Kerry Doomed?

[ilpostino]

From Alterman:


I went to an off-the-record fund-raising breakfast with John Kerry yesterday. I can’t quote him or anything. But I came away with the strong impression that he’d make a first-rate president in every way but I have trouble imagining how he’s going to get there. He is articulate, intelligent, well-prepared, thoughtful and has some really good ideas, particularly on health care. But he has zero personal charisma and jes’ folks communication skills, which Bush has in abundance. (Don’t let’s even bring up Clinton.)

more...

http://www.msnbc.com/news/752664.asp

[meegbear]

1. Good enough for me ...

I'm voting Constitution party now.

[el_gato]

2. good for you

[ilpostino]

10. Do I read you right?

Are you saying that because someone says Kerry has zero personal charisma, you wouldn't vote for him even if the same person says that he's intelligent, thoughful and would make a good president?

Voters may have short memories, but if Bush is going down, as I believe he is, I think this will be a historic first where they actually do look beyond personality.

[sandnsea]

3. We're electing a President...

not an American Idol. It's up to the campaign and supporters to draw the distinction. If Democrats can do it in California, that'll be a good start.

[blm]

4. But, it looks like people are sick of the frat boy likability.

Look what happened when the American public trusted Bush's "likability". They'll be looking for whoever will be the smartest and most competent to clean up what Bush has wrought upon this world. Alterman had problems with Gore's "likability" too and Gore won anyway.

[Parche]

5. Kerry

I have seen his speeches, they are fantastic, he will be a great
and awesome President.


JOHN KERRY PRESIDENT 2004

[Dover]

6. I already find Alterman's perspective suspect if he thinks Bush has

charisma and communication skills! Say what???!!! Did Alterman covet Dick and Jane stories too much growing up?

....Kerry himself is a personal victim of the administration’s deception. At least that’s how he explains his vote for it back in October 2002. I found his answers on this question — upon which I pressed him a bit — to be intellectually satisfactory but not exactly compelling.

Or is Kerry in the Biden/Lieberman camp on the Iraq invasion, and just won't admit it?

Oh pleeeeeze. Who buys the "personal victim" argument? Are most DU'ers smarter than Kerry? Not very 'intellectually satisfactory' to me.

[papau]

7. Alterman is a hero of the left - and he is correct that Bush lets have a

beer attitude is indeed what got Bush close enough to Gore to allow the USSC to steal the election for Bush.

Frat boy / class pres PR may not work in 04 - it's just that with Reagan it did work.

[tsipple]

8. Kerry Doomed? No...

John Kerry is a talented public servant and a true hero. I agree to a point with Alterman that his speaking style is more senatorial-professorial (and less plain English), but I think he's improving. Whether he wins the nomination or not, I don't know. Either way, the fight is helping him.

[realFedUp]

9. People are going to look for someone more serious

College daze is over.

[Merlin]

11. Nobody ever went broke by UNDERestimating the intelligence

of the American people.

If anybody thinks that the electorate immersed in this culture--which glorifies stupidity and stigmatizes intelligence and has the attention span of a gnat--is going to elect people on anything other than likability, they are smoking a pipe.

If anyone thinks the American public can connect the dots between Bush's obvious mental incapacities and the trouble we're in as a nation, they'd better think again.

Kerry has always had this problem of arrogance and aloofness. His supporters have known it for years. It was my impression of him when I spent a day with him more than 30 years ago for Vietnam Vets Against the War. I had organized a fund raising dinner for him. He never even thanked me.

Still, I am very surprised that he's run such a dismal campaign so far. I've thought maybe he was saving his powder, but I'm coming to the conclusion he just can't get the thing off the ground. He's getting his ass kicked by relative amateurs.

[tlb]

12. Kerry is indeed doomed if he doesn't begin punching back on Dean.

Two months ago Kerry campaign people said they had material that would take Howard Dean down. To a layman like me it is looking like it may be getting too late for Kerry to do a thing about Dean.

Mainly now I am just wondering where Kerry's support will drift off to. Dean or Gephardt. I think Gephardt.

[ModerateMiddle]

13. this is the part that bothers me

Moreover, he has not figured out how to connect to the fury that so many people feel about the lies and manipulation that this administration employed to get us into war, among many other issues. So if you’re as angry about this dishonest, destructive war as every thinking and feeling American ought to be, you will probably stick with Dean, even though to be honest, Kerry is far better prepared for the job and probably more progressive on most issues.

I absolutely understand and commiserate with the anger - no the FURY - that so many people in this country feel about what is happening. I, like most of you here, have been feeling it since Nov 2000.

But in our need to have that anger recognized - and validated at high political levels - are we going to elect the wrong man? Sharpton has some wonderful lines about Bush and this administration, but do you want him to be president?

Someone said it here once before (probably more) - "Dean is the anti-war candidate, and I will consider changing that definition the first time I meet someone who is supporting Dean who supported the war."

(The other big thing to consider is which of the Dem candidates for President do you really believe, had they BEEN president, would have taken us to war in Iraq?)

How many folks will excuse or explain or accept otherwise unacceptable positions from Gov Dean, JUST because he was so vocal about the war? Because they believe that his position ON the war was from the heart and "not political"?

I read part of the Ted Rall editorial today:

According to Vermonters, Dean is a shrewd operator who saw millions of anti-Iraq war demonstrators last spring for what they were: untapped Democratic primary voters. A few well-placed verbal broadsides spread his reputation as the only presidential contender willing to go after Bush while other Democrats remained silent or supported his war. His opportunistic Bush-bashing attracted liberal voters tired of being taken for granted and disgusted by do-nothing "Republican Lite" Dems.

Liberals are driving Dean's come-from-nowhere campaign, but they don't share his take on most issues.

Sigh.

[western mass]

14. the problem is...

You can rail against Dean or the candidates, but it won't change the fact that the problem with Kerry is Kerry. I have no real problems with him as my senator: good liberal, intelligent, lifetime of respectable service. But he has no charisma whatsoever. And he doesn't seem to get the fact that the democratic rank and file have had enough of their party's gutless, polite, appeasing response to the Bush admin. Instead of attacking the admin for its endless lies and the great con game that is War Hysteria, he plays right along. From his website:

"I'm running for President to make the country we love safer, stronger, and more secure. I'm asking every American to be a Citizen Soldier again committed to leaving no American behind."

I'm sick of this militaristic breast-beating. And frankly, Kerry doesn't have the fire or the charisma to pull it off.