Run, Kerry, Run!
Let me be the first to say, John Kerry, it’s not too late to change your mind. I’m pretty sure I’m not the first to say it, but John, there’s no flip that can’t be flopped.
It’s true. John Kerry announced he will not run.
“This isn’t the time for me to mount a presidential campaign,” said Kerry from the Senate floor.
Not that there ever was a time, but as a huge John Kerry fan, I’m not going to say that. I want Kerry to run. America needs him. We are at a critical juncture in our history, when so much hangs in the balance. Now, more than ever, the Republican Party needs him.
Kerry, who has shown an erring talent for stabbing himself with his own razor-sharp wit and keen sense of irony, chose to withdraw at the end of a speech in which he was calling on George Bush … to withdraw. From Iraq.
It was classic, masterful Kerry.
The degree of commitment he showed yesterday in bailing was yet another example of the deep commitment that has always marked Kerry’s actions, from his commitment to the sailors serving under him in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam (four moths, three scratches and a sayonara) to … just about every principled position this backbench coattails rider has ever held. I would list them, but frankly, given his colossal irrelevance, I can’t think of one that ever made a difference.
Except his decision not to vote for a military spending bill he had just voted for. That made a difference. To his elecability.
… Kerry showed his gratitude to the people of Massachusetts: “They have given me the incredible opportunity to serve.”
Incredible is the word for it. Except that with the Massachusetts Republican party in a perpetual state of disarray, perpetually peopled by an assortment of pols who lied about their war records, got naked, were simply and rankly incompetent or really would rather be somewhere else, Kerry, who only had to impress a Blue State electorate that was a collective sap for the “JFK” initials, never had anything to worry about.
We, as Americans, have much to thank Kerry for.
If it wasn’t for Kerry, the United States might have a Democratic president now. Iran could be ascendant, the Middle East embroiled in conflict of a sort that would make us look wistfully back at Iraq under the Bush administration. Our credibility as a world power … vital to the defense and spread of democracy, individual liberties and free markets in the world facing the challenge of resurgent despotism … would be a shambles, leaving the entire world at risk.
Kerry, 64, who lost the White House when Ohio voted for President Bush by 118,601 votes on election night in November 2004, said today he was “proud” of his failed campaign.
“We came close,” he said.
For all the reasons mentioned above, I am proud to be from the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts, that offered this man to the nation. Don’t forget, he’s still our senator. We still taking this one for the team.
Kerry said he feels a “deep moral obligation” to help end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home. That daunting task, and not another run for the Oval Office, will be his focus, he said.
Looking at his track record, and the importance of the task ahead in Iraq, I am also grateful to hear this. It tells me the troops will be in Iraq as long as they need to be. Unlike John Kerry, they might complete their mission.
So it is a day of loss … no Kerry to kick around in the 2008 campaign, and yet a day of gain … Kerry’s efforts to end our critical fight for freedom can only ensure that it will continue.
But … we’re talking about John Kerry here. We’re talking about the man who has shown America by personal example that there is no flip that can’t be flopped.
Run, Kerry … run!
Here are my colleagues, the bow-tied bumkissers across the Expressway on Morrissey Boulevard. I like this graph best, how mightily it strives to make him not sound like a complete mountebank:
On Iraq, Kerry has emerged as a fierce war critic after initially supporting the invasion of Iraq. He has spoken of his war opposition in a similar vein to his efforts to bring the Vietnam War to a conclusion in the early 1970s.
Pam Leavey, heavy-hearted over at unofficial John Kerry Fan Club The Democratic Daily, told me I’m a “classless ass” after I kindly emailed her the link to this reflection. Well, can’t argue. I just hope someone’s removed all the sharp objects over there.
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Posted by Jules Crittenden at 6:51 pm Comments (13) on Wednesday, January 24, 2007
13 Responses to “Run, Kerry, Run!”
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January 24th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
“We came close,” he said.
Thank God, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
Do you suppose the Massachusetts Machine might have got him in a choke hold and forced him to say he wouldn’t run? I can’t imagine it happening any other way. In fact, the idea of John Kerry in a choke hold has enormous appeal, probably to a lot of people.
January 24th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
[...] Jules Crittendenwants to get a few more kicks in. [...]
January 24th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
This is the first intelligent decision the man has made in his whole life.
January 24th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Kerry can go shit in his non existent CIA hat as far as I’m concerned
January 24th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Life just ain’t fair, is it Johnny? Bwu-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Kerry won’t run for president in ‘08 By Rick Klein, [Boston] Globe Staff (H/T: Michelle) I would never have started blogging if it hadn’t been for Johnny’s delusions of adequacy in ‘04. I have a computer system and home network
January 24th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Classless Ass Power! It’s about time we had our own movement. I hope just cuz he’s not runnin’ doesn’t mean this Old Dog can’t still hike his leg every time he walks by.
January 25th, 2007 at 12:58 am
My wife said: “Kerry has dropped out of the presidential race.”
I said: “No. He just recognized that he couldn’t get into it.”
January 25th, 2007 at 2:52 am
Kerry gives the lie to the idea that all one needs in politics is money. No one has enough money, from the ketchup whore to that other whore of the Dhimms, to put that man in office. Thankfully.
January 25th, 2007 at 10:44 am
[...] Jules Crittenden tried to get Kerry to change his mind [...]
January 25th, 2007 at 11:45 am
“No one has enough money, from the ketchup whore to that other whore of the Dhimms, to put that man in office.”
Er… all kidding (and irony) aside: “[They] came close.”
Dangerously close.
January 26th, 2007 at 1:10 am
Remember what Bulger used to say “JFK, Just for Kerry”! Someday when they film his life, I want Jon Lovitz (the “Liar Guy” from SNL) to play him. I was listening to the speech when he got choked up after mentioning VietNam. And all I could picture was Lovitz saying “Yeah, yeah….I’ve worked at this since I came home from VietNam! Yeah, that’s the ticket!’ My sister likes to say that John Kerry has done as much for Massachusetts as Babe Ruth did for the Red Sox.
January 26th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
The only thing he didn’t say was, “You won’t have John Kerry to kick around any more”.
Jules, my condolences to you and columnists across this great Commonwealth for losing months of material for the upcoming election. We can only hope that the Democrats come through with a truly awful candidate of the magnitude of JFK.
Gary
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:00 am
[...] Rick Francona at MSNBC says we need a president who’s worn the uniform. I dunno, recent history and politics would suggest its not the uniform on the man but the man in the [...]