Yes, I’m Listening to Kerry - Marie Cocco

[Mass]

Read all of it, it is excellent and so true, unfortunately.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070129_marie_cocco_kerry/

Yes, I’m Listening to Kerry
By Marie Cocco

WASHINGTON—Not long after the “botched joke” blew that gaping hole through John Kerry’s political ambitions, I called a Democratic friend and made a promise: I will never, ever, say anything nice about Kerry again.

Promise made, promise broken.

Within a few days, Kerry is to offer the Senate yet another chance to consider what always have been his well-informed—and often wise—ideas for how to manage the disaster that is Iraq. The media shorthand will be that Kerry calls for “withdrawal.” The Massachusetts senator is, indeed, working on a measure that will most likely set deadlines for redeploying American troops and outline a diplomatic thrust that is so urgently and obviously needed to quell a civil war that threatens to become a regional conflagration.
...

Certainly we should. The attentiveness should begin in the Senate, where Kerry announced he would not seek the presidency and returned instead to his political roots as an unconstrained opponent of a failed war. He reminded his colleagues of what they all know and have refused thus far to admit: “The mistakes of the past do not change the fact that Congress bears some responsibility for getting us into this war and, therefore, must take responsibility for getting us out.”

[Inuca]

1. Excellent indeed

but not very optimistic, ir that's at least my read. "Now that we have no particular reason to listen to John Kerry, will we?" I am afraid the answer will be NO.

[beachmom]

2. Great op-ed. Thanks for posting, Mass. n/t

[wisteria]

3. So you think the joke was his fault and did him in?

I didn't think the piece was that good.
Amazing, now that he isn't running people "like" him again. Boy, we don't want someone with merit running do we?

That said, it is a damn shame that it took this to get people to see Kerry is right. At least she promotes the cause.

[Mass]

4. She wrote a very similar editorial in Nov 06.

I understand that you are still mad because of all that happened, but harping at somebody because this person does not agree with you 100 % will not help.

This said, she says something a lot of other people have said during the last few weeks: Kerry will be able to continue his work liberated from the suspicion that he is pandering to the left, and he also will be liberated from the need to be politically correct. My feeling is that all that is what pushed him ultimately not to run, and that he may be more efficient in the next two years being freed of this hurdle.

Of course, it says a lot about the state of this democracy that people cannot say what needs to be said and run for president, but, unfortunately, this is a fact, and this is why those who care more about their country than about their personnal ambitions will be more and more rare to run for president, and, amazingly, Democratic supporters are so much into the "we must win" that they never ask themselves the price that comes with that. All you have to do is to read GD and GDP and seeing people being attacked because they ask reasonnable questions that happen not to go in the direction of somebody's candidate.

[wisteria]

5. The article would have been fine. Why was it necessary to bring up the joke.

Yes, this angers me. I knew this was going to happen. The "joke" enters into everything. The man deserved to be listened too before. They ignored him, why all of a sudden is it OK? Simply because he isn't running?
I also said that it is good she is on board for the larger issue of this war and the one Kerry is supposedly sacrificing his "ambitions" for.

[Democrafty]

6. It seemed like sort of a sloppy way to lead into what she was

about to say, actually.

[karynnj]

7. I agree 100% with you Mass

I think Wisteria reacted to it like I did when I read it and winced. It happened, fair or not, and the point as you say is that the important part of what she wrote is an excellent piece explaining what Kerry intends to do. We really do have to be less sensitive - though I know I want to strike back each time, but it's counter productive on an article like this because it ignores the important part.

Over time, the need of writers to mention the joke will diminish. It may become conventional wisdom as to why Kerry chose to stay in the Senate. Kerry's reputation though will be based on what he has done and will do in the Senate plus his other accomplishments.

I caught the end of his global warming testimony before Boxer's committee, where Boxer couldn't have been more effusive in her praise. Kerry said we have only a 10 year window to get it right.
McCain/Obama/Leiberman have a proposal as well - how much time will Obama or McCain really dedicate to this in the next 2 years?

Between what he is trying to do on Iraq - and in the rest of the middle east and this issue, he will have a very full plate. The work he did on these issues, that in a fair world, would already have him as President, aren't wasted - good ideas rarely are. Having these ideas, solutions etc will make him an extraordinary Senator.

[wisteria]

8. I saw no need at all to bring it up. I noted the importance of the rest of the piece.

However, I do not share your optimism with the "joke". It shouldn't be mentioned at all and I believe it will haunt him such as Dukakas riding in the tank has haunted him and Gore's sigh has haunted him and Gary Hart's little fun time on the boat The Splendor has hurt him.

Oh, and I still hold out that he may run againfor President depending on the circumstances.

[karynnj]

11. Consider Gore's sigh - is that stopping anyone

from wanting him to run? The more equivilent thing would be the media label that Gore was angry.

I don't think the joke will forever label Kerry. It may be looked at as why he didn't run, though the frenzy was in IMHO more of a symptom than the problem itself. I think it brought home two things - 1) that the tiniest mistake would be magnified a thousand fold for Kerry and just Kerry. 2) The media and parts of the party would jump on to a greater extent than they did in 2004 - and they were pretty bad then.

Part of the reason for thinking this is that the "Heyjohn" junk was kind of the same way. That was a swiftboat attack. It hit a Kerry strength and was full of lies. Only the fact that Kerry had all the facts easily available and because that attack was primarily on the blogs - likely bacause it was a topic they thought would resonate here and hurt Kerry reviving the 2004 stuff.

It could be that seeing that may him re-estimate his odds. He is very good, but he can't be perfect - no one can and he had to risk the Senate job he excells at. That said I hate the mentions of that and the statement that he felt he can't compete against heavyweights like Edwards, Obama and Hillary - that's the comment that makes me sick.

[TayTay]

12. Give it time.

Sen. Carper from Delaware had a little intro for Sen. Kerry before Kerry testified before The Environment and Public Works Committee today on Global Climate Change. Carper told Kerry that he thought he was a great man, and ahead of his time in his 2004 run. Kerry was called a 'prophet' of sorts and someone who was uniformly right on just about everything, just a smidge of time before people were ready to hear it. OMG! (Where was this in 2004.)

Give it time. This will change.

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=5584be8e-802a-23ad-499a-ea3c20ff687d

About 2:50 into the archived webcast.

This hearing is on c-span tonight at 8:00 pm.

[karynnj]

13. II can't get the archive - maybe because the Senate is back in session

clicking on the link to the archive gives me the live feed.

I'll definately watch that agsin. That is so nice of Cardin - who I remember Kerry campaigned for - some small business event. I agree with you that Kerry is bigger than this pettiness - eventually it comes back to that Boondocks comic, where after listing stuff that is wrong, one character asks why people din't vote for the other guy, and the other responded "he windsurfed" The joke shows no personality flaw, lack of character, lack of intelligence or policy errors - in reality it was a nothing. I bet even Bill Clinton must have said something wrong at some time. (I think Hillary's joke is worse - and she handled it badly.)

[TayTay]

14. Carper, I meant Carper

Not Cardin, the Senator from Maryland. Carper from Delaware.

[karynnj]

15. Oops! Hey the first 3 letters were the same

[wisteria]

10. Excuse me for "harping". n/t

[blm]

16. I actually don't like the added pinch, either. It was unnecessary. Period.

.

[sandnsea]

9. It's the best

I, Too, Am Listening

It was so great, I posted it.