Kerry Statement on Gore endoresement

[NewYorkerfromMass]

“I respect Al Gore. I worked with him in the Senate, and I endorsed him early in his hard fought campaign for the presidency four years ago. But, this election is about the future, not about the past. I have the experience and the vision to reverse George Bush’s radical agenda and put America back on track on my first day in office. This election will be decided by voters, across the country, beginning with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.”

http://www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/releases/pr_2003_1209b.html

[sistersofmercy]

1. Kerry has such integrity

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Excellent form by Mr. Kerry.

No whining. Takes it at face value. Moves forward.

Now if others would just follow his lead...

[TLM]

19. Now if others would just follow his lead...

...they'd be losing too?

[bearfan454]

3. Does it even matter

with electronic vote stealing ? I feel like a whipped dog sometimes when it comes to electronic vote stealing.

[quinnox]

4. Yes, excellent

Kerry is right, the voters will decide the election.

And excuse me for not wanting to bow down to anyone about who I want to win in the primaries, and that includes Al Gore.

[truthspeaker]

14. no one wants you to

Gore gave an endorsement, not a mandate. Do you complain when unions or interest groups endorse a candidate? Gore is entitled to his opinion; you're entitled to yours. No one is saying otherwise.

[Guaranteed]

5. Nothing but class from Kerry

I like him.

[seaglass]

6. A lot of class.

And he's right. This is not 2000, the problems we are facing are not the same. The voters will decide.

[maddezmom]

7. Outstanding Response by John Kerry

voters will decide and it's not over yet. :)

[Tatiana]

8. Am I the only one who feels miserably sad?

Everytime I think about Senator Kerry, I just get this really depressing feeling. Kerry has done so much for this country, so much to further progressive and liberal ideals. It seems so patently unfair that his campaign has gone the way it has. I guess that's just the way of primaries, but I still believe in my heart that he's the best man for the job.

[jumptheshadow]

10. You're not the only one

Senator Kerry is a great man and a class act. He'd make a fine President (probably one of our best).

[NewYorkerfromMass]

12. Kerry turns 60 on Thursday

I'm sending his campaign a big $$ present. I really love him and (dammit!) he deserves it.

[adadem]

15. Me, too

because at one time I had a lot of respect for Al Gore. I gave him a break on his first bad choice...not a second time.

[Tatiana]

24. It's not just Al Gore.

He has every right to endorse the man he feels deserves the nomination.

I really can't explain it. It's just it feels like EVERYONE, Gore included, is holding Kerry to standards no human on this planet can measure up to. I don't need to go through the laundry list of Kerry's accomplishments. I just believe that a man who has spent most of his life in service to this country, both on the battlefield and in public office deserves a lot more respect, compassion, and understanding than he has received. Nobody seems to remember that Kerry's threatened filibuster and his leading the fight was what really killed ANWR. Nobody seems to remember all his work on behalf of America's veterans.

When Al Gore announced he was not going to seek the presidency in 2004, Kerry said the following: "We all owe Al enormous gratitude for years of dedicated and exemplary public service and for his significant contributions to our party and country. I know that he is going to continue to speak out and be involved on the issues that make a difference to Democrats and all Americans."

Nobody seems to remember Iran Contra anymore, or what Kerry did to bring the ugly truth of that scandal to light.

Senator KERRY: What did you do with those drugs?
Mr. MORALES: Sell them.
Senator KERRY: What did you do with the money?
Mr. MORALES: Give it to the Contras.
Senator KERRY: All right.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/total_coverage/coke.html

Nobody remembers. I'm not a Kerry supporter by any means, but I know that the man has done more than anyone in my lifetime not for "the party" but for our COUNTRY. And this is the thanks he gets.

Well I thank him. I think him for for for the work he did on Iran Contra.

We found most people didn't even know the difference between communism and democracy. They only wanted to work in rice paddies without helicopters strafing them and bombs with napalm burning their villages and tearing their country apart. They wanted everything to do with the war, particularly with this foreign presence of the United States of America, to leave them alone on peace, and they practiced the art of survival by siding with whichever military force was present at a particular time, be it Vietcong, North Vietnamese, or American.

We found also that all too often American men were dying in those rice paddies for want of support from their allies. We saw first hand how money from American taxes was used for a corrupt dictatorial regime. We saw that many people in this country had a one-sided idea of who was kept free by our flag, as blacks provided the highest percentage of casualties. We saw Vietnam ravaged equally by American bombs as well as by search and destroy missions, as well as by Vietcong terrorism, and yet we listened while this country tried to blame all of the havoc on the Viet Cong.

We rationalized destroying villages in order to save them. We saw America lose her sense of morality as she accepted very coolly a My Lai and refused to give up the image of American soldiers who hand out chocolate bars and chewing gum.

We learned the meaning of free fire zones, shooting anything that moves, and we watched while America placed a cheapness on the lives of orientals.

We watched the U.S. falsification of body counts, in fact the glorification of body counts. We listened while month after month we were told the back of the enemy was about to break. We fought using weapons against "oriental human beings," with quotation marks around that. We fought using weapons against those people which I do not believe this country would dream of using were we fighting in the European theater or let us say a non-third-world people theater, and so we watched while men charged up hills because a general said that hill has to be taken, and after losing one platoon or two platoons they marched away to leave the high for the reoccupation by the North Vietnamese because we watched pride allow the most unimportant of battles to be blown into extravaganzas, because we couldn't lose, and we couldn't retreat, and because it didn't matter how many American bodies were lost to prove that point. And so there were Hamburger Hills and Khe Sanhs and Hill 881's and Fire Base 6's and so many others.

http://www.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/JohnKerryTestimony.html

Something, somewhere has gone terribly wrong with our nation, with our media, with our consciences, when we ridicule, revile, and destroy a man who has spent his whole life trying to give us the truth.

Words can't express how much sorrow I feel. I'm starting to think we don't want a leader so much as we want a tool for our revenge.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

25. Brilliant post

And you're not even a Kerry supporter!

I believe something has gone terribly wrong with our PARTY! The Democratic Party! Oh this is definitely not the party of Edward P. Boland, and Tip O'Neil, and Scoop Jackson. .........."Tool for our revenge" indeed.

[blm]

26. Wow....

you wrote thoughts I wish I had the talent to convey.

Now, thanks to the campaign against him, young voters will only see Kerry as someone who is a "corrupt Washington insider" and "Bushlite" because Dean said so.

Now THAT is something I will NEVER forgive the vermin who lied to new and young voters about an ethical man like Kerry.

[Tatiana]

27. The irony of this whole thing is astounding.

The media and even other Democrats are doing to John Kerry what was done to Albert Gore in 2000. They are misrepresenting his words and statements, they are not giving him credit for things he genuinely helped accomplish, and they are going in the direction that the wind seems to be blowing in. That Al Gore doesn't seem to recognize (or worse, chooses to ignore) that Kerry is now in the position that he once occupied is disappointing.

I still love Al, I still respect him. But he's wrong.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

29. Good observation on Gore too.

I agree, but I am having trouble liking and respecting Gore right now.

[phirili]

33. Was any pun intended by using the word Vermin?

[curse10]

31. You aren't the only one

I know in my heart and in my gut that Kerry is the best man for the job. And I think it's sad that so many people are focusing on one issue for the primaries. All I can do is keep getting the word out. I'm going to New Hampshire in a few weeks to pound the pavement. I went to a fundraiser on Monday. And I keep posting here- but it often falls on deaf ears . :-(

[9119495]

9. Great Response. (And I support Dean) n/t

[Hep]

11. LOL "This is about the future not the past"

so let me tell you about what Dean said 8 years ago!

[TLM]

20. Bingo... as ususal what Kerry says today means little regarding

what he'll do tomorrow.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

22. you sure you don't mean Dean?

Mr. Presto Chango on all conceivable positions?

[Hep]

32. Kerry lies and it's OK!

Good point, NYFM

[JNelson6563]

13. Interesting sentence:

But, this election is about the future, not about the past.

How does Gore endorsing Dean have anything to do with the past? I have a few ideas of what this was intended to convey but wonder what you all may think.

Julie

[MaryBear]

16. My take is it was intended to convey

the concept of Gore as out of touch; as old news.

[Cocoa]

17. stolen election, maybe

or Clinton.

[opihimoimoi]

21. From an ex Kerry supporter, this was a bit of sour grapes

Better he said nothing.

The polls show a steady decline for him these past 6 months

while Deans... vice versa,,,going up.

Apparently what Deans is saying ...is connecting and this is what we DEMs need. Watch his speeches, his delivery, his timing, his phrases. This man can and will invigorate the Political process giving us Dems a good shot at victory. His strategy seems on track and he looks good, sincere, snd able to deliver.

Kerry can salvage his name and boost the Dem Party by joining in now/ Its a 2 fer, why wait? He can make himself look good, gracious,
and realistic all at the same time.

Come, we ho'o'ponopono, we heal, we bond

[TLM]

18. Look at the numbers in NH and Iowa Kerry...

The election has already been decided with regard to you...

"I have the experience and the vision to reverse George Bush’s radical agenda "

Yeah because you voted for half that f-ing agenda you jackass.

[Donna Zen]

23. voters?

Ah...that is the biggest mistake that John Kerry makes in this statement. He thinks that we have elections. Al Gore has spoken! He said, that we must join ranks behind Dean, so that we can fundraise! Democracy is just another word for doing what you're told. I'm thinking that republicans have a better idea of what is means to live in a democracy than Dean supporters. "Fall in line and do it now."

Al Gore, a surpreme court of one.

[HuckleB]

28. Thank you, Senator Kerry.

You showed great class in leading the way for all candidates and supporters with this gracious response. Between this and Edwards ugly "response" to Dean's speech on Sunday, Kerry has jumped to my number two choice with Edwards now a ways down the list.

[kerryistheanswer]

30. Kudos to John Kerry

I'll be going to Iowa to be a volunteer for Senator Kerry. I haven't given up hope just yet. We can still win!!