Kucinich says Kerry should have listened to him in 2004

[oberliner]

Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich said he became good friends with Senator John Kerry when both ran for president two years ago, but he says that if Kerry would have listened to his ideas about Iraq he could be president today.

“I made it clear how I thought Democrats could win,” Kucinich said in an interview with the Globe. “Senator Kerry had another way of looking at it. I like John Kerry, and he would have been a far better president than George Bush will ever be. But I do wish he listened to me because everything I said back then was right today.”

As Kucinich launches a second bid for the White House he said his campaign would be against the Democratic establishment as much as against Republican policies. Kucinich describes the national campaign waged by the Democratic Party in 2004 as "fearful" and too easily "pushed around by political forces into positions.” He says he wants to change that.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/primarysource...

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. uh, Duh

really>?

[jgraz]

2. I wish Kucinich had said exactly what the advice was...

Since the nominee is likely to be someone other than Kucinich or Kerry, it would be great to know exactly what was said and why Kucinich thinks it will work in 2008.

[Tellurian]

3. I think he will, when Kerry announces

he's NOT going to RUN!

Kerry, afaik, hasn't changed his campaign team to the extent necessary
to be at Peace with himself and be assured of success.

It's kind of late in the game to scramble for a new team at this point in time..

[karynnj]

12. I wonder if he needs to as much as you think he does

Kerry's primary run was nearly flawless - he won very convincingly - even though he was never a media favorite. Someone did something right. Where Kerry had a problem was when the Clinton people came aboard when he became the nominee.

This suggests to me that he does not need much change in who he has in the primary campaigns. If you are correct that he made few changes, it means that people who were with him in early 2004 are still with him. It might also be that some of the more junior people from 2004 are now experienced enough that he will have enough good people committed to him to not add people who really weren't on his side.

From what was said of 2004, the Clinton advice to stick to economic issues was less correct than the Kerry friends urging him to speak on terrorisma and Iraq. The exit polls suggest that the Kerry people were right.

[Tellurian]

14. Don't concern yourself, Karynnj..

road signs keep pointing to: DEAD END!

[karynnj]

18. It's clear that others want him out

but I have seen no clue that he is not running.

Al Gore, on the other hand has not seemed to respond to encouragement he has received. (My guess is that seeing the "HeyJohn" stuff and Hillary's stabbing Kerry in the back when he was down, will not push a man already fed up with politics to run.)

I will support Kerry even if he decides to stay a Senator, because his is a voice we need. From the interviews I've seen, I think he intends to run.

[Eric J in MN]

16. I'm guessing "UN in. US out."

...since that was Kucinich's theme on Iraq in 2004.

[hijinx87]

4. this is exactly what I was worried about

with a kucinich primary campaign.

as Kucinich launches a second bid for the White House he
said his campaign would be against the Democratic establishment
as much as against Republican policies.

while he probably can't win, he can certainly manage to
damage the eventual nominee going into the general election.

[zulchzulu]

5. That's pure speculation on Dennis' part

Kucinich was for immediate withdrawal from Iraq in 2004.

Kerry's policies on Iraq was pretty much the later devised Murtha Plan, which was fairly tempered withdrawal and redeployment of troops in the immediate neighboring nations while getting a multilateral, multinational force to go into Iraq and repair the damage we had brought upon the country.

Kucinich, who used his Iraq policy as a forefront ot his campaign, finished dead last behind Al Sharpton in the primaries. With that kind of success, who really needs to consider what was more relevant politically in 2004?

I do wish there was a transcript of the full interview to see how Kucinich's response was made in detail.

[LWolf]

6. "Dead last," lol. I don't think so.

I believe he was the last man still running against Kerry by the end of the primaries. I know he carried at least one state.

Kucinich was right in '04, he's right today. Whoever the nominee turns out to be, adopting some of Kucinich's stances and plans on issues would be a move in the right direction.

[madmunchie]

7. Exactly, plus think of all of the lives that would have been saved

if we would have gotten out of Iraq back then. All of the other "viable" candidates took another "couple of years" to come around to saying that we need to get out of Iraq.

[PBass]

8. Two different thoughts...

One, Kerry did run a bad campaign.

Fearful? Check.
Too easily pushed around? Check. If George Bush can push you around, how will you ever be able to cope with someone like Putin?

Two... I like Kucinich but he doesn't have much hope of winning. And I'm sorry he is entering the race... Why? because nobody in the primary will be able to outflank his positions to the Left. That means that we will get a candidate who will be straight up the center in the primary. It leaves no room for anyone to stake out a liberal platform.

I could be totally wrong though, it's just me doing some totally amateur bloviating.

[sandnsea]

10. He went head to head in Oregon

He visited every single city in the state, even my teensy town. He couldn't get over 20% of the Dem primary vote in a very anti-war, very liberal Dem state. People are not as far left as Dennis Kucinich, I would think that would be evident by now.

[karynnj]

13. That's because he didn't concede - not because

he was more formidable than Dean, Clark, Edwards etc.

[zulchzulu]

15. Facts is facts...

If you're referring to the primaries in 2004, it's all about getting delegate votes.

2,162 delegate votes were needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.

The results:

2162
534
170
57
27
23

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/primaries/pages/scorec...

Don't get me wrong...I like Kucinich for what he says. I've seen him several times and even have some footage of him at the Fighting Bob Fest in 2003 that I am using for a project coming out soon. But he did in fact finish last in the primaries in 2004.

[Eric J in MN]

17. You made Kucinich last by leaving out...

...Carol Moseley Braun, Dick Gephardt, and Joe Lieberman, all of whom got 0 delegates accoring to that webpage:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/primaries/pages/scorec...

[sandnsea]

9. No it wasn't

UN in, US out was no more a strategy then than it is now. Dennis has always been way too simplistic in his approach to foreign policy. It would have been a 50 state landslide for Bush if Dennis would have been the candidate. People's skepticism that Kerry would implement Kucinch type policy hurt us in 2004 as it was.

[beachmom]

11. And that's why the wise Kucinnich won the nomination . . .

oh WAIT. Look, he's trying to get attention; that's wonderful. But this guy isn't exactly the most politically savvy guy you're going to meet.

Everyone is going to do Monday morning armchair quarterbacking until the end of time about the '04 election. Some may have a point. This guy doesn't. Americans weren't anti-war in '04 -- just not happy at how the war was going. Going full throttle anti-war would NOT have garnered Kerry more votes. He went on the offensive in the fall about how it was the "wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time", but he couldn't take it much further than that given the mood of the country.