Here are a couple things I'd like to hear Kerry say. Maybe one of you well-connected folks with contacts in the Kerry speechwriting group can forward this to them.
On "staying the course":
America deserves a president who knows when he's standing in wet cement.
On "I voted for the 87 billion before I voted against it":
Wartime is no excuse for bad governance. We will pay our troops and buy needed equipment, and we will do it responsibly.
There were two ways to deliver that $87 billion. One way, put forward by Joe Biden and me, paid for it by rolling back some tax cuts for the richest Americans. The other, supported by Republicans, just charged it to our children as a bigger deficit.
I voted for the 87 billion when it was paid for. I voted against it when it was not. Republican senators did the opposite: they voted against paying the 87 billion with real money, and in favor of mortgaging our future.