FOR YEARS, HE'D RIDDEN foreign motorcycles - a Triumph Bonneville back during his Navy days; later a Ducati; and then his most recent bike, a two-year-old BMW R1200 - but now John Kerry was going American, and going whole hog. On a cool Saturday morning this past April, wearing a leather flight jacket festooned with Navy patches, the junior senator from Massachusetts walked through the glass doors of Harley-Davidson/Buell of Boston and wove his way through a chrome-capped sea of bikes, past Electra Glides and V-Rods, and past the new Dyna Wide Glides, perhaps the most unsubtle entry in the Harley Davidson line and the senator's next bike. After years of shopping performance, John Kerry was opting for style; he was here to claim a Harley.
With its Fat Bob fuel tank, chopper seat and ape-hanger handlebars, the Wide Glide looks like a Harley: badass, low-slung, and garishly chromey. Teresa wouldn't like it, that was for sure, but then, his wife wouldn't like anything be brought home with two wheels hooked to a motor.
She'd ridden with him only once, for ten minutes on a shingle-straight road, but that had been enough for her - no way she'd be climbing on the back of this one. But, really, it wasn't like he was reckless out there. I don't ride in the rain, he was always telling her, I don't ride fast. True, he suffered a mild fall years ago, but that was just a few scrapes and scratches - he'd endured far worse in the hockey rink.
"It's just the kind of ride I wanted," Kerry told me later. "It's a straight-up, easygoing, watch-the-country-side-go-by kind of ride. Really, I just got tired of those crotch rockets. All the time feeling like" - at this he leaned forward, extending his fists as if riding, crunching up his face - "you're racing. I just got tired of that, being in the racing position."
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http://www.independentsforkerry.org/uploads/media/john_kerry_mj.htmlAnd sorry, but I have to add this passage:
Noting my physical discomfort beside him in the backseat, Wade asks Kerry,"Sir, have you ever considered getting a bigger car?" Kerry shoots back. "No, but I have thought about cutting all your fucking legs off at the knees." Then he waves a hand at the green world outside. "Look at this weather," he exclaims. "If I could, I'd go roll around on the grass somewhere - ideally a spot where a dog hadn't been."