Yesterday, John Kerry appeared on This Week with George Stephanopoulos in the wake of his endorsement of Barack Obama for President. In the interview, Kerry made the case for an Obama presidency, and did a fantastic job -- I can imagine the Obama campaign must have been pleased with his Sunday advocacy. In addition to that, however, the most compelling part of the interview was when the subject of swiftboating came up. Kerry gave nothing less than a solemn pledge that in the case of any Republican swiftboating, he would do everything in his power, in fact, lead the effort to smack such attacks down. What his remarks showed was that we have a very effective attack dog ready in the wings for our eventual nominee. I think he's going to come in handy for that. More below the fold.
Now I realize Kerry's endorsement of Obama has made a bit of a splash around these parts. The response has run the gamut from "hurray!", "this will help Obama", and "well, he has the right to state his opinion, even though I disagree" to "who cares", "good. it will HURT Obama", "it's irrelevant", and finally, the various forms of "Damn John Kerry to hell!". Well, this is a tightly contested primary, and I suppose he had to have known that getting involved would have meant the slings, arrows, and bullets were going to fly like never before. But I really do think that this was a sincere endorsement, as he recounted his trip to Africa he went on in December:
KERRY: I was just in South Africa. And I picked up the newspaper one day and there was a big headline on the second page, "Obama Says" the following. They have a huge issue there of credibility of their leadership and the issue of AIDS. I personally believe, having been 20 years, 24 years on the Foreign Relations Committee, that if Barack Obama can say things to African [sic] leaders that a white president just can't say....
STEPHANOPOULOS: But a lot of...
KERRY: ... and I think there's a power in that.
His moment of epiphany is also backed up with knowing who Obama is, and what he can do for America:
KERRY: Barack Obama stood up and passed one of the most important -- the single biggest ethics reform package that we have passed. He did that immediately. On legislative record, yes, he's a young man, but he's older than Bill Clinton when Bill Clinton became president.
He's older than John Kennedy. He's older than Teddy Roosevelt. He's only three years younger than Abraham Lincoln, who lost his seat for the House after serving only two years, lost the race for the Senate, lost the race for the Illinois legislature and became our greatest president.
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I think that we also measure a life. I mean, in the end, Barack Obama has more legislative experience than Hillary Clinton, directly, because he served eight years in the Illinois legislature and, now, three years in the Senate. Hillary Clinton's had one term, plus this year and a bit, since then.
So you measure the whole life. And I think, when you measure Barack Obama's life, a guy who went to Columbia as an undergraduate, and his daddy didn't help get him into an Ivy League school; he went to Harvard Law School, became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, which, as you know, is no small task.
He goes on from there; instead of going to Wall Street to make millions, he goes to Chicago to help organize in the streets. He's a civil rights lawyer. He stood up and helped change the death penalty situation in Illinois. He fought to get children tax credits.
I think he's had the right instincts. I think he had the right instinct to say, this is the moment for America to change and to take the risk and decide to run for president.
And look at what he's achieved, against all of the forces arrayed against him. And he is now attracting people like Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Governor Janet Napolitano. I don't think that's insignificant.
Wow, I can't add much to that advocacy. Then swiftboating came up, and I think Kerry made two cases on this, one of which we can all come together on and agree on. First, was that Obama can handle the swiftboating just as well as Clinton, and secondly, it doesn't matter who the nominee is: what happened in 2004 won't happen again, especially since Kerry will become directly involved to stop it in its tracks (in a way he couldn't do for himself in '04):
STEPHANOPOULOS: But a lot of Democrats are worried he just can't get there. And one of the arguments the Clinton campaign is making -- you say that he -- one of the reasons you support him is because he wants to end the politics of swiftboating. One of the arguments of the Clinton camp is that he will fall victim to the politics of swiftboating, that he's unknown, untested, not tough enough.
KERRY: No, he won't, nor will any Democrat ever again. And you're looking at the person who understands that better than anybody.
... That will never, ever happen again, not to Barack Obama...
STEPHANOPOULOS: Even though Barack Obama is brand new?
KERRY: ... not to Hillary Clinton, incidentally, either. Whoever our nominee is, I intend to fight like crazy, and I will lead the effort personally.
He went on to discuss what went wrong in his campaign in '04, and also talked about the fact that Obama (or Clinton) won't have the same problem in regards to money: neither will be on public financing, which did shackle Kerry during that long month in August before the Republican convention. If anyone doubts the effectiveness of Kerry to take on swiftboat like attacks, I will give you two examples of how good he has been post-2004, one of which may surprise you:
First, in 2006, he was an excellent defender of Fighting Dems running for Congress:
The military record of a Democratic House candidate was under attack. So, Senator John F. Kerry ventured to the Philadelphia suburbs last week to defend Patrick Murphy — and deliver the kind of speech the senator never quite gave when his own wartime service was called into question in 2004.
"Attacking Patrick Murphy for his service is a little bit like Jessica Simpson attacking Albert Einstein’s IQ," the Massachusetts Democrat proclaimed Thursday at a chilly outdoor rally at Bucks County Community College.
"A lot of these people in the GOP, the Republican Party — they think somehow that they served because they played with GI dolls when they were little," Kerry said. "The guys who really served understand what it means, and we’ve had enough of these lies."
Patrick Murphy, on his own positive campaign, went on to win his race, but I think Kerry played a big role in making sure Murphy could stick to the issues, and not have to use all of his time to respond to the lies Republicans were telling about him.
The second example, perhaps forgotten by many, was when Clinton was attacked by the Pentagon, simply for asking if they had plans drawn up for a withdrawal from Iraq. Their response was to the effect that even asking the question meant she was aiding the enemy and unpatriotic. Kerry was having none of it:
"This Administration reminds us every day that they will say anything, do anything, and twist any truth to avoid accountability. Their latest assault on Sen. Clinton comes from a tired partisan playbook and it’s a disgrace," Senator Kerry said. "They ought to be planning to save lives – not plotting to save face. One of the great tragedies of the war in Iraq has been a total lack of planning by the Administration. Failure to plan for protecting troops with the right equipment, failure to plan for treating specialized injuries and failure to anticipate the bloody civil war. I think it is entirely appropriate for the Pentagon to show how it is planning for the eventual redeployment of troops out of Iraq. We have a right and responsibility to know that our troops will return home in an orderly and safe manner and every reason to be skeptical given the reckless way our troops were put in harm’s way. Senator Clinton was right to ask the Pentagon for answers and the Administration’s smear tactics in response are wrong but not surprising."
What I sensed throughout this interview was a humbleness from Kerry, something we don't see enough of in politicians. Clearly, he has passed the torch to Obama, and is very confident that Obama will be able to win and be a great president. Let me show the contrast: here he is talking about Obama:
KERRY: I believe that Barack Obama has the ability to be a transformational leader.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What does that mean?
KERRY: It means that there are big shifts, tectonic shifts in American politics. Whether it was Reagan, Kennedy, Roosevelt, there are moments where America is ready to move in a different direction.
I believe this is one of those moments.
And, here, he is talking about Obama and what he said in 2004 about the Iraq War Resolution vote:
KERRY: Well, not only did he say the case has not been made, which was a very diplomatic way of saying John Edwards and John Kerry made a mistake, at a convention where he was about to speak and I was the nominee -- so, in effect, he showed considerable diplomatic tact and he managed to duck you guys because you might have had a story that my keynote speaker was, in fact, in a different position, which he was.
He spoke at an anti-war rally of some several thousand people, in which he talked about not being against all wars but being against a war where it didn't make sense and the case had not been made.
So I don't think there's any question but that Barack Obama had a position against the war. And he made it clear...
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KERRY: And I have said, since then, George, that that vote was a mistake. I believe it was a mistake because we gave power to the president that he abused.
Now, you can make arguments about what the vote was at the moment you made it. But, in the end, it turned out to be a mistake and the country now knows that, overwhelmingly. And Barack Obama had the right judgment.
John Kerry is a team player for the Democratic party, has dealt with his demons from 2002 - 2004, and is going to be totally honest and tough, and do everything in his power to make sure we win the White House. Don't underestimate the power of an effective surrogate, both now and in the general election. The message is also that Democrats should stop being afraid of swiftboating, especially since the guy who actually was swiftboated is speaking so confidently that it's not going to go down that way in '08. Enough of the fear, and onward with the hope and optimism.
The video is available at ABC and KerryVision.