thedrifter
12-01-06, 08:05 AM
Kerry Eager to Move Past Botched Joke
By GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
December 1, 2006, 1:51 AM EST
BOSTON -- In the space of barely a minute, John Kerry's political life took an abrupt turn. There's before The Joke, when the Massachusetts senator appeared to be well on his way toward making a political comeback, laying the groundwork for a White House bid despite losing the 2004 presidential election. Then there's after The Joke, when even fellow Democrats and former supporters question whether Kerry is still politically viable.
Kerry's quip just before the Nov. 7 midterm elections that those who don't study hard "get stuck in Iraq" not only forced him into isolation in the campaign's final days, it rekindled criticism about his failure to beat a war-plagued president two years ago. It also highlighted a shallowness to what he and his aides still considered to be widespread public support.
"The joke stopped that momentum in its track," said Jerry Crawford, a Des Moines attorney who was chairman of Kerry's Iowa campaign in 2004. "I don't think it was fair the way it was used against him, but it's nevertheless the reality. And it knocks him back to the place where he was shortly after the '04 election."
Crawford will be supporting Tom Vilsack, Iowa's outgoing governor, as he makes a run for the Democratic nomination in 2008. He said that is based on their longstanding relationship, not any falling out with Kerry.
Kerry dismissed the education comment as a "botched joke" directed at President Bush, who was two years behind him at Yale. He said Republicans inflamed the issue to try to curtail expected Democratic gains on Election Day.
Since then, Kerry has said it will be up to voters to decide what effect it may have on his presidential prospects.
"That was a slip-up of one word," he said Thursday on CNN's "The Situation Room." "I really think people have made much too much out of it."
Behind the scenes, Kerry apparently has been having doubts, calling current and former Democratic confidantes to inquire just how much his gaffe hurt his presidential chances, according to several Democrats who spoke on condition of anonymity because the conversations were private.
Kerry, who turns 63 next month, had been planning to announce a comeback campaign in December or January. He had thrown himself into helping his party reclaim Congress in the midterm election, campaigning for roughly 80 House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates.
He also has a political account of $14 million -- about the same as New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.
Two things have delayed Kerry's plans: fallout from the joke, and the Democrats' newfound control over the House and Senate.
As a member of the incoming majority party, come January Kerry will be chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee and the Foreign Relations East Asian and Pacific affairs subcommittee. He will be in attendance when the new Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., convenes hearings on the future of U.S. military action in Iraq.
These responsibilities will impede Kerry's ability to jet around the country, attending fundraisers and courting political operatives, as he did in 2002 and 2003 when Democrats were in the congressional minority and largely powerless.
"Everybody's clock's been slowed down by the move into the majority," said Edward Reilly, Kerry's top political consultant. "Clearly the election was about Iraq and people want change -- and this new Congress to deliver it."
Nonetheless, "We're still very much in a go-mode on this thing," Reilly said. Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, hope to boost their public reemergence with a book about the environment slated for publication next April.
The senator faces other challenges in mounting a second presidential campaign. No Democrat other than an incumbent president has won his party's nomination twice since Adlai Stevenson failed in back-to-back campaigns in 1952 and 1956.
First, Kerry is up for re-election in 2008, which means he will have to simultaneously run for president and the Senate if he doesn't want to take an all-or-nothing chance on the White House.
He is helped by the anemic Massachusetts Republican Party, which is in tatters after losing the governor's office on Nov. 7. The party's most prominent candidate, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, was trounced, and another potential Senate candidate, Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, is preparing for his own presidential campaign.
Potential Democratic challengers, including several members of the Massachusetts House delegation, are also rethinking strategy after their party's wins win gave them newfound power in Congress.
The bigger threat is to Kerry's principal campaign rationale that he is the most viable alternative to Clinton. The former first lady leads polls among potential Democratic presidential candidates, although she has not committed to a 2008 campaign.
Among some Democratic operatives, including former Kerry campaign staffers who would only speak on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering the senator, the joke and Kerry's response undercut his claim to that distinction. Kerry finished last in a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday that asked voters to rate 20 politicians.
"I don't think it's personality; I think it's strategic," said Jeffrey Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University. "The reason John Kerry won the nomination in 2004 was that Democrats in Iowa calculated that the best chance to beat George Bush was to nominate someone with military experience, who could be effective in fighting off Republican criticism that Democrats are 'soft on terror.'"
Berry added: "The war has become such a catastrophe for the Republicans, the Democrats don't need a war hero. The Republicans are going to be on the defensive next time."
At the same time, other Democrats are offering a fresh face.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., one of the party's most popular figures, has changed course and now says he is considering a campaign even though he has served in the Senate only two years. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., a former Midwestern governor, has $10 million he can use on a campaign.
And Kerry's 2004 running mate, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, is touring the country, promoting a new book and laying the groundwork for his own 2008 campaign.
William Shaheen, a veteran New Hampshire activist whose wife, Jeanne, served as the state's governor and Kerry's campaign chairwoman, said the senator remains viable as a presidential candidate because he has a clear strategy on Iraq, a plan for improving health care nationwide and an outline for energy independence.
"John Kerry is a very complicated guy who offers a lot," he said.
As for whom he will support going forward, Shaheen replied: "I'm certainly leaning toward him, because he's done nothing to violate my trust. I appreciate the race he ran in '04 and I appreciated what he did this fall."
Ellie
By GLEN JOHNSON
Associated Press Writer
December 1, 2006, 1:51 AM EST
BOSTON -- In the space of barely a minute, John Kerry's political life took an abrupt turn. There's before The Joke, when the Massachusetts senator appeared to be well on his way toward making a political comeback, laying the groundwork for a White House bid despite losing the 2004 presidential election. Then there's after The Joke, when even fellow Democrats and former supporters question whether Kerry is still politically viable.
Kerry's quip just before the Nov. 7 midterm elections that those who don't study hard "get stuck in Iraq" not only forced him into isolation in the campaign's final days, it rekindled criticism about his failure to beat a war-plagued president two years ago. It also highlighted a shallowness to what he and his aides still considered to be widespread public support.
"The joke stopped that momentum in its track," said Jerry Crawford, a Des Moines attorney who was chairman of Kerry's Iowa campaign in 2004. "I don't think it was fair the way it was used against him, but it's nevertheless the reality. And it knocks him back to the place where he was shortly after the '04 election."
Crawford will be supporting Tom Vilsack, Iowa's outgoing governor, as he makes a run for the Democratic nomination in 2008. He said that is based on their longstanding relationship, not any falling out with Kerry.
Kerry dismissed the education comment as a "botched joke" directed at President Bush, who was two years behind him at Yale. He said Republicans inflamed the issue to try to curtail expected Democratic gains on Election Day.
Since then, Kerry has said it will be up to voters to decide what effect it may have on his presidential prospects.
"That was a slip-up of one word," he said Thursday on CNN's "The Situation Room." "I really think people have made much too much out of it."
Behind the scenes, Kerry apparently has been having doubts, calling current and former Democratic confidantes to inquire just how much his gaffe hurt his presidential chances, according to several Democrats who spoke on condition of anonymity because the conversations were private.
Kerry, who turns 63 next month, had been planning to announce a comeback campaign in December or January. He had thrown himself into helping his party reclaim Congress in the midterm election, campaigning for roughly 80 House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates.
He also has a political account of $14 million -- about the same as New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner.
Two things have delayed Kerry's plans: fallout from the joke, and the Democrats' newfound control over the House and Senate.
As a member of the incoming majority party, come January Kerry will be chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee and the Foreign Relations East Asian and Pacific affairs subcommittee. He will be in attendance when the new Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., convenes hearings on the future of U.S. military action in Iraq.
These responsibilities will impede Kerry's ability to jet around the country, attending fundraisers and courting political operatives, as he did in 2002 and 2003 when Democrats were in the congressional minority and largely powerless.
"Everybody's clock's been slowed down by the move into the majority," said Edward Reilly, Kerry's top political consultant. "Clearly the election was about Iraq and people want change -- and this new Congress to deliver it."
Nonetheless, "We're still very much in a go-mode on this thing," Reilly said. Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, hope to boost their public reemergence with a book about the environment slated for publication next April.
The senator faces other challenges in mounting a second presidential campaign. No Democrat other than an incumbent president has won his party's nomination twice since Adlai Stevenson failed in back-to-back campaigns in 1952 and 1956.
First, Kerry is up for re-election in 2008, which means he will have to simultaneously run for president and the Senate if he doesn't want to take an all-or-nothing chance on the White House.
He is helped by the anemic Massachusetts Republican Party, which is in tatters after losing the governor's office on Nov. 7. The party's most prominent candidate, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, was trounced, and another potential Senate candidate, Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, is preparing for his own presidential campaign.
Potential Democratic challengers, including several members of the Massachusetts House delegation, are also rethinking strategy after their party's wins win gave them newfound power in Congress.
The bigger threat is to Kerry's principal campaign rationale that he is the most viable alternative to Clinton. The former first lady leads polls among potential Democratic presidential candidates, although she has not committed to a 2008 campaign.
Among some Democratic operatives, including former Kerry campaign staffers who would only speak on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering the senator, the joke and Kerry's response undercut his claim to that distinction. Kerry finished last in a Quinnipiac University poll released Monday that asked voters to rate 20 politicians.
"I don't think it's personality; I think it's strategic," said Jeffrey Berry, a political science professor at Tufts University. "The reason John Kerry won the nomination in 2004 was that Democrats in Iowa calculated that the best chance to beat George Bush was to nominate someone with military experience, who could be effective in fighting off Republican criticism that Democrats are 'soft on terror.'"
Berry added: "The war has become such a catastrophe for the Republicans, the Democrats don't need a war hero. The Republicans are going to be on the defensive next time."
At the same time, other Democrats are offering a fresh face.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., one of the party's most popular figures, has changed course and now says he is considering a campaign even though he has served in the Senate only two years. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., a former Midwestern governor, has $10 million he can use on a campaign.
And Kerry's 2004 running mate, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, is touring the country, promoting a new book and laying the groundwork for his own 2008 campaign.
William Shaheen, a veteran New Hampshire activist whose wife, Jeanne, served as the state's governor and Kerry's campaign chairwoman, said the senator remains viable as a presidential candidate because he has a clear strategy on Iraq, a plan for improving health care nationwide and an outline for energy independence.
"John Kerry is a very complicated guy who offers a lot," he said.
As for whom he will support going forward, Shaheen replied: "I'm certainly leaning toward him, because he's done nothing to violate my trust. I appreciate the race he ran in '04 and I appreciated what he did this fall."
Ellie