Jesus, it’s no wonder he lost. I’m ripping off this Political Wire post in its entirety because it’s the only way to get the point across. If they tell me to take it down, I will:
Quote of the Day
“I think polls today are almost irrelevant, and I just don’t pay any attention to them.”
— Sen. John Kerry, on Meet the Press, noting the polls were wrong about his chances in the Democratic presidential primaries.
Of course, earlier in the interview Kerry used polls to prove the impact of the Osama bin Laden video released just days before the election. “I believe that 9/11 was the central deciding issue in this race. And the tape — we were rising in the polls up until the last day when the tape appeared. We flat-lined the day the tape appeared and went down on Monday. I think it had an impact.”
“Just For Kerry” is a reference to John F. Kerry’s initials, if you didn’t already know that. Sid has used the phrase often since the election ended. Really, I plan to get off the national politics bent after this. I know I said I’d keep it mostly local here. But it’s like watching a train wreck sometimes. I know I’m wasting my time, but I can’t keep my eyes off it.
I watched that MTP yesterday. He came of as the same smug, self-absorbed cocksucker he always has. He has all the solutions still. He was right about some things, but he left out that people didn’t like him. He’s completely fake and condenscending.
Kerry was too wordy. That was one of his problems.
I just hope that New Hampshire and Iowa don’t decide he should be the Democratic candidate again in ‘08.
I still have mixed opinions about Kerry. I have tremendous respect for his character and his courage. I was reading the wikipedia article on him yesterday. It was quite informative. I think he was a much better man than most people on the left and right made him out to be. I do, however, think he could and should have run his ‘04 campaign a lot better.
Lush,
I could forgive him for being a smug, self-absorbed asshole if he wasn’t constantly talking out of both sides of his mouth. Most politicians are fake, smug, self-absorbed (and I’d add euphemizing, half-truth-telling) assholes.
Chris,
Jimmy Carter was a good man but an awful president (early career choice to run as a segregationist not withstanding). Kerry probably isn’t that bad a guy by Washington politician standards, but he was an awful candidate.
He’s had his moments here and there though, Chris. From the Wikipedia:
I watched him on MTP yesterday, as well. It became apparant that the reason he lost was that he had no real message.
He was still, days after the inaugaration and months after the election, sticking to the talking points. “I made a mistake about the way I talked about the war, but the President made a mistake in the way he went to war. Which is worse?” I swear to Jon Stewart it was word for word.
He had no improvisationability (yes, I wrote that out… eff off)… it was horrible.