How I feel about Kerry

The Kerry brigades think I have it out for their guy. And yeah, they're probably right.

I think Kerry is a great Senator, but he was a godawful presidential candidate. Of the serious primary candidates, he was the worst we could've nominated. How can I say that?

The man had no reason for running. He had no message beyond "I'm the most electable". Dean was running his anti-establishment campaign. Clark was weaving his sterling military service into domestic issues with his "New American Patriotism". Edwards had the best message of all, talking about the "Two Americas". Yet Kerry had nothing. And while his "most electable" drivel helped propel him into the nomination, it left him ill-prepared for the general campaign.

When your entire reason for running is that you're the most electable, where does that leave you in a general campaign? We saw first-hand where that left him.

One more note -- campaign insiders will tell you that no one loved Kerry. No one had any sense of higher purpose. People who worked for Dean, Edwards and Clark all passionately loved their man. The campaigns stuck together. Why?

Because the campaigns were based in the candidates' home states. Hence, staffers had to move to work on those campaigns. They had to make a sacrifice to uproot and travel to a strange city on behalf of their guy. That commitment was real. And since those staffers knew no one else in these cities, they worked together, played together, and stuck together through thick and thin. It was shared sacrifice, and it translated to genuine affection and commitment to their candidate and their cause.

Kerry's campaign was based in DC. The staffers didn't have to make a commitment to their candidate beyond taking a different bus or metro stop. They didn't hang out after work, since they already had their established social circles in town. There was no sense of shared sacrifice and commitment to their guy. Kerry, the consumate insider, ran his campaign from frickin' Washington D.C. And now he tells us he's an "outsider"?  

It was his race to lose, and he lost it. I'll support Senator Kerry to the end of his career, I will not support "I am now an outsider if it'll help me in 2008" Kerry.