As election year rolled around, the war that had raged for a couple years was bogging down. Initial success had then met sudden reversal, and both sides were hunkering down in increasingly bloody stalemate.
Needing credibility on issues of war and national security, the "out" party chose a presidential candidate best known for his military background. Americans looking for leadership that promised to break the stalemate were thrilled when the candidate pledged, "I will go to Korea".
It worked for Dwight Eisenhower.
While Kerry can't have the near-universal appeal and acclaim that Ike enjoyed a mere 7 years after the end of WWII, the principle underlying "I will go to Korea" remains every bit as applicable today as it did in 1952.
Americans are looking for one of the candidates to offer us a breakthrough in disengaging from the growing quagmire in Iraq. Ike calculated, correctly, that a forthright statement of his commitment to take a personal and direct, if symbolic action, would resonate with war-weary voters. To this day, "I will go to Korea" is the best remembered line of the 1952 campaign exactly because it resonated.
John Kerry: will you go to Iraq? (And not just to serve plastic turkey?)