In the newspapers

[whometense]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/politics/27leak.html

..In a speech at Georgetown University, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic presidential nominee last year, said attacks by the administration on the Wilsons were part of the White House's effort to justify the war even after the intelligence used to portray Saddam Hussein's weapons programs as a threat was proved wrong.

"We don't know yet whether this will prove to be an indictable offense in a court of law, but for it, and for misleading the nation into war, they will be indicted in the high court of history," Mr. Kerry said...

[whometense]

1. San Jose Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/13004091.htm

In calling for phased withdrawal, Kerry struck a middle ground between anti-war activists who want an immediate pullout and Bush's stay-the-course policy.

"We're seeing the Democrats moving toward that position," veteran Democratic strategist Bill Carrick said. "Senator Kerry will be joined by others. There's going to be a consensus around phased withdrawal."

Kerry's speech came one day after the U.S. death toll in Iraq reached 2,000, though it had been scheduled for some time.

It also came as polls show public support for Bush at an all-time low and that half of Americans now think the war was a mistake. A slim majority, 55 percent, told a mid-September Gallup poll that it's time to intensify efforts to withdraw from Iraq, while 41 percent said U.S. policy there shouldn't change.

During his presidential campaign last year, Kerry struggled to define his Iraq policy and was haunted by his vote for the war resolution.

On Wednesday, he quit defending that vote.

"Knowing now the full measure of the Bush administration's duplicity and incompetence," he said, "I doubt there are many members of Congress who would give them the authority they abused so badly. I know I would not."

[karynnj]

4. It's interesting that the stategist (Carrick) thinks the Democrats

will reach consensus around a position like this. That would be could news for 2006 if it happens. Having a position that is at least a majority party opinion helps avoid the "Democrats have no plans" line.

It will be interesting to see if Hillary, Bayh, Biden etc move in this direction. I really hope they don't play politics with it.

Kerry really did a great job - I loved the answer ha gave about allowing the coffins to be seen, suggesting that it would lead to the US becoming more involved with serious issues. It was cute that he said it was more important that Nick and Jessica's breakup.

[whometense]

5. One of the other catnippy

things about JK is the way he manages to keep up with pop culture. How he has time to do everything he does, I have no idea. But it's a sign (I think) of a truly curious and open mind to take in all the kinds of news he does. I know Nick and Jessica are utterly unimportant, but knowing what's going on in the world, even the utterly unimportant, keeps people young.

[ginnyinWI]

34. I do hope they all get on board.

Because it seems like the smartest, most well thought out solution anyone's put out yet. I do believe JK really did his homework on this one, consulting the military and other experts for input.
Of course, emotionally, we all want the war to end "yesterday", but it's smarter to use your head and look before you leap. That's what we look to people of Kerry's stature for.
This plan is good politically too, because it is very distinct from the WH's line and still very national security-friendly. A strong, unified message on Iraq will do the Democrats a world of good next year.

[whometense]

2. Fox News

:o

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,173643,00.html

My favorite part:

COLMES: On my radio show at night, people will sometimes -- conservatives will call and say, "You know what, I'm really sorry I cast my vote for President Bush. And we play Brenda Lee and "I'm Sorry" and ask them to sing along.

COLMES: Do you find sometimes the people you meet express to you buyer's remorse?

KERRY: Yes, sure people come up to me. But look, again, I don't want to go backward; I want to go forward. We've got some big issues. We've got a country that desperately needs to be energy independent. There's so much we could do to create new jobs in America, to put people to work, to reduce the cost of gasoline for people. We're not doing it.

There's so much we could be doing to bring other countries to the table to help us in this effort. There's so much we could be doing to still fix our schools, to create new jobs. And yet the big fight in Washington is whether or not people earning more than a million dollars a year are going to get $32 billion worth of tax cuts next year.

When people talk about morality and values, we ought to apply a little morality and values to the fundamental choice that what goes into our budget and who is represented by it.

[sandnsea]

3. This is KICK ASS

Just an astounding speech. Astounding.

[Mass]

7. as long as you dont live in MA

No surprise, the Boston Globe is mixed review, confuses Kerry and Albright's plan in one article and spend his time with snarks and inuendo.

It's the Boston Globe. so no surprise, but still.

[sandnsea]

9. LInk to Globe article

I was referring to the speech in that post, not the article. It's early, I don't know what your post is referring to. Or mine. lol.

Here, here's a link to the globe article. It's almost as if the editor is a frustrated jr high english teacher who hasn't handed back his share of papers... there's no snark Miss Easton, do over. It was just too obligatory.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/10/27/democratic_leaders_offer_a_national_security_plan/?page=1

[whometense]

11. I'm not sure how widely known

this is, but Nina Easton married a repug just after the election.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/fashion/weddings/28EAST.html, via http://nytimesweddings.blogspot.com/2004/12/filling-political-cleft.html

Ms. Easton, 46, is keeping her name. She is the deputy Washington bureau chief of The Boston Globe. She is an author of "John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography" (PublicAffairs, 2004) and the author of "Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Ascendancy" (Simon & Schuster, 2000).
...
Mr. Schriefer, also 46, is a Republican strategist and a founder of the Stevens & Schriefer Group, the Washington-based political consulting firm; he has helped advised numerous Republicans, including Bob Dole in 1996 and George W. Bush in 2000. This year he served as the program director for the Republican Convention and was a media adviser to President Bush.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

[karynnj]

10. Especially their statement of Kerry's "muddled stand" last year

How can a so-called liberal paper, state Kerry's position exactly as the Republicans did - especially the comment on not funding it.

[TayTay]

12. The dust has not yet settled from last year.

The papers are used to failed nominees that go away, not ones that re-enter the fight so quickly. This will continue until about early next year when the mid-term races really heat up.

That said, there was very good news in the BGlobe article. (Push the snark aside and it is there.) The Globe stated that Kerry had found a middle position (!) for the Dems and that they expect others to join him there. That is a very good thing and a very hopeful sign both for Mr. kerry and for the Dem PArty. They need to be more united in their stance going into next year.

I hope that Sen. Kerry gets credit for this. It oh so easily could become a newspaper myth that Sen. Feingold proposed this and Kerry just followed. (Don't hit me for this, this is how papers work.)

[karynnj]

14. Good point

I would have expected them to credit Feingold as well. It will be interesting to see how Feingold responds because it seemed the main selling point of his candicy was that he voted against IWR and he wants to get out. Kerry really went way beyond him, in terms of specific details and discussion of how to do this. Kerry is asking not just for 20,000 to come home very quickly, but redefines our role to a far safer rear position role. The latter will radically affect the soldiers who are not the lucky 20,000.

[TayTay]

15. I agree.

The key people to watch on this are: Clinton, Biden, Schumer and all the other good folks who are caught in a war they really don't believe in.

This should be very interesting. I wonder who will be next. (Obama? A DLCer?) We shall see.

[whometense]

18. Would Hillary

rather die than endorse Kerry's proposal??? Inquiring minds want to know (and snark)....

[Mass]

19. Yesterday, I saw that Kerry was trying to talk with her on the floor

and it was rather short. Not sure if I should conclude anything from that.

[whometense]

26. Did it look

like she didn't want to talk to him? Sometimes I think it will be a miracle if the dems can manage put 2008 aside long enough to unite before next year's election.

I think Kerry can do it, mind you, but I'm not sure I see that kind of selflessness coming from Hillary - or Biden either, for that matter.

[ginnyinWI]

35. ha, that will be interesting to watch

Maybe she would if she envisions herself in the VP slot....? I'd like to see her try to offer a better solution than Kerry's.
C'mon, Hill, admit it, he runs rings around you!

[whometense]

6. from the WEEKLY STANDARD

a very interesting piece on the fate of frontrunners in non-incumbent election years. The relevant part for us:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/264nobqs.asp

...Senator Clinton knows from personal experience that her husband was not the frontrunner in 1992--New York Governor Mario Cuomo was. The next non-incumbent year, 2000, actually saw the frontrunner, Vice President Al Gore win the nomination. But this was, in many ways, the third nomination of Clinton, not the first for Gore. And we all remember last year when Howard Dean emerged as the leader of the pack over a talented field that included Senators John Kerry, John Edwards, and Joe Lieberman...

[whometense]

8. And while we're visiting the Weekly Standard...

Check out this one, on Frank Luntz's predictions for 2006. I love the first line.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/267haowd.asp

IF YOU'RE A REPUBLICAN and already worried about your party's prospects in 2006, pollster Frank Luntz, a Republican himself, has a message for you: It's worse than you think.

Luntz, who worked with Republicans in 1994 to draft the Contract With America and win a realigning election, said political conditions are as bad or worse now--only this time for Republicans, not Democrats. Republicans won 52 House seats in 1994 and have held the House since then. In 2006, he said, Republican control of the House--currently 232 seats to 203 seats--is "in jeopardy." Democrats need a net gain of 15 seats to take over.

"Republicans have a whole year to get their act together," Luntz said, though they've shown no signs of doing so. "As angry and p-----off as we were about politics , I think it's worse today," according to Luntz, who spoke yesterday at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. "The saving grace for the Republican party is Nancy Pelosi." The House Democratic leader, he said, "is being handed the perfect political storm on a plate," but she's failing to take advantage...

...Luntz said the anger of voters is "palpable, emotional, intense." And Republican voters, the conservative ones anyway, feel betrayed by wasteful spending in Washington and Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court...

[Mass]

13. Sen. John Kerry has called for an immediate, detailed plan for withdrawal

I have no clue who these people are, but it is interesting to see that they got it right, contrarely to many.

This editorial is great and I can only concur with it. Things simply said, without snarks and insults.

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/7993/1/292

Editorial: Too many people have died

...

Today, a growing majority of Americans are saying it’s time to get out of Iraq. Congress is starting to get the message. This week, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) introduced legislation to prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to deploy U.S. troops to Iraq. Reps. David Price and Brad Miller, both North Carolina Democrats, have introduced a joint resolution directing the president to submit a detailed plan to Congress for ending the occupation. Sen. John Kerry has called for an immediate, detailed plan for withdrawal.
...
We urge our readers to put the pressure on their congressional representatives so that not another mother’s son or daughter has to die in this war based on lies.

The best way we can honor the 2,000 whose tragic deaths we mark this week is to say, again, “Enough!”

[TayTay]

16. Pretty good, snarkless story in WaPo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/26/AR2005102602172.html

Enjoy!

[Mass]

17. That is a good and fairly objective view.

[whometense]

20. Dana Milbank in WaPo

Snarky, of course.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/26/AR2005102602221.html?nav=rss_politics

But then there's this:

Kerry, for his part, is having difficulty in his bid for a political second act. A Pew Research Center poll this week found that 52 percent view Kerry favorably -- putting him behind likely 2008 rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards. Kerry's five previous speeches this year billed as "major" did not grab the national imagination, and the transcription services that rush to record major events in Washington did not bother yesterday to post Kerry's speech.

That's too bad, because Kerry was noteworthy yesterday. "I accept my share of the responsibility" for the Iraq war, he said, "but the mistakes of the past, no matter who made them, are no justification for marching ahead into a future of miscalculations."

He called Iraq "one of the greatest foreign policy misadventures of all time," and asserted: "It is time for those of us who believe in a better course to say so plainly and unequivocally." (Although the normally articulate Kerry pronounced it "unequivocably.")

[karynnj]

22. Even the first sentence is silly

Kerry's bid for a political second act? I'm not sure how many political acts he's had, but it's more than one at this point.

Also, his Sept 2004 NYU speech did lay out his plan as of that time. The strange thing is Millbank only considers the politics of last year, not whether the plan makes sense.

[whometense]

23. I agree

Typical inside-the-beltway-snarky-bs. To me, this column exemplifies the worst of that kind of attitude. All focus on style, no focus on content.

[TayTay]

24. Millbank came to WaPo from TNR

He is conservative and more of a Clintonista. He has always been snarky to Kerry.

[whometense]

25. Well, that explains a lot.

I didn't know he came from TNR - but probably should have. He pretty much has a permanent sneer etched into his face, esp. when it comes to Kerry.

[Mass]

27. DLC talking points - Kerry is dead -

Milbank, as TNR people, is relaying that.

[karynnj]

28. So as DU alwaysseems to believe that the enemy of my

enemy is my friend. (Galloway, Chavez) and they hate the DLC - maybe they should see Kerry is their friend eventually. Are they mad at Edwards or did his not being named simply reflect he is not in office.

[whometense]

21. Seattle Times

I like this:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002586176_iraqdig27.html?syndication=rss

...Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, is the highest-profile figure in either party to back a timetable for withdrawal in Iraq. His call during an address at Georgetown University comes amid a crop of national polls showing the war growing increasingly unpopular among Democrats, independents and even Republicans...

[beachmom]

29. I caught Limbaugh for a few minutes (yes, a slight torture)

He was blasting Kerry (and this was right at the beginning of his show), saying that he was going to his Vietnam experience again -- to surrender. Of course, Rush doesn't seem to understand it's not our war to win, but the Iraqis. And 80% of the population do NOT want a return to Baathists or a Taliban like regime run by al Qaeda. However, many of those 80% want US the hell out.

Have you guys noticed the trend here? Kerry makes a great major speech. The main liberal blogs ignore or condemn him. The MSM grudgingly report a few blurbs and might even allow him on TV (MTP, Larry King Live, H&C). It is only two places that are all over him: Kerry friendly blogs and right wing media. Odd bedfellows indeed. But what does this all mean? Obviously, the influential Left and the MSM have decided they don't want Kerry for '08. Yet here we all are, largely under the radar. Can we, the Kerrycrats (for lack of a better word), change this country by calling out the "elitists" for what they are -- cynical, lazy, and without vision?

[whometense]

30. Interesting analysis.

I don't know the answer to that, but I can point to the 2003 pre-primary period. When the MSM saw Kerry as d-e-a-d and did nothing but mock him and call for him to withdraw from the race, when the TNR (I know, I know, but it still galls me) did an issue profiling every dem candidate - with the exception of Kerry, when the blogs (and there were fewer of them then, and Kos was much more influential) were all-Dean-all-the-time.

It was a very lonely time to be a Kerry supporter. Eventually we came together at the Kerry blog and forum, but it was hard sailing, sticking up for him and getting attacked almost everywhere we went. Not to rehash the 2004 primary wars, but this feels relatively balmy compared to then. It's clear the MSM and others want to see Kerry go away. But it's equally clear that they know he's not, and they can't afford to take their eyes off him either.

Anyway, we know what was said about him then and we (more or less) know how things turned out. The polls mean zero, nothing, nada at this point, and Kerry knows that better than anyone. DU may be pissed off at him, but I'd bet the reservoir of goodwill towards him in Iowa is large. No bets on NH - they're sort of like the Boston Globe, kind of love/hate. We just have to keep plugging away like he is.

[ginnyinWI]

36. DU is so fickle

So many rely on purely emotional reactions to the whatever-of-the-day. I've noticed when Kerry does come out swinging against the administration, a lot of them come out of the shadows and proclaim their support. The Kerry haters are muted. Then it swings back the other way when they don't hear from him for a few weeks.
So like the polls, DU opinion means Zero, too, I'm confident. What matters is what you said--those primary voters in the mainstream.

[karynnj]

31. Very interesting observations

It really seems that the "liberal" MSM is not as liberal as it once was and Kerry always had an odd relationship with parts of it. I was surprised to find that Sultzberger SR (JR is the current publisherof the NYT) has been a big Republican contruibutor for the past decade. The paper seemed to me (a biased persn) to be very easy on Bush and some times tough on Kerry. The Wash Post seemed worse. TayTay and others have described the utterly bizzare relationship with the Globe. Topped only by the usually liberal Newsweek's history of calling Kerry a conspiracy nut (though they propigated the whole POW's are being held 20 years later nonsense.

Since the election, I've wondered if the consolidation of media has led the media in general to be less liberal, or maybe sort of DLC - liberal socially, but pro-big business. Is it just Kerry personally they didn't like or is there some wing (or all) of the party they don't like?

One thing that makes me think there it is some kind of agenda is the difference in the way they treated Bush (both runs) and Kerry. Especially the DC press core had to know that Bush is a pretty obnoxious person - they wrote it freely years ago. Even the worst descriptions of Kerry as aloof, phony and distant don't picture him as an extremely angry, mean, bad tempered, vindictive person which Bush's do.

But look at the characteristics - which which set of words would concern you most (politics aside) in a President. At worst Kerry would be boring, Bush's charteristics are dangerous - and almost never discussed, while Kerry was described as a "social loner" in the NYT. (A social loner who seems to be getting and giving lots of hugs.)

But I think the more dominant thing now is the media thinks Kerry is last year's fashion, which they last year said wasn't particularly good. They are looking for the new trend, which they will then help gain popularity. Their view is that it's not possible to come back into style 4 years later. They don't want to take time or attention away from the shiny new possibilities.

That Kerry can still get enthusiastic crowds has to confuse them. What I don't know is how do the crowds and enthusiasm he can generate compare to Hillary, Biden, Edwards etc. Leftylizzie may have some perspective on that in terms of Georgetown because she said Hillary will be coming there soon. College campuses are not typical of the country, but they have to be the source of a lot of campaign workers.

I'm not surprised Limbaugh would equate Kerry's eloquent speech of 2005 as a patriotic Senator with his eloquent speech of 1971 ss a decorated war veteran. There may not be a single person in the world who likes and respects both these men.

[TayTay]

32. The coverage is uneven

But I think it will get better. The MSM is owned by conglomerates who don't fundamentally understand the news business and instead think of it as an under-performing business sector. (Sigh!) Look at MSNBC. That is owned by Microsoft and by NBC Entertainment. NBC Entertainment is owned by General Electric. General Electric is one of the biggest defense contractors in the world. (They make a lot of money off the Pentagon. There is a lot of good scuttlebutt that liberal Phil Donahue was fired from MSNBC in the lead-up to the Iraq War because he offended the GE folks. They didn't want anyone to rock the gravy boat.)

We will start to get more stories like this one soon: http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/24/shields.kerry/

News comes in cycles. Kerry was on the down cycle for a while. He will be on the up cycle again in due course.

[whometense]

33. I'd argue that he's

already starting the climb up, though at a very measured pace. No one knows better than Kerry (except for maybe Dean) the perils of peaking too soon.

[whometense]

37. Boston Herald editorial staff chimes in

not the worst ever, considering the source, but you have to read it just to view their complete misunderstanding of what Kerry actually said in the speech. Not to mention their lack of comprehension of the situation oon the ground in Iraq: http://news.bostonherald.com/opinion/view.bg?articleid=109138

[TayTay]

38. OMG! The whack-jobs at the Herald have out-done themselves

Bravo! Just when I think they can't get any lower or kiss anymore * butt, they surprise me and re-double their efforts. Way to go guys! Glad to see that the Herald cut-backs haven't taken out your percription drug benefits yet. You really need those meds guys, like now.

To wit:
Kerry's pullout plan
By Boston Herald editorial staff
Friday, October 28, 2005

SNIP

Kerry wants 20,000 troops out after the parliamentary elections in December, and he wants the administration to make public a ``sector by sector'' plan for transferring military and police responsibilities to the Iraqis. Why not stick a bow on it and send it straight to the insurgents planning their next attack? Because as President Bush noted last month, withdrawing from Iraq now would give terrorists an ``historic victory'' over the U.S. We can only imagine how they would try to capitalize on it.

If the Herald guys could just pop their heads out of their asses long enough to take a good look at the situation in Iraq they might notice that US Generals, (not usually associated with your garden variety commie, pinko, anti-war spouting, college grad, pain-in-the-arse lefties that the Herald scares children with at Halloween) are the ones saying that this occupation is screwed. Just screwed. We will not win doing what we have been doing. In fact, it will guarantee a 'historic defeat.'

Iraqis may view the American presence as an occupation, leaving troops vulnerable to the insurgency. But Kerry's withdrawal plan favors arbitrary deadlines over the TRULY meaningful benchmarks – the establishment of a stable government and the dismantling of a terrorist network. Only when those milestones are reached and Iraqis can secure the peace themselves should American troops pull out – a goal we all share.

Herald guys! I hate to call them morans, as that would be a step up for them. But honestly, Is this one of the dumbest things ever or what? I would love to ask these nickel genuises how the hell they expect to accomplish a 'stable government' when shit keeps blowing up over there, the sides are not having meaningful discussions and our own commanders in the field have concluded that what we doing is not working.

Honestly, you'd think in a city with such great universities and center of advanced learning as Boston that the Herald would go farther than the the janitorial staff to get someone to write a decent editorial about a thoughtful and positive speech. This is just pathetic. At this rate, the Globe won't find anyone worth raiding over there the next time an opening for right wing bastard columnist comes up. This stuff is just dumb and almost a parody. What a disgrace.

[karynnj]

39. I guess this is no surprise

So, do you think the Herald will convince the voters that Bush and his war are really doing well? What were Bush's approval numbers in Massachusetts lately?

Also, ignoring the politics, in the state that ranked #1 in academic achievement, couldn't they find a writer or an editor, who would realize that the these two fragments really make one nice, but long sentence.

"Iraqis may view the American presence as an occupation, leaving troops vulnerable to the insurgency. But Kerry's withdrawal plan favors arbitrary deadlines over the TRULY meaningful benchmarks – the establishment of a stable government and the dismantling of a terrorist network."

They seemed to miss Kerry's point of shifting the US soldiers to rear support, in defended garisons. Having Iraqis policing and doing the search and missions really makes sense (especially as we have few people who even speak the language.)

[whometense]

40. NOBODY

reads the Herald. It's a paper that basically has a readership equal to the number of dedicated Fox News viewers in the Boston area. They will convince no one of anything. They only preach to the converted. I only reported it because it's Kerry-related. Don't forget, this is the outfit that employs Howie Carr, who coined the term "Liveshot," and who literally foams at the mouth at the mere mention of Kerry's name. He's also the guy who wrote that column a few months back ranting about all the Kerry stickers he was still seeing on cars around town. Yeah Howie. Deal with it.