There will be no George W. Bush to fight against in 2008. So all the things that Kerry never said about Bush will never be relevant again. Why belabor a dead horse? Given that there will be no Bush, why shouldn't Kerry have another chance if he wants it again?
The incompetence issue will be gone and maybe even the lying, AWOL from life issues, arrogant punk and religion pandering issues will be gone. What will not be gone are the Republicans. They would lie again, mislead again, spread hate and fear again. What would Kerry II do? He would look to take that "hard higher road to a better place" and he'd lose again. He would look at a younger staffer and say, the American people will see that our message is stronger and have more integrity than the message of ____, the Republican Candidate. He will have learned nothing from this campaign as he learned nothing from each stupid mistake he made within this last campaign. He does not learn, forget it. He's through!
However, we must learn that whenever we don't fight we lose. We must learn that whenever we don't show anger and disgust against the Republicans, the media gives them a free pass and Americans never see how bad they are.
We have to tell them how bad they are? We have to tell all Americans how the Republicans want to take everything they can steal from middle class.. We have to tell them how selfish and arrogant they are. It's obvious they don't know. Isn't that correct?
We must return ridicule to the Republicans, but return it twice as hard, so that Americans pay attention and are able to assimilate how horrible these people are. We have to take the gloves off and come to fight. Kerry and people like him, like Chris Dodd, Evan Bayh, and Joe Lieberman would never show the outright disgust for the Republicans that Clinton showed for the news media, Ken Starr and Peter Jennings last week. I didn't know Clinton had it in him but that is what we need. Disgust, anger and revulsion for the Republicans.
We also need a candidate who can teach, explain and be interesting to listen too. One of those guys or gals who you can watch with the sound off. You want to know how badly Ralph Nader screwed the country and his legacy? He could have been the one to do it for the Democrats. This is coming from someone who hates Nader like poison!
I think Tom Brokaw could do it. Bill Richardson could do it. Chuck Shumer could do it. Eliot Spitzer, Robert Rubin, Laura Tyson ( I always like her), Joe Biden (maybe) could do it. They have to be able to think on their feet under pressure. I think Howard Dean could do it and I think Dean could get across to people that he cares for them....if he works on that. How quickly he thinks on his feet...that's a problem.
The one thing Bush had that we all neglect to admit is that if he knows you, he appears to care about you. If he was your friend and you sat down with him to tell him your problems, he'd look concerned. Isn't that what Clinton had? They feel our pain or in Bush's case he appears to feel it. I don't think Kerry ever made people think he could feel their pain and partly because he wasn't willing to fight hard enough for them. They needed him and he was a possibility to them but he never put it on the line for them. They know all of them have flaws but the appearance of a willingness to fight for Americans, right or wrong, is a big plus
So, that's what I think we need. People who instantly look like they care. People who can think on their feet and people who wouldn't be afraid to get down and dirty and show disgust and anger for the Republicans.