John Kerry now says that his biggest mistake was in accepting federal election money. He blames that on his campaign's slow response to the Swift Boat attacks and other Bush-led attacks on his candidacy.
AP/San Francisco Chronicle story
"We had a 13-week general election, they had an eight-week general election. We had the same pot of money. We had to harbor our resources in a different way and we didn't have the same freedom," Kerry said.
"I think the most important thing would have been to spend more money, if we could have, on the advertising and responding to some of the attacks," he said.
He also says he made other mistakes: "I know what they are, and I take responsibility for them."
With all due respect to the candidate that I actively campaigned for, bullshit.
Come on, John. You made a TON of mistakes. You let Bush define the parameters of what the election would be about. You all but hid away John Edwards from sight. You kept Teresa on a short leash. You refused to let anyone in your campaign call Bush a liar. When you bothered to respond to negative campaign attacks, you did so hesitantly and with bloviation and blather instead of forthright, stand-up counterattacks. You never succeeded in countering the accusations of "flip-flopper."
Worst, you made the mistake of presuming the election would be about issues. Presidential elections in this day and age are NEVER about issues. They are about the person running for office. Bush was ripe for rip-snorting, ass-whipping character assassination, attacks that would have been grounded in the truth (unlike the attacks on your own character, your own record, your Vietnam service, and others). You should have called him a liar at every turn, and provided proof -- God knows we on the left were giving you ammunition faster than you could process it. You should have attacked him on the character that he and Rove have cooked up from scratch, the tobacco-chewing, fighter-pilot strutting, brush-clearing "everyman" who came off the ranch to Save Da Country. You should have painted him as what he is: the rich-kid fop who has belly-surfed on his daddy's connections into every position of power he's ever occupied, and used his position at every turn to enrich his corporate and conservative buddies while fucking over everyone else, particularly the working poor and the middle class. You had plenty of ammunition to turn this country's perceptions of him around, but you refused to use it. You ran a lackluster, mediocre, namby-pamby campaign while letting him turn you into a medal-throwing, flip-flopping, Purple Heart-faking Jane Fonda wannabe. You said you would challenge the election results if given a reason, and then faded, running whimpering off back to the Senate without looking back.
Kerry says he's thinking about running again in 2008. As in 2004, he could be a strong candidate, though I think most of us saw enough of him in 2004 to not ever want to see him in a presidential election again. If indeed he does run, I strongly hope he's learned the lessons he needs to mount a better campaign the second time around. Judging from this article and his actions since the election, I don't think he has.
(Note: I won't be around long to post responses in this diary, as I need to go to bed most badly: 5 hours until I get up for work. I don't like to post hit-and-run diaries, but this one is an exception. Sorry.)