TayTay, does the Globe ever show Love for Kerry?

[TayTay]

Not often, my children, but when it happens it is an awesome sight to behold. I submit as evidence an actual real-live endorsement for my Senator (Actually 2 of them) from years gone by. As this is a rare instance of Kerry Love, treat it kindly.

KERRY FOR SENATOR
BOSTON GLOBE, THIRD, Sec. EDITORIAL PAGE, p A26 10-21-1990


Massachusetts voters face difficult and confusing choices on this year's ballot for statewide candidates and referendums. Fortunately, the choice at the top of the ballot, between the candidates for the US Senate, is neither confusing nor difficult. The Boston Globe enthusiastically endorses John F. Kerry for reelection.

In his first term, Kerry earned a national reputation on issues of concern to Massachusetts: jobs, the environment, drug traffic and political-campaign financing.

Kerry is as intelligent, hard-working, broadly accomplished and respected as any freshman senator in many a year. In Washington, he has proved his ability to build consensus in favor of legislation that benefits his state.

He is not the wittiest or warmest politician in Massachusetts, but his record of public service shows deep conviction and passion in behalf of causes important to most Massachusetts residents.

Kerry's opponent is James Rappaport, 34, an heir to a real estate fortune running for office for the first time. His extensive television campaign has been carefully scripted but does not conceal the fact that his bankroll is more impressive than his ideas. Rappaport's lack of roots in Massachusetts also hampers his understanding of the state.

Kerry's record as a prosecutor and lieutenant governor helps him understand what the commonwealth requires in the 1990s. His assignments on the Banking and Currency Committee and the Commerce Committee have helped Kerry save and generate Massachusetts jobs in construction, financial services and industry.

The Central Artery-third harbor tunnel project will not only ease traffic flow but also generate thousands of jobs. Republicans in the Senate repeatedly tried to cut the project from the budget. Kerry has been one of the most energetic members of the Massachusetts delegation in keeping it alive. He also helped secure $140 million to develop high-speed rail transportation between Boston and New York, which by 1995 may cut travel time to three hours.

Kerry has fought to ensure Massachusetts industries access to domestic and international markets by attacking federal restrictions on the sale of high-tech products abroad. US companies wait 100 days before winning export licenses (as opposed to two weeks in Germany and four days in Japan). This has had a devastating impact on the ability of Massachusetts high-tech companies to compete and has cost thousands of jobs.

Kerry rewrote the Export Administration Act, streamlined the process, and helped get an export-licensing office established. By intervening with sluggish regulatory agencies, he has helped small companies break into the domestic market with products like soft contact lenses and bomb-sniffers for airport security systems.

One false accusation leveled at Kerry is his supposed overemphasis on foreign affairs. He is one of the least-traveled senators. In six years, Kerry has spent 25 working days out of the country. Six were in Central America. Half were on travels to the Philippines and the Mideast, at the request of Presidents Reagan and Bush.

When he has been active in foreign policy, he has been effective. He has been a leader in pursuit of job training and compensation for veterans with Agent Orange-related disorders. On drug policy, Kerry is one of the legislators who has kept the administration's feet to the fire. Building on his work in the Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry spearheaded the push against money-laundering.

Kerry's service in the Vietnam War surely made him no more or no less a hero than did the service of thousands of others. But the learning he did while in uniform created an understanding of the perils that result when policy makers lose touch with the costs and the consequences of their decisions.

His opponent would be a shallow echo of Jesse Helms and Dan Quayle, but John Kerry is in the tradition of great Massachusetts senators. His first term has been one of the bright spots of American politics; he deserves another.

The Boston Globe endorses him for reelection not only because Massachusetts needs John Kerry, but because the Senate does, too.


*************************
Feel the love in 1990. (And that third harbor tunnel, well, ahm, some other time.)

[TayTay]

1. Tay, I don't believe you. The Globe said nice things?

Oh yes they did children. They actually really love Senator Kerry. They prove this by giving him a hard time. This is called 'Tough Love' and is a strict parent model of authority. I have another example of love, but remember, it is doled out sparingly. (Once every six years, as needed.)

KERRY FOR US SENATE
Boston Globe, Third, Sec. Editorial Page, p A16 10-30-1996


In a race that may be the most closely watched contest in the country, Massachusetts is blessed to have two well-qualified and iconoclastic candidates for the United States Senate. They have both served the commonwealth well, and the Globe has in the past endorsed both for high office twice.

Governor Weld has run the stronger campaign, putting his opponent on the defensive, which has largely obscured the incumbent's achievements in Washington. But since his arrival in the Senate 12 years ago, John Forbes Kerry has fashioned a record of steadily increasing accomplishment, including national leadership on crime-fighting, the environment, campaign finance reform and foreign policy.

In the Clinton years, Kerry has taken a pivotal role with both Democrats and Republicans in charge of the Senate. It was Kerry who designed much of the 1994 crime bill, including the hiring of 100,000 new police officers nationwide. And it was Kerry who in 1995 blocked the Republican effort to dilute environmental regulations with a misguided, House-passed bill partly written by industry lobbyists.

Kerry has also shown he can work with Republicans, as he did to win passage of the most important environmental law of this Congress, the Sustainable Fisheries Act. His efforts to resolve the Vietnam POW-MIA issue could not have been done without bipartisan support.

The Vietnam experience is central to Kerry's persona. It would be hard to name any other participant in this wrenching American drama who has done as much as Kerry to help heal its wounds. The dogged persistence he has shown in the Senate in securing as much information as possible for the families of prisoners of war and those missing in action has comforted many aching hearts. It has also allowed the nation to move toward normalized relations with Vietnam, another step in the healing process. Along with Sens. Bob Kerrey, a Democrat, and John McCain, a Republican, John Kerry remains an important champion of Vietnam veterans and of others whose public values were forged in that era.

Kerry, inevitably, has spent his two Senate terms partially in the shadow of his senior senator, Edward Kennedy. Yet Kerry is no clone of Kennedy. He took a bold step for fiscal responsibility when he supported the Gramm-Rudman deficit reduction amendment in 1985. He spoke out for common-sense affirmative action that avoids the harsh inequities of quotas and set-asides. Last year he backed Tom Daschle over the more liberal Chris Dodd for minority leader.

More important than his policy differences with Kennedy, however, are the ways the two complement each other, with Kerry enhancing the role of the delegation through his own agenda.

Kerry has also provided leadership on campaign finance reform. He succeeded in protecting the solvency of the Presidential Election Campaign Fund by raising the tax checkoff from $1 to $3 and is one of the most urgent voices in Washington for reducing the unsavory influence of money on Congress and the White House.

Kerry's work on the environment has won the endorsement of the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club and other groups. Vice President Al Gore has singled Kerry out as ``the most outspoken, eloquent and effective advocate for the environment in the US Senate.'' And for good reason, given Kerry's long and consistent leadership on acid rain, global warming, protection of fisheries, wildlife and open space, and concern for clean air and clean water.

Kerry has also pushed a number of crime-fighting strategies, especially community policing, a continuation of the fine record that began with his years of active prosecution as first assistant district attorney in Middlesex County.

Of particular interest to Massachusetts, Kerry has won an array of incentives for small businesses, especially financial services, health, high-tech and research firms. His targeted capital gains tax cut rewards start-up entrepreneurs without being so broad that it adds appreciably to the budget deficit.

In recent weeks Kerry's personal integrity has been questioned over an issue involving housing arrangements and a late-paid-for car a decade ago. Although he should have known better than to give even an impression of impropriety, he broke no law or Senate rule. As for his military record, Governor Weld graciously put it best: ``We should be grateful for Senator Kerry for his distinguished military service.''

Weld has been a distinguished governor who rescued the state from its financial slough of despond and put the commonwealth on a sound footing with many achievements. He has not, however, shown sufficient cause why the voters should reject their junior senator.

With confidence that his performance will continue to grow, the Globe endorses Kerry's reelection to the United States Senate.


******************************

The Gloe does love John Kerry. They just have no intention of ever letting him get comfortable with that love. He might become spoiled and we simply can't have spoiled Senators from Massachusetts. It's a Boston thing.

[TayTay]

2. Honestly, love has been given

There have been times when Globe coverage didn't suck!

[Mass]

3. The 2004 endorsement for the NH primary was great

I dont have a copy, but if my memory serves, it was great as well.

[karynnj]

4. Thanks for posting these. I think I'm not alone in needing them today

I think these editorials showing his accomplishments show he more than redeemed himself for getting some bad grades when he was 18. How come Kerry gets no statue of limitations on these questions - these grades were over 40 years ago.

It is annoying that they are using the grades to cover the real story - The SBVT lied.

[ginnyinWI]

5. yeah

That's what they do--deny, distract, dismiss, dissemble.

I needed it too--thanks, TayTay. :pals:

[karynnj]

7. Or disassemble

;)

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

6. Who did they endorse in 2004 for Prez?

Thanks :-)

[karynnj]

8. Kerry

[whometense]

9. It's an

EXTREMELY complicated relationship.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

10. I wasn't being cheeky

I really had forgotten/never known.

I used to go to Editors and Publishers fairly often in that frenzied endorsement time period, but dont recall if I particularly noticed Boston Globe, strangely enough!

Incidentally, TayTay, do you have that endorsement?

[whometense]

11. I know you weren't being cheeky,

but I was. :-)

It is complicated. They try to trip him up every chance they get, but deep down respect him and endorse him every time. Complicated.

Endorsement:

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2004/10/17/kerry_for_president/

GLOBE EDITORIAL
Kerry for president

October 17, 2004

IN 1984, when he was still lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, John Kerry became interested in the emerging problem of acid rain. Some people mocked the idea of poisonous rain from the skies, but Kerry embarked on a fact-finding mission across Europe, where he saw the devastation of industrial pollution on the Black Forest in Germany and many historic buildings.

He took the issue to a meeting of the six New England governors and the eastern Canadian premiers, resulting in the first international agreement on acid rain controls. The pact became a blueprint for the reauthorized Clean Air Act in 1990.

In 1997, four years before Sept. 11, Kerry published "The New War," which was derived from his years leading the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations. In the book, Kerry described a changed global landscape after the end of the Cold War, with security threats coming less from nation-states than from shadowy criminal groups. Although it dwelled mostly on drug cartels and the Russian mafia, "The New War" also addressed the threat of Islamic terrorism and called for international cooperation to fight it.

"We should be the natural leaders of a world coalition against crime," Kerry wrote, "but we have yet to recognize the `new crime's' scale and sophistication."

This year as a presidential candidate, Kerry has offered a plan for energy independence that is notable not just for its sweep and technical detail but because it recognizes the destabilizing effect of resource shortages in the struggle for world security.

These three examples highlight John Kerry's core strengths: an ability to see complex problems in new, often prescient, ways and a willingness to seek collaborative solutions. Far from being wavering or indecisive, Kerry's worldview has been steadfastly informed by these values for as long as we on this page have known him. In complex and dangerous times, the United States needs a leader who can bring together people and ideas. For these reasons, the Globe endorses John F. Kerry for president and John Edwards for vice president in the critical election Nov. 2.

Much attention during this campaign has focused on the performance of the incumbent president, and we address that in the editorial below. Here, however, we focus on the case for Kerry.

Voters who had developed ideas about Kerry from his opponent's caricatures may have been surprised by the person they saw in the three televised debates. Knowledgeable, pragmatic, with an agile, focused mind -- Kerry was the same man in all three appearances.

Arthur Schlesinger Jr., the presidential historian, was asked by Globe editors recently whether he saw any comparisons between Kerry and John F. Kennedy, in whose administration Schlesinger served. Although he knew Kennedy better, he said he found the two men "similar in that they prove politicians can be intellectuals." Despite the general debasement of American politics, this is still a desirable trait in a president.

These are challenging times for any leader. On the signal issues of this campaign -- the Iraq war and terrorism -- Kerry is up to the challenge. Persuading our allies to share more of the military and economic burden in Iraq is a daunting task, but only Kerry has the credibility to bring them to the table. Iraq, simply put, is out of control. Kerry is best qualified bring it under control, not least by reassuring the Iraqis themselves that the United States does not have permanent designs on their strategic bases or oil. On terrorism, Kerry understands that intelligence, police work, diplomacy, and economic development are the the principal weapons against a diffuse but knowable enemy.

At home, Kerry is a strong supporter of civil rights and women's rights. His nominees to the Supreme Court would not be likely to roll back decades of important gains for women and minorities.

He would rein in the Bush deficit by restoring 1990s-era tax rates to the top brackets. Although we fear that rolling back the tax cuts will not produce enough revenue to halve the deficit and implement Kerry's ambitious healthcare plan, his priorities are right: to restore fiscal sanity and to reduce the number of Americans without health insurance -- at 45 million, a national scandal.

John Kerry has done more than most to heal the wounds of the nation's last great polarizing struggle, Vietnam, traveling there with Republican Senator John McCain to settle the issue of MIAs and normalize relations. He is best suited to heal our painful rifts now -- not just with the community of nations but within this nation, rent by social, ideological, economic, and religious divisions. These sap the strength of America. We are confident a Kerry presidency will restore both unity and strength.
© Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Mass]

12. I was speaking of the endorsement for the primary

This was a great endorsement, and surprising as they had been pushing Dean for a while.

[whometense]

13. Look what I stumbled across while looking for that!

Hmmmm...never saw this before...

Can't kiss off Kerry
He's a hardscrabble campaigner who woos blue-collar voters and fights for life when behind
- Martin F. Nolan
Sunday, April 4, 2004

In chauffeuring President Bush's $200 million re-election machine, Karl Rove faces distractions foreign and domestic. He is in danger of joining the long line of those who have underestimated John Forbes Kerry.

I've got sore feet from marching in that parade myself. I've known the Massachusetts senator for more than 30 years. Flip-flopper? Opportunist? I thought so. An elitist out of touch with ordinary folk? That was my assumption, which voters demolished. As a Boston Globe reporter and editor, I've been flummoxed when he showed more intelligence and toughness than I thought he had.

For several years, Californians have asked, "What do you think about John Kerry?'' My response: "Compared to whom?'' The question has become easier to answer. Kerry has a habit of starting slowly, falling behind (as he did against Howard Dean last year), then coming back, connecting with voters and winning elections. The Bush campaign's current arguments are so lame that next year Karl Rove may list on his W-2 form "former genius.''

The Bush campaign longs for a McGovern-Mondale-Dukakis rerun, hoping the Democratic foe is weak or passive. Kerry has made mistakes and has yet to articulate what his priorities as president would be, but like another Massachusetts liberal with the initials JFK, war and combat are not metaphors to him. He is strong and aggressive. Moreover, he's been hassled by experts at it.

One of the first people to ask me about Kerry was Rove's spiritual ancestor, Charles Wendell Colson, White House counsel in 1971. "Pretty impressive performance,'' Chuck told me after Kerry testified before a Senate committee. But to his boss, President Richard Nixon, as revealed on tape years later, Colson said, "This fellow Kerry that they had on last week. ... He turns out to be really quite a phony.'' Kerry, Colson told Nixon, "was in Vietnam a total of four months,'' without saying that it was the veteran's second tour. Nor did Colson mention Kerry's three Purple Hearts, Silver Star and Bronze Star, telling Nixon, "He's politically ambitious and just looking for an issue.''

Such misinformation has followed Kerry ever since. One story often told is that at the end of one march, he threw medals over the fence, but they weren't his own. He didn't say they were. Another veteran had asked him to do it. Kerry threw his own ribbons over the fence near the Capitol but hadn't brought his medals.

Critics called him phony because they were reluctant to confront the testimony he offered on behalf of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. "In our opinion and from our experience, there is nothing in South Vietnam which could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America,'' the 27- year-old former Navy officer told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 23, 1971. Calling U.S. policy "the height of criminal hypocrisy,'' he asked, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?''

Having covered every anti-war march since 1965, I had heard much eloquence and was less impressed than my colleague, Tom Oliphant, whom I urged to pursue the Kerry story further. Tom was right and I was wrong.

In Massachusetts, Kerry went house hunting, shopping for a congressional district to live in and run from. He was called ambitious and an opportunist. What politician isn't? He lost a race for Congress in 1972 to Paul Cronin, a Republican ambitious and opportunistic enough to be a favorite of Chuck Colson.

Kerry graduated from Boston College Law School in 1976 and became a prosecutor in Middlesex County, where he won high marks for zeal in the courtroom. In 1982, when he ran for lieutenant governor, I was no longer Washington bureau chief but editorial page editor for the Boston Globe.

Kerry sought the Globe's endorsement but didn't get it. We favored Evelyn Murphy, an environmentalist who had served in the Cabinet of Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. In that crowded primary, Kerry won with 29 percent, finishing 40,000 votes ahead of Murphy. Kerry the politician, while shaking your hand, looked over your shoulder for someone more influential. He did not defer to opinion-makers in academe or the media but did well with voters.

In 40 years of covering politics, I've disregarded exit polls in favor of actual voting results. In that primary, I noted that Kerry lost much of liberal suburbia while carrying blue-collar cities like Boston, Worcester and Lowell. Must be a fluke, I figured. In 1984, when Paul Tsongas announced his retirement from the U.S. Senate, Kerry ran, again not as the establishment's choice. On a snowy day in 1984, I was stuck at Boston's Logan International Airport, waiting for a flight to Washington, D.C. My fellow passenger, U.S. Rep. Joseph D. Early of Worcester, was boosting his colleague, Rep. James M. Shannon of Lawrence, whose Senate candidacy was backed by House Speaker Tip O'Neill. As editorial page editor of the Globe, I assured Joe I shared his enthusiasm.

"Marty, this kid has national potential,'' Early said. I asked. "Joe, can Jim beat John Kerry in Worcester?'' Joe's response: "No problem!''

A Sept. 7 editorial endorsed Shannon, conceding that Kerry, "who showed bravery in Vietnam, showed bravery again when he helped lead fellow veterans against the war.'' The editorial also said, "Effective representation in the Senate requires more than oratory, where an ambitious speechmaker is often ineffective.''

The voters rejected the Globe's advice. Kerry won Worcester and many other places. So, for Thursday's paper, I did what many have done since: explained why they underestimated John Kerry. An editorial, flavored with crow and humble pie, praised Kerry, "whom we congratulate for his eloquent 'outsider' victory against a candidate endorsed by most politicians, unions and newspapers. On the Democratic side of the ballot, the most striking outcome was the shrinking importance of the 'liberal' vote. Kerry triumphed ... by winning conservative, blue-collar cities -- Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, Quincy, Revere. ... If the Democratic primary had been a liberal referendum, Shannon would have done better. He carried Brookline and Newton while Kerry won Fitchburg and Worcester. In Boston, Shannon won the Back Bay and the South End; Kerry carried Dorchester and South Boston.''

"Reagan Democrats'' were at their zenith in 1984, helping Ronald Reagan win 49 states, including Massachusetts. Ray Shamie, an amiable businessman who had once flirted with the John Birch Society, was Kerry's opponent. By November, in the Globe's esteem, the tall guy grew taller: "He would make a worthy successor to Sen. Paul Tsongas because he shares the open-mindedness, common sense and dedication which Tsongas brought to his too-short Senate career." We also "waved the bloody shirt,'' as they said in post-Civil War politics: "If elected, Kerry would be the only Democrat in the Senate to have served in Vietnam. That credential would be vital in a Senate debate over the wisdom of sending troops to Nicaragua. A Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts are not necessary equipment to deal with the issues of war and peace, but they are not abstractions easily dismissed.''

In the Senate, Shamie would vote with Jesse Helms, the Globe said, but Kerry "would likely line up with Bill Bradley, Christopher Dodd, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Gary Hart. ... For an articulate, clear voice in the Senate and for courageous leadership in shaping the future of America, the Boston Globe endorses John F. Kerry for senator.''

That's what the editorial said because editorials are about choices. During that campaign, David Rogers of the Wall Street Journal insisted on taking his old bureau chief to lunch at Locke-Ober Cafe, where I told him the Senate race was "between a looney-tune and an empty suit.'' But while Walter F. Mondale lost Massachusetts with 48.4 percent, Kerry won with 55.1 percent, running 10 points ahead of the Democratic presidential nominee in blue-collar communities like Fall River, New Bedford, Taunton, Worcester, Brockton and Saugus.

The loyalty of working-class Democrats to Kerry persists. In the presidential primary of 2004, Kerry's highest totals were in Fall River (87.9 percent) and New Bedford (86.2 percent).

In the Senate, Kerry filled out the empty suit and fulfilled his promise, using his prosecutorial skills against Reagan-era zanies. But for 20 years, he has lived in the imposing shadow of Edward M. Kennedy, one of the most durable, diligent and effective senators ever to sit in that body. From Kennedy, Kerry has learned the uses of adversity, becoming a better politician and a better guy. A failed marriage and two tough re-election campaigns humanized him. Like President Bush, he went to an elite prep school and to Yale, but in 2003, he entered a less exclusive society when his prostate cancer was diagnosed, and he joined what one doctor calls "the world's largest men's club.''

In 1995, he married Teresa Heinz, an heiress. Since she owns several vacation homes, some Bush operatives think "lifestyle'' could be an issue. But the Bush campaign will be unable to reconstruct a humble log cabin for the president. Both men are rich, so let's make the contest a yacht race between Nantucket and Kennebunkport! We'd get new cliches. We'd swap the race-track front-runners and dark horses for tacking to starboard and the sending all flags flying.

Bush is supposedly more likeable than Kerry. That's what many in Massachusetts thought about Gov. William F. Weld, who won re-election in 1994, then took on Kerry for the Senate in 1996. Weld was an affable and intelligent right-winger who switched sides to support abortion rights, easily charming many Massachusetts liberals.

Weld was ahead because pundits and academics value likability, while many voters prefer the tougher guy. During seven televised debates, Kerry came back, reminding voters why the governor was a Republican. Weld didn't lose his likability, but lost the election. The same thing could happen to George W. Bush.

The last extended conversation I had with Kerry was in 2001, over breakfast at the Fairmont Hotel. After three decades, he had endured and matured. His authenticity was vivid, Chuck Colson's charges notwithstanding. His charm was without calculation, and his most beguiling trait was intellectual curiosity, another trait he shares with another JFK. As our conversation ranged from the Alaska wilderness to the role of Frederick Law Olmsted in the Boston parks system, the thought struck me that while the last seven presidents have talked about "energy independence,'' Kerry understands it.

Kerry's self-confidence and intellect blend with his toughness, as Bush may discover. The president may win in November, but he'll know he's been in a fight.

Martin F. Nolan has covered nine presidential campaigns for the Boston Globe. He now writes on politics from San Francisco.

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/a/2004/04/04/INGU65TJNS1.DTL
©2005 San Francisco Chronicle

[whometense]

14. Today's answer is,

maybe not, but they sure delivered a couple of big, wet kisses to Mittens in today's paper.

Witness:

1. Romney guru thrives in political 'show business'

2. From prankster to politician, Romney deemed a class act

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. -- High school classmate Gregg Dearth remembers Mitt Romney as ''one of the all-time great guys in high school," a prankster who managed to make everyone feel comfortable at the elite Cranbrook School.

But high school reunions are an accounting of how people have done -- and how they look. So when his fit-looking old chum bounded into a sweltering auditorium here yesterday to accept a ''Distinguished Alumni" award, the gray-haired Dearth couldn't completely conceal his envy at Romney's genetic good fortune.

''He was certainly a leader in his class," Dearth remarked. ''You'd swear he's dying his hair, though."

Gag. Who were these articles written for? I wonder if they impressed one single person in MA?

Favorite fact learned (just so you know my reading time was not wasted): Mittens was, like the man he aspires to replace in the Oval Office, a prep school cheerleader.

[MH1]

15. Well, who would be worse?

Mittens or McCain?

I don't know Mittens well. I know more than I ever wanted to about McCain and I will be physically ill if he somehow gets the nomination.

[whometense]

16. That's a tough question.

Both are equally bad, I think. Mittens is actually deeply stupid. The problem is, he's a pretty, empty suit, and as such might make an ideal replacement for the Prince Regent now on the throne. Mittens would love shaking hands and going to the glam dinners, while letting Chen-feld or their designated successors continue to run the country into the ground.

As far as I can see, the man stands for nothing. And that is not hyperbole, either. He'll say whatever it takes to win and seemingly live untroubled by 180 degree about-faces and self-contradictions.

Just wait till you hear TayTay on the subject of Mittens. She loathes him even more than I do - and that's saying something!!

[Island Blue]

17. I don't know much about Mittens either,

other than the fact that to me he looks like a dark haired Ken doll (only not so good looking). I would really love to see Kerry vs. Mitt in '08 though, mainly just so I could watch the brains of my fellow Southerners explode! That would be entertaining.

He's a Mormon correct? My Southern Baptist aunt thinks Mormonism is a cult. She once disliked one of my cousin's girlfriends because her brother was married to a Mormon.