Lowell Sun: Kerry's Choice 1/29/07 (Wait, it's not bad.)

[TayTay]

01/29/2007 02:12:04 PM
EDITORIAL: Kerry's choice

Published Date: January 29, 2007
Author: The Sun, Lowell, Mass.

Jan. 29--There are few who doubt that U.S. Sen. John Kerry made the right decision last week by announcing he will not seek the Democratic nomination in 2008. The hope now is that he will truly focus on his current job -- representing the residents of Massachusetts and their interests in the U.S. Senate.

He came close to the presidency in 2004, narrowly losing to President Bush, and we know that was a tough loss for him to swallow. However, it's unlikely Kerry would have won the nomination a second time, particularly not with such well-known candidates as U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois already having announced.

Kerry has promised to remain in the Senate to focus on developing a plan to extricate the U.S. troops from Iraq. In fact, Democrats intend to begin debate in the Senate this week on a nonbinding measure declaring Bush's planned troop increase in Iraq to be "not in the national interest," according to Majority Leader Harry Reid. So Kerry, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, can quickly get to work on at least one of his promises.

Kerry has declared he will run for re-election to the Senate next year, dashing the hopes of many ambitious Bay State congressmen, including Marty Meehan, Edward Markey and Barney Frank.

We give Kerry credit for finally knowing when it was time to bow out and leave the field open to those with less baggage and whose message might resonate more with voters.

War is terrible, and Kerry -- a Vietnam veteran -- certainly knows that. However, disengaging from war is just as important as waging one. Kerry can best serve Massachusetts and the entire nation by remaining in the Senate to work in a bipartisan manner on finding the best resolution to the Iraq war.

***************

There is a comment field, btw.