I heard Kerry's "Maryland Speech." Not Kerry Fan....It was Great! but not

[KoKo]

so well received.

I listened to John Kerry address every issue the Dean/Kucinich supporters would want him to. There were Union Hats and Ordinary folks in the background as he gave his speech and it was put out on C-Span.

I wanted to jump up....to cheer and shout....I'm telling you this was the BEST SPEECH I've heard Kerry give since Fall of 2002 when he gave his INFAMOUS THUNDERING Enviro Speech! (also heard only on C-Span)

The "downer" for me was that the audience wasn't thrilled with him. No matter what he said that sent "shivers down my newly far left Dean Spine, it sort of got "polite applause." It was only the "Populist" issues that got a thundering round of handclaps.

No matter what words of (joy to my "leftist heart" words) came out of his mouth it was like listening to the "Preacher on Sunday!" You like the guy, know he speaks for you and is "with the religion") but you just can't jump up and down about him..

WHAT IS WRONG WITH KERRY's DELIVERY?

Shouting....asking...pleading....what IS IT with the guy?

I'm resigned that he's the "nominee." But, he's got a mixed audience, more heavily on the "people of color" but behind him are the "whiteys...of Irish....whatever looking Union Folks, etc.......and really people can't get WITH HIM?

My thoughts: His eyes are "cold" when he speaks. His body moves and his mouth sounds like Clinton/Dean or Gore "at his best" but his eyes are "cold....and it negates his voice." It causes a "disconnect" so that it seems he doesn't really "believe" what he is saying....

I ask this of his supporters.....not being "mean spirited or trashing Kerry." THIS was a MAGNIFICENT SPEECH......he hit all the "left wing talking points" so DEAR TO MY HEART......but the "EYES" belie what he says......

WHY???? Help me on this... He's the Nominee, and I want to get behind the guy...I'm "Dean/Kucinich" just so you know where my loyalties are.

Not looking for flames but serious stuff to answer my doubts. :-(

[seventhson]

1. I am afraid he doesn't believe a word he says. It is all rhetorical.

He is, after all, just another skull and bonesmen destined to become Caesar.

[bobbieinok]

2. I assume you do NOT support Kerry?????????

...

[KoKo]

8. I said, I was Dean/Kucinich in my post so you would know! Kerry is

going to be the "nominee." I asked in honesty. :shrug:

[Old and In the Way]

4. Good point 7thson

But since you had an opening, should have also worked Botox into that smear.

[KoKo]

5. Ahhhh Seventh.... I know whereof you come. But he gave Great Speech

and I'm going to give him "benefit of the doubt" on this one...

What IS IT with him.

Seventh...he does have a more "Liberal" voting record than Lieberman. Even if he's S&B (and I know and have great worries about this and have read probably ALL your posts about this), I STILL have to say....he's going to be the nominee.....and he is talking Now/Tonight about all I want him to...but it comes off sort of "dead," on delivery.

Can we help him? Can we hold his feet to the Fire to try to get him in touch with his "inner soul/spirit like we here on DU?

Seventh....how can we get Kerry to "move beyond his Skull & Bones" and Work for US?

Have you thought that we might be able to get him to answer to US and NOT S&B's?

Help me here.....I know where you come from....I was not for Kerry..but I'm trying to give the guy a break, here.....:-(....

[seventhson]

23. I honestly hope I am wrong about Kerry

but the elitist upbringing and heritage may be insurmountable.

There is ONLY the hope that he is not what he appears to ME to be: a complete phoney being propped up by his elitist status quo colleagues and classmen.

Can he abandon that and become a new version? A "Liberal" Bush? THAT is what I expect: a "liberal" Bush who will roll back the horrors minutely and compromise on EVERYTHING in the name of practicality.

Is it POSSIBLE he can become a decent human being and a great politician?

Yes it is. Anything is possible.

I have for some time began counting up and calculating the justifications for voting for Kerry in the General Election.

I have found some and I am sure therte are more.

I will vote for him to defeat Bush first and foremost. But also because I believe he actually DOES wish to promote his vision (if he has one)

A good startr would be for him to renounce Skulkl and Bones though.

It was these types of people who do the wetwork in places like Haiti and it disgusts me.

[KoKo]

29. Seventh.....the only way to get rid of "them" is for their policies to be

trounced and long jail sentences........That's a far reach. As you know folks have been trying to get rid of these folks for decades.....

It's a compromise....I didn't think I would do it...but unfortunately Kerry's gonna be the "last man standing." Unless we "turn him" it will be what you and other's on the Left and I mean "LEFT" have predicted. Bush Lite, or Bush/Bush. Don't think Kerry would go that far...but at this point I'm not hopeful of happy surprises.

If he can't "ignite and audience" it's worrysome. But, then, my back brain thought is what if folks are into such a serious mode these days that clapping and cheering just isn't their thing? If they really wanted to support candidates that could get them on their feet and insipire it would be Dean/Kucinich!

They don't grow Bill Clinton's on trees, unfortunately, because I think if Bill ran today he would be an overwhelming landslide. Inspite of the fact that he was a "silver tongued Devil....he inspired folks to be better, just like JFK...

Folks may just be into serious, out there, though. After Chimp/9/ll and all of it...there's no laughter left in America...serious times call for serious folk. :shrug:

[boxster]

9. Hmm, can we go just a little more over-the-top, please?

Caesar? Yeah, right.

:eyes:

I almost hate to ask: who's his Brute?

Edit: removed extra word

[oasis]

3. Kerry's the reserved, yet reassuring, "father figure" type.

[slinkerwink]

6. that type doesn't reassure me

If Kerry is the nominee, he has to go back to the younger self he was in the 1970s when he spoke out against the vietnam war, and find that fire that he used to have. That would help him better connect with voters if they feel inspired by the passion in him to take the country back from Bush.

[Zynx]

7. Kerry has to stop sounding like he is giving the State of the Union speech

It is good for going to sleep to.

[slinkerwink]

10. exactly----in the debate I watched with Kerry, Edwards, Sharpton, and DK

Kerry delivered some great lines but there wasn't any passion behind them. It worries me. How can he deliver on what he says if he doesn't have the passion and conviction to back up his words?

[KoKo]

12. Slinker, maybe some "pundits" are correct. We want a "Father Lincoln"

figure as a "serious/saturnine counter to the "Frat Boy/Chimp/Stage Actor" persona of "Chimp the Younger?"

Geeze! these past over three years have been gloomy enough for me, personally, do I have to expect that the US will become even more dour, and lifeless under Kerry?

OMG! Enough is enough....of gloom and doom and despair and sorrow and hopelessness.....living under "terror threats" and "wars of Immenence!"

[slinkerwink]

13. I want the nominee to fill us with hope, not dourness or aloofness...

[oasis]

16. I hire my president and my plumber to come equiped for the job at hand.

period.

[Carolina]

28. reserved maybe,

reassuring no and father figure, heaven forbid. There's no warmth there. he comes across as a know-it-all scold.

[Old and In the Way]

11. Happy to hear that you are warming up to Kerry, Koko01.

I think you are going to be pleasently surprised with his campaign as we take it to Roilists this fall. I know that Kerry will be running on a progressive platform of change and I look forward to a real champion of Democratic values leading this country.

[KoKo]

17. Yes...."The Job at Hand is to Give Hope! To Negate the Bush Legacy!

that would perk me up and give me a whole new outlook on our corrupt political process at that point. Yes..... But, I understand Kerry can't go around salving our wounds here....he's got a dirty fight to win...but sheesh....can't he look a little excited about it?

After all....I'm a Dean/Kucinich and trying to warm up to the guy? Doesn't he want my vote.....maybe not.....Isn't it all about the commitment of the "Super Delegates?"

Still....I give Kerry credit for a GREAT SPEECH. I won't deny him that even though I'm aware it was deriviative. It was still excellent except that the "reception" didn't really get it all.

[oasis]

19. America is overdue for a president with a no nonsense demeanor.

Are you ready for serious?Prepare yourself for Kerry's photo ops with Putin.

[cally]

14. Kerry is just more reserved

That is his personality. I think he needs to embrace it. He also is supposedly very sick right now and needs some time off. Those are rumors I heard and I have no idea if they are true.

I watched him turn around a crowd in SF. It was right before the Iraq war and folks were infuriated about the Iraq war vote. I know I still am. He started speaking and just got the crowd with him. It took awhile but he can do it. Kerry shows more passion about a few issues.

I think Kerry comes across as stable, intelligent, informed, and trustworthy. He just seems steady IMHO. My first choice dropped out but I am happy with Kerry.

[slinkerwink]

15. Kerry's sick? Then what's he doing running?

[cally]

21. He has the flu or something

You try hugging that many folks and shaking that many hands. Get little sleep, little exercise, and not eat right because you are too busy. See if you don't get sick. All candidates get sick. Ever worked on a campaign closely enough that you know what the candidate is feeling?

[slinkerwink]

26. hope he gets better!

:hi:

[mzmolly]

18. He speaks to slowly ... I heard a study on people who speak slowly

and how it gives people time to *wander* mentally. It doesn't capture and hold ones attention.

If he speeds up is tempo a bit, he'll hold our attention much better.

He draws out everything. He'll say "The President was wrrrooooong to wagggge a unilattttteral waaaaar." :boring:

But, hey he's winning, who'm I to criticize? ;)

[unfrigginreal]

20. You mean like Bring. It. On.

Lord. Help. Us. :D

[Armstead]

22. He seems dutiful rather than enthusiastic

The thing about Clinton was that he obviously loved what he was doing. Same with Reagan and Kennedy and FDR and other great ones. That have a passion and enjoyment in the process.

Kerry doesn't have that twinkle in the eye, or the nimbleness to really get the emotions going. He seems more dour. Some of that is being a New Englander, who can be a dour bunch.

I think one of the things about Dean that got people enthusiastic was that sense of enjoyment. He could be raising the rafters, but he often gave a wink and said something that lightened what he was saying without undermining it.

[slinkerwink]

24. and that's what Kerry has to learn is to make a little joke and laugh

with the audience. It also helps if he raises his eyebrow sardonically----appearance DOES count.

[KoKo]

30. Armstead......I think you got it! A joy of running, a twinkle in the eye,

a passion. I didn't see that with Kerry. It was a Perfect speech, as I said and even the most "Leftist DU'ers" would have been totally taken over that he addressed their (my) issues. But, his eyes are lifeless, and he does seem "disengaged." WHY? I ask and ask.

I think we need to worry about that because, it's looking like he's IT and I sure as hell don't want another Gore problem with recounts for months and what we've been through.

WHY is Kerry so seemingly "disengaged" from his candidacy and yet speech writer or himself gave such a magnificent "put together" platform speech in Maryland? :shrug:

[xray s]

25. He doesn't seem to have a sense of humor...

..but then, there isn't much to laugh about these days...

[Carolina]

27. senatitis

He can say the words but he doesn't connect, see the following:

The Real Real Deal by Jack Beatty http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/polipro/pp2004-01-26.htm.
-----

Over two days I saw John Edwards and John Kerry speak at Dartmouth College. Edwards exhilarated my wife and me and the rest of the audience. We left the Kerry event before it ended and would have gone earlier if we had not hooked a ride with a more-patient friend—for we were bored, disappointed, and angry. Kerry has congratulated himself for abandoning "Washingtonese," but he was premature...

We know he's qualified to be President; his job as a candidate is to make us want him to be President...

John Kerry suffers from terminal Senatitis. Senators speak to themselves. Their colleagues don't listen to them. They can't see a single face in the galleries. The tradition of unlimited debate encourages prolixity. Senators talk (and talk) not to persuade but to justify their votes, and they inveterately sound defensive...

Again and again, in his Dartmouth speech, Edwards created waves of applause with his precise darts of language ... Kerry, who buried his applause lines in the gray lava of his monotone, got his loudest cheers when he entered the room. Once he opened his mouth the energy began to seep away ... Listening to him, I saw a long line of Democratic bores —Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Bradley, Gore— who lost because people could not bear listening to them. John Kerry belongs in their dreary company. I fear he could talk his way out of victory—that, excited by his résumé, his panache as a war hero, Americans from coast to coast will be disappointed in the real man; that, just as we did at Dartmouth, they will long for him to stop his answers at the one-minute mark and by minute two will have tuned out and by minute three will pine for the terse nullity of George W. Bush.

[KoKo]

31. Carter didn't lose and on the campaign trail he was very enegetic! But

I hear your points and think there's some merit in what you say about his Senatorial experience. But to lump Carter in with the rest when he did achieve the Presidency because he did it with the energy that Clinton had and started with the Grassroots more like Dean, just got my ire up....so I had to post to you to clarify. I heard Carter and was involved in that election. So, it was just to remind you that your "lumping together" wasn't quite accurate. ;-) Although I will agree with you on the others who had a "bore" factor.

[TreasonousBastard]

32. He's not the best speaker around...

but I think we've been spoiled by some of the really good speakers who've been out there.

On the other hand, look who he'll be up against come November. Methinks Kerry vs Shrub up on the dais will be a bit better than Gore was.

Kerry is not a charismatic leader, but charismatic leadership is not everything. I am comfortable that Kerry will work hard for advancement in the things that matter to me. Things like peace, the environment, criminal justice, the economy...

That he is not my first choice no longer matters. He will be the better choice come November.

[bigtree]

33. What?

Are you like perfect or something? Geez. This is what television does for us. Pick Pick Pick! You deserve flaming for the shallow and irresponsible criteria that you present as determinate of Kerry's worthiness of your vote.