Eric Alterman reports that John Kerry met with him on Thursday in New York, along with "with a dozen and a half journalists, writers and the odd historian, poet and cartoonist" to
discuss the "Kerry Conundrum": how to right his flailing, deflating candidacy.
If Kerry himself proposed an idea, Alterman doesn't mention it. But Art Spiegelman tossed out a novel idea: Take responsibility for your actions and admit you were wrong.
It should be noted that Alterman is big on Kerry, who he think has the "thoughtfulness, knowledge base and value system... to be not just a good, but a great president." The column and the meeting itself are products of the hand-wringing over Dean's stunning leapfrog in the polls. "Voting, as I keep having to say over and over to you silly Nader voters, is not therapy; it's choosing between available alternatives. Dean is not a sure loser in November, but he is a much, much harder sell" than the rest of the field (
Kristof must have been at that meeting too -- he also invokes Nader, as well as trusty ol' McGovern, in Saturday's anti-Dean column).
Biases aside (mine's that I'm not a Kerry supporter and lean toward Dean), Alterman's right that if Kerry wants to stop Dean and Clark and win the nomination, he has to regain the credibility he lost with voters, particularly on the war vote. His resume, his record, and his rhetoric are not even close to being enough, as his ongoing fall in the polls demonstrate.
Basically, it's a character issue, which must frustrate Kerry to no end -- he obviously thinks highly of himself. He has good reasons to think so, but he comes off as haughty and extremely condescending, and treats his staff very coldly (We all hate a bad boss, no matter their politics). This characteristic is part of his problem, and countering it is at the heart of Spiegelman's suggestion:
After the meeting broke up, Art Spiegelman tried to tell Kerry that he should just stand up, and in a clear, unmistakable fashion say, "I was wrong to trust President Bush with this war. I thought he would do the things he promised before embarking on this war but I now see I gave him more credit than he deserved. I wish I could have that vote back but I can't. Now the thing to ask ourselves is where do we go from here and who's the best person for the job?"
I second this emotion. Sure, a lot of self-important pundits--a least of [sic] couple of them English-born--would mock Kerry for admitting he made such a mistake. But most people would admire it.
At the private meeting, Kerry defended "his willingness to trust the president of the United States, but now realizes that this was a big mistake." Assuming he feels this was an error in judgement and not just political calculation -- and I think he does -- is this enough for you? Would you be more likely to vote for him if he took Spiegelman's suggestion and admitted this publicly?