Excellent post and my point exactly. democrats need to stop blaming Kerry. He is hardly alone when it comes to not being a perfect candidate with perfect timing. We must remember that no war-time president has ever lost re-election, that Bush's 2004 campaign dishonestly exploited post 9-11 fears (including with six phony terrorist alerts), that Bush avoided all real issues and focused on smearing an honest men before the public would get to know him, and that Kerry's one fault was running an honest, mature and issues-focused campaign.
What do we want, someone who can cheat and lie better than Bush? I notice Gore has been forgiven for blowing it in 2000. Edwards is forgiven. Clinton is forgiven for Monica. And people don't realize that Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr. all lost races before they finally won. Kerry has obviously learned some hard lessons and won't repeat his mistakes. Those same smears also cannot be used effectively again. Plus, Hillary and Obama, no matter how impressive they might be, are still highly risky candidates based on the realistic possibility that the US will continue electing white males for the forseable future. Plus, McCain could liklely beat either one of them, despite his flaws.
Anyway, all democrats should lay off Kerry because especially if Gore doesn't run, we may desperately need him. |
