Two personal experiences with John Kerry, and why I'd support him...

[WilliamPitt]

...if he runs again in '08.

It seems that every time Kerry's name is mentioned on DU, specifically in any kind of context regarding 2008, there are howls of indignation and dismay. This is, to no small degree, understandable; he voted for the IWR way back when, albeit with solid comments on the parameters of that vote, and he conceded the 2004 election before any kind of hard look could be taken at what took place in Ohio.

Fair enough. My purpose for this post isn't to try and talk anyone out of their opinions of the man, or to convince them that those opinions are wrong. Rather, I want to share two personal experiences I had with the man while covering the last presidential election. These experiences, for my money, speak volumes about him as a person and as a candidate.

The first experience took place at the New York City apartment of Al Franken in December of 2003. In attendance were Franken and his wife Franni; Rick Hertzberg, senior editor for the New Yorker; David Remnick, editor for the New Yorker; Jim Kelly, managing editor for Time Magazine; Howard Fineman, chief political correspondent for Newsweek; Jeff Greenfield, senior correspondent and analyst for CNN; Frank Rich, columnist for the New York Times; Eric Alterman, author and columnist for MSNBC and the Nation; Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist/author of 'Maus'; Richard Cohen, columnist for the Washington Post; Fred Kaplan, columnist for Slate; Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate and author; Jonathan Alter, senior editor and columnist for Newsweek; Philip Gourevitch, columnist for the New Yorker; Calvin Trillin, freelance writer and author; Edward Jay Epstein, investigative reporter and author; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who needs no introduction.

In other words, the heaviest swordsmen of political journalism. DUer Pete Daou was working for the Kerry campaign and finagled an invitation for me, and so there I sat with all these serious people in Franken's apartment. Kerry came in with two staffers, sat in the middle of all these people, and took questions for about three hours.

Think about that a second. Three hours. There are not a whole lot of big-time politicians, Republican or Democrat, who could withstand that kind of intense on-the-record grilling from that kind of crew. There aren't many who would volunteer willingly to do so. To be sure, Bush would never in hell put himself in that position. Kerry did, and did magnificently. He handled every question and ran from none.

A few weeks later, I caught up with Kerry while he was riding the rods in New Hampshire and rode with him and his crew in their van on the way to a high school confab with environmentally-conscious teenagers. His manner with his staff was exceedingly casual, and he was nothing but friendly to me. To be sure, it could easily have been an act - I have gained some firsthand experience in the difference between how politicians treat staff when reporters are present and how they treat staff when reporters are not there - but I got a sense that this was a genuine person.

He got to the high school and there were maybe 50 kids in the room, along with Jeff Greenfield and other big-time MSM folks. Kerry gave an extraordinary talk on the need for a new energy policy focused on alternative fuels. He described it not only as important for the planet, but as a front-and-center national security issue.

"When I came back from Vietnam," he said at one point, "I became involved in Earth Day. This was 1970, and then I was chairman of Earth Day in New England in 1990. We actually painted Storrow Drive biodegradable green, and we had hundreds of booths up and down the Charles River showing people what the technologies of the future could do. I've been chairman of the Oceans Committee in the Senate. I?ve written our fisheries laws, I've written our plastics pollution laws, our marine mammal protection laws, our flood insurance laws, our coastal zone management laws. I was in Rio for the Earth Summit in 1990. I was at Buenos Aires, Kyoto, The Hague for the global warming conferences. I've helped negotiate with the less developed countries on those issues. I led the fight to stop Newt Gingrich from literally killing the Clean Air Act. I led the fight as a Lieutenant Governor to make acid rain a national issue, and it's now in the Clean Air Act. I led the fight to stop the drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I come to this race with a long and passionate record of caring about the environment."

"Sometimes in America," he continued "the environment becomes a really bad discussion. People like George Bush and his friends will say, 'You have a choice. You can have a job, or you can have a clean environment.' Have you ever heard that argument? Jobs or environment, right? It's a false choice. Cleaning up the environment can be jobs. In Massachusetts, the fastest-growing part of our economy is environmental companies that do clean-up of toxic waste and chemicals, and to consult with companies so they don't spit out dirty water and the like. I'm convinced that a good President can help bring the country together in a way that doesn't lose us jobs, and in a way that helps create a better future, and that's why I'm running. That's why I'm here."

So this is it for me. Yes, he has made some bad decisions. Yes, there is reason to be pissed at the man. But I think about his willingness to wade into a three-hour confrontation with the editors and writers of the heaviest political publications in the country. I think about how well he stood his ground, made his arguments (and apologies, in regards to the IWR vote). I think about him talking to those kids at that school, about how utterly genuine is his desire to defend the environment and, in the process, defend our economy, the planet and our national security. I think about how goddam smart he is, and how both these instances displayed that intelligence so completely clearly.

I think he would make a magnificent president, and I think it is nothing less than a full-spectrum calamity that he is not president right now. If he ran again, I am not sure I would support him in the primaries, simply because I do not know who else will be running. But if he gets the nomination, he will have 100% of my support and energy. I don't base this decision on what I've read at DU or elsewhere, but on what I have seen from the man with my own two eyes.

*donning flame suit*

So take that for whatever it is worth.

(PS, Franken has the coolest bathroom in the history of plumbing. It is festooned with Nixon memorabilia; he has the photo of Elvis signing up to be an honorary DEA agent with those catastrophically zooted eyes, a dozen other bits and pieces, and the best thing - the original "I hereby resign" letter recieved by Kissinger that bears Kissinger's initialed I-read-this signature at the bottom. It is framed right above the toilet. Best piss I ever took in my life.)