WP article re Kerry on MTP: Kerry Praises Campaign, Plans to Build on

[Pirate Smile]

Kerry Praises Campaign, Plans to Build on Effort
Democrat Wants to Keep 2008 Options Open

Former Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry said the popular support President Bush garnered in the immediate wake of Sept.11, 2001, and the reluctance of voters to "shift horses in midstream" during wartime were the main reasons he lost the November election.

But Kerry, in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday, praised his own campaign for coming close, and said he intends to "build on the campaign" by continuing to be a leading voice of the opposition.

"I lost, Tim, to an incumbent president by a closer margin than an incumbent president has ever won reelection before in the history of the country," the Massachusetts senator told NBC's Tim Russert. "And if you add up the popular vote in the battleground states, I won the popular vote in the battleground states by two percentage points. We just didn't distribute it correctly in Ohio."

The interview capped a series of events -- including a trip to Iraq, a speech on health care and two mass e-mails to supporters -- serving notice that Kerry wishes to retain the national voice he gained as his party's nominee during Bush's second term. Current and former advisers in recent weeks have said that Kerry's competitive instincts leave him inclined to seek the option of running for president in 2008, and that he intends to keep his profile sufficiently high to preserve that option.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49843-2005Jan30.html

Go read the entire thing. Recap of MTP plus more.

[elshiva]

1. Leave it open, JK,

who knows what 2008 will bring.