachmom]

6. Arghh -- I flaked out and forgot to set my DVR

Guess I'll have to wait for the web version. Asking about '08? That's nuts. What about the pessimism -- is that pessimism about Iraq?

[whometense]

7. I flaked out too,

but the video is up: check out the headline :eyes:

• Sen. Kerry discusses Iraq, '08 elections


Edited to add: just watched it. I normally like Gregory, but he looked like a jerk the way he brought up '08. Shorter Gregory: "No one likes you - will that affect your decision whether or not to run?"

[rox63]

8. Is there some sort of requirement that interviewers have to ask him about '08?

:eyes: Egads! I haven't heard a single one who hasn't asked him in the last few months. Don't they realize that he won't announce on their show? He'll announce at a time and in a setting of his own choosing. Yeesh!

[beachmom]

9. Thanks. Kerry did great. And it was tough with the satellite delay.

I'm a little disappointed in David Gregory -- it almost seems like they made him do the '08 stuff. The Middle East is far more important right now, and normally Gregory sticks to real issues. '08 is so far away, whereas the disaster in Iraq is now.

I didn't really hear the pessimism some of you were talking about. He stuck to the idea of diplomacy and a comprehensive political solution to the Sunni/Shi'ite problem. Best line:

You could put 100,000 troops in Iraq and it wouldn't stop the violence.

Looking forward to a transcript.

[karynnj]

10. The pessimism was on Lebanon

where Kerry spoke of it being a two week crisis. This really could blow up and we are ignoring it.

[beachmom]

13. You're right about that. It's like what the King of Jordan said:

that we could have 3 civil wars going on -- Israeli/Palestinian, in Lebanon, and in Iraq. I think Bush is responsible for two of them, for creating conditions to make them more likely. The historical differences aren't his fault, but his inability to understand unintended consequences is having collossal results in the Middle East.

[Mass]

11. I did not say he was pessimistic. I thought he would be more pessimistic, in fact.

It may be because I am pessimistic about Iraq and believe that there is little to do at this point, except withdraw the troops and find other countries to involve (which is not going to happen anytime soon, because of *). This is why I was surprised to hear him state some small positive aspects (like a new coalition).

For the rest, I agree with his solutions. It is just that I do not believe a diplomatic solution will happen as long as * is the face of the negotiations.

(rant)I am feeling frustrated because Democrats are presenting good ideas, but they seem to believe Bush is going to act on them. Some Republicans seem to understand that Bush is not going to act on them and are saying: "do it or withdraw!". I'd like to hear Democrats start to talk like that. Of course, I was not expecting Kerry to say that in Damascus, but, I hope at some close date, some Democrats will come out with this type of a solution. I am getting tired to hear that Reid and Clinton are doing the right thing strategically speaking. I do not care. There are people dying. "How can you ask a man to be the last one to die for a mistake?" is still a very valid question, but it implies consequences that Democrats do not seem to be ready to state. (rant off).

[beachmom]

12. I'm with you, Mass. I also think as a senator, Kerry must do everything

possible to make it work on the diplomatic side. Still, I wonder when or if it will get to a point where he'll say we just need to get out of there (full out Murtha position). I'm personally not there yet -- but with each day, I'm getting closer. If Bush won't be bothered with diplomacy, then it's all going to fail. I do feel empathy for the Iraqi people, and the prospects of no political solution and every faction armed without American referees is a very, very bad future. Think Somalia or Afghanistan in the '90s.

[Mass]

15. I added something while you posted.

I think at this point, I am there. It bothers me a lot because of the Iraqi people, but I cannot see what we or they have to gain having US soldiers staying in Iraq. It certainly does not seem to curb the violence against the Iraqis.

[beachmom]

16. The attacks on Kerry and Dodd and other senators for visiting

Syria was a big blow in my view. People called me a fool on dailykos, but had this thing gone bipartisan, there was a chance however slim to improve Iraq's prospects. Bush closed the door on that with the whole RW "kerry is a traitor for talking to syria" bs. The opportunity to save Iraq is gone, and now Bush wants to send 15,000 extra troops in for a surge -- what a total JOKE!!

Yeah, I'm maybe one step behind you, Mass. Get the f*** out is sounding more reasonable with each passing day.

[rox63]

17. If the * admin thinks they are traitors for going to Syria

then why did Condi Rice give Dodd a list of questions to ask the Syrians?

[beachmom]

18. Exactly!! Kind of a botched attack wasn't it? They're losing their old

touch. Nevertheless, it sends a signal -- a scorched earth signal. Condi isn't as radical as Cheney. Seems to me that Cheney holds a lot of sway still.

[beachmom]

14. One more thing -- did you hear him say he got outside the

Green Zone? Glad I didn't know THAT until after the fact. That would have scared me big time.

[wisteria]

19. Kerry did well, but the new 08 talking point on kerry is everyone knows him

and this is only as far as he will go in the polls. I have read that several times on DU, so I figure the pundits must be tossing that one around. I don't buy into this suggestion, because, there is a lot people don't know about the man. Many, many positive things did not see daylight in 04,also, I feel this election is going to be determined on ability,performance and confidence in the person chosen. Senator Kerry gets high marks in all of these areas.

Getting back to Gregory's 08 comments, he could of said, well Senator, you have made a bit of a come back, you poll numbers have improved, but nooooo, that would be giving him some credit for something good, so they go negative.

I am also annoyed at Gregory because the discussion about the situation in Lebanon was more important and of more concern right now, rather than poll numbers and 08.

Maybe JK will make an appearance with Wolfie or MSNBC and the discussion will be a bit more serious minded.

Oh, one last thing, JK did a good job as I have already said, I really pleased to hear him mention that he had been outside the Green Zone. That is a story in itself and if Gregory was really a good interviewer, he would have asked a question on two on how he found the situation outside the safe area. Instead, we got the stupid "08" question. Is Gregory really considered a serious reporter?

[beachmom]

20. Yeah -- actually Gregory can be absolutely awesome holding

Tony Snow's feet to the fire at WH briefings. We're talking really tough, hard hitting questions. And, you know, he could have hit Kerry with hard hitting questions that were topical -- like what Mass and I were talking about. If Bush won't do the diplomacy you're calling for, do you want to pull troops out more quickly? When is it time to fold up and leave? That would be a tough but fair question. The '08 stuff is silly and actually very easy for JK to answer. Still, at least he didn't ask him if the troops were mad at him about the bloody hell joke. That would have been stooping really low, and Gregory didn't do that.

I for one want to hear more about Lebanon. I had read an ominous article about it -- like Hezbollah may want to stage a coup t'dat. And the MSM I guess have decided it's too boring? Pre, pre primary talk is better?

[karynnj]

23. Nice perspective

It was great that he didn't bring up the joke. On the more difficult issues he also saved Kerry from being in a position where he would have had to explicitly criticize Bush's position from the middle east - which could be seen in a bad light - even though he would be speaking only toa US network. As you said the amount of time would also be too short for a real discussion.

[wisteria]

25. Exactly. n/t

[karynnj]

22. Video up

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=a49627f7-2d81-4570-9cf9-20b542f7052e&f=34&fg=rss

[ray of light]

24. thanks for the link. I thought the interview was great.

I notice JK is more precise in his language. But Gregory really looked like a jerk. And he sat there smirking while John Kerry was talking about focusing on the mideast and WHY he was there. Maybe he was smirking because even he realized his sounded like a dolt. But I think that showed a point: Kerry is focused on the middleeast. The media is focused on politics, polls, and games as always.

[TayTay]

26. Transcript

DECEMBER 20, 2006

SPEAKERS: SEN. JOHN KERRY, D-MASS.

DAVID GREGORY, NBC ANCHOR

GREGORY: Massachusetts Senator John Kerry is in Damascus, Syria, this morning. He's on a Mideast fact-finding tour which included a stop in Iraq.

Senator Kerry, good morning.

KERRY: Good morning, David. Glad to be with you.

GREGORY: Glad to have you here. A little bit of satellite delay, so we'll bear with each other through that.

Let me ask you first about headlines this morning. The president now wants to increase the size of the U.S. armed forces. A good idea?

KERRY: Well, it shouldn't be confused with increasing the numbers of troops in Iraq itself.

Two years ago, during the campaign, I said and recommended that we need to increase the size of our armed forces for our global responsibilities by at least 40,000 troops. So that's a good idea.

But I don't believe we should be escalating the number of troops absent some kind of comprehensive political resolution in Iraq.

GREGORY: More troops would not do enough in your estimation to shore up Baghdad and at least give the Maliki government a fighting chance?

KERRY: Not without a fundamental political resolution. I think you could put 100,000 troops and you're going to up the casualties, up the stakes, increase the violence and not get a resolution.

The fundamental resolution that I've heard in every country I've been to -- I've been to Egypt -- I met with President Mubarak; I've been to Jordan -- met with King Abdullah yesterday; we're here in Syria today; going to Israel from here; I was in Lebanon yesterday -- everywhere people are saying, You've got to have a comprehensive political reconciliation process. And we're here to explore whether that can be broader than it's been in the past and we think it can.

GREGORY: But how can you have that if you can't have basic security? Everybody talks about politics, but there's trash piled up on the streets, there's an inability on the part of the government to just stop the killing, to provide basic services.

KERRY: Well, let me tell you, I had a chance to get out of the Green Zone and I met with troops in various parts of the country who, incidentally, are extraordinary in doing a remarkable job. And they have a real point of view about that. I mean, they're going out on these patrols, they're doing a great job. But unless the Sunnis/Shia fundamental divide begins to be resolved -- and I think you're seeing steps taken to do that.

There is this new coalition that's being built. There's an effort to try to bring reconciliation together. The Arab League is going to be involved. King Abdullah is involved. Others are involved.

That is the key, not troops. More troops will not resolve the problem of Iraq. And you won't end the violence. What'll happen is you'll create a larger, more prominent target in the absence of the kind of political solution that's needed.

GREGORY: You talked about the politics. Over all, having been in Iraq, do you think the war is winnable? And how would you define success?

KERRY: Fundamental stability and transformation of responsibility to the Iraqis as fast as possible.

I still am committed to the notion that the way you do this the most effectively is to have a date targeted for the withdrawal of forces in order to shift responsibility.

But nothing is going to resolve Iraq without this fundamental political reconciliation. You have a decide between Sunni and Shia. And you have criminal elements. You have ex-Baathist elements. You've just got an enormous historical cultural problem. And the only way to overcome it is with major assistance from outside countries and from us to get that political resolution.

I think that -- incidentally, if I can just say this to you, David, while everybody is focused on Iraq, there is a major crisis brewing that will have an impact on Iraq, on Israel and on the politics of the region in Lebanon. And Lebanon is an immediate crisis. It's a two-week crisis, not a several-month crisis. And we think it is critical that there be greater focus.

GREGORY: Let me turn the subject to domestic politics and look at our latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll and decision 2008, which seems like it's coming up.

Look at your standing. Hillary Clinton 37 percent, Barack Obama 18, your former running mate, Edwards, at 14 percent. You are at 11 percent in terms of, Who would you vote for in 2008?

When you look at your low standing -- it's not a case of you being not well-known; you're certainly well-known, having run in 2004 -- you look at your standing, does that affect your decision about whether to get into the race?

KERRY: Not in the least.

You know, most of those other people haven't had several hundred million dollars worth of negative framing against them. I'm not concerned about it. And I'm certainly not concerned about it sitting here in Damascus, trying to figure out how we're going to solve the problems of the Middle East.

I think that, you know, polls are snapshots of today. It that were true, I'd've never gotten up in December two years ago and gone to work. I don't think they mean anything.

What means something is how we're going to resolve the problems facing us. And I'll tell you, right out here in the Middle East, David, this is more of a tinderbox than a lot of people are focused on.

GREGORY: Senator...

KERRY: I think we have to get more effort...

GREGORY: ... are you in the race? We're running out of time. Are you in the race?

KERRY: David, I have not made any decision. It's the farthest thing from my mind right now. As I said, I'm focused on going from here to Israel. I look forward to having meetings there. And you'll know at the appropriate moment, but that is certainly not now.

GREGORY: Senator John Kerry this morning in Damascus, thank you very much.

[Laurab]

28. Wonder what the pResident is doing

while JK is out BEING President. I think he's having Christmas photo-ops and having Barney videotaped. Oh what could have been....

[wisteria]

29. Actually, I think it is worse than that, I think Bush has snapped and lost all sense

of reality. He is actually trying to think he way out of Iraq now.

[YvonneCa]

27. Great Job ...

...Senator Kerry! Safe travels on the rest of your trip.


Thank you for posting the video clip. For those of us in the Pacific Time Zone...this was PRE-EMPTED for Bush's press conference. So the West Coast did not get to see this interview at all, unless people sought it out (and most people don't do that). Am I paranoid, or was this planned? :)

[Democrafty]

30. Ok, Gregory really bothered me today.

My take:

http://www.welovejohnkerry.com/2006/12/20/et-tu-stretch/