Kerry Hasn't Earned Right To Run In 2008

[Larkspur]

from The Day, Eastern CT newspaper
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=02F23DDA-DB64-41B1-AA13-0C2A06C2CA61

Some presidential election history for John Kerry to ponder:

In the 25 presidential elections held in the past century, there were 18 candidates who, like Kerry, lost in their first try for the office. Of perhaps greater significance, only three of those losers were allowed to run again, and only one of them became president.

From Alton B. Parker in 1904 to Kerry in 2004, forgiveness for failure has been rare and redemption when given a second chance is rarer still.
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Kerry can claim neither the slender margin nor the brilliant campaign. It will be argued he was a better candidate against the same opponent than Al Gore but Gore lost by that slender margin and Kerrry was trounced.
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Kerry made himself unclear about the campaign's major issue, the war in Iraq, only to become momentarily coherent when he said if he'd known Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction, he still would have favored going to war. I think that did him in-then and forevermore.

And so, sadly, when a place in history is found for John Kerry, it will be among those other obscure aspirants for the highest office like Alton Parker, John W. Davis, James Cox, Walter Mondale and Alf Landon, all of whom were honorable men who ran once, lost and were forgotten.