Open Letter to Senator Kerry

This is an open letter to Senator Kerry specifically, but also anybody else who has ever run for public office and is endorsing Senator Obama for President.

In just a few hours voting begins in 22 states, and a lot of people are treating Tuesday as a sporting event.  That's fine, and I have no problem with that.  I tend to treat the primary elections like a sporting event as well, at least on some level, and this is like the AFC & NFC Championship games all rolled into one (sorry, saving the Super Bowl metaphor for November).  

Most people here seem to be poll junkies and armchair pundits in some fashion, and we spend a lot of our time promoting and predicting and hoping and even sometimes bashing candidates and those in office.  Sometimes it seems like we're an over-sized version of Meet the Press.

But unlike the Sunday morning talk shows, we don't have staffers to help us frame our questions or years of interviewing experience.  We have questions, but sometimes it seems like the answers or statements we get are framed just like they would be for a television audience.

I'm directing this to you, Senator Kerry, because you've been an outstanding advocate for Barack Obama in this campaign, but also because you were the Democratic candidate in 2004 and you've been through a Presidential campaign from start to finish.  But if you can, just for a few minutes, take off your Senator hat and give us a little bit of insight into what's happening in this campaign.

A lot of people, myself included, feel like the Obama campaign is something special that only comes around once every three or four generations or so.  It doesn't really feel like a campaign to a lot of us.  It feels like a moment in history... a passage from one era to the next.  It feels like there's something intangible happening that's going to shape our future and our children's future into something different, something better.

You were one of the first Senators to endorse any candidate in this campaign, and I have to wonder why that is?  Do you, as a colleague of Senator Obama, feel the same things that we out here in the trenches feel? I know it's not exactly the type of question Chris Matthews or Wolf Blitzer would ask, but it's something that I want to know, and something I think is important for everyone to know.  Does it feel as special for you, as someone who has been there and done that, as it does for us?  And more importantly, why?

It's easy for us to get caught up in a movement like this, but our power is limited to our strength in numbers.  I'm not trying to imply anything by this, but my investment in this campaign is much, much different than yours.  

My voice is small, and only carries weight when joined by thousands of others, but your voice has weight behind it that very few will ever know.  It's not a criticism, just a fact that you can reach thousands more in a single speech than I can in two weeks of phone-banking.  At the same time, you're a Senator, and the political stakes are a lot higher for you than they are for the rest of us.

That's why I want to know, are you feeling what I'm feeling?  How is this different from your campaign four years ago, and what is it about Senator Obama that made you choose to endorse someone so much earlier than most everyone else?

And in the off-chance you actually see this middle of the night diary, thank you.  Thank you for supporting Barack Obama, thank you for running a tough campaign four years ago, and thank you for the outstanding work you've done as a United States Senator.

•  Another thanks

  to Senator Kerry for your unending support for veterans.

  by Lipo on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 10:15:06 PM PDT

  •  Didn't Kerry wait until after Dodd and Biden were

    out to endorse? Seems most Senators did that after ther were only two of their colleagues left. I'm sure Kerry waited until Biden was out as the Delaware Senator was one of his most ardent and public backers through the whole swift boat thing.

    I like Obama, but I'm actually getting a little turned off to the campaign. It's nothing that Obama's done really, it's more the whole aura of the campaign thing going on. His events are like religious revivals more than campaign events. I'm all for change, but he and his supporters seem to think that the power of repetition by repeating the phrase over and over is going to make him change Washington. He's been in Washington for over 3 years now and has done relatively nothing to change the tone or bring Democrats and Republicans together. Ethics reform you say? That was going to get done with or without Obama, as Harry Reid made ethics reform the top priority of this Congress, giving the bill the number S. 1. Stopping nuclear proliferation? Who is against that? That's the "we love puppies" foreign policy bill, that Lugar asked him to help with replacing other Democrats like Nunn, Biden and Bradley that he had worked with in the past 20 years.

    If Obama gets the nomination I will back him with no reservations and go out and campaign for him. I like most of his policy proposals and think he can give a good speech (although he definitely needs work on debating). Again though, his campaign emphasizes that he is going to be able to bring the country together, mostly through the power of his personality and charisma. He's a once in a "three generation" candidate. Its the turning point for America. He'll restore American credibility around the world just by  being elected. How he'll bring people together and do all this is a little vague, but the folks that go to his events don't seem to care.

    If elected, I hope he's one of our greatest Presidents, I really do. I just don't buy all the hype yet about what a transforming figure (other than being half white, half black) he is or will be. Will he be able to deliver on his promise of refoming Washington? If history is any guide, both past candidates and his own Senate record, the odds are that he wont.

    by Norm91 on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 11:40:53 PM PDT

•  join

  by bornadem on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 10:19:07 PM PDT

•  Senator Kerry

  I, too, wanted to add my name to the list of those who thank you and admire your decision to come forward early and endorse Senator Barack Obama.  It is no surprise however that you chose to do so because you always stand up for what is right and just, regardless of how difficult it is to do so.  You have always been an honest man, a decent man, and above all else a man of honor. Thank you Senator Kerry.

  C. Rice

  by 4Honesty on Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 11:10:22 PM PDT

•  Wish it were John Kerry

  sitting in the White House now.  I agree with all of the above and I know that, like Barack Obama, John Kerry has an innate sense of what is right.

  by juca on Tue Feb 05, 2008 at 05:57:33 AM PDT