Kerry Rolling Stone Interview

[sandnsea]

Takes it right to Bush. You want straight talk ? This interview is straight talk.

"I voted to protect the security of our country, based on the notion that the only way to get inspectors back in was to have a legitimate threat of force and the potential of using it. They took that legitimacy and bastardized it. If I were president, we would not be in Iraq today -- we would not be at war. This president abused the process."

"It seems to me that we had a right to expect the president of the United States to live up to his word. It was disgraceful, one of the most egregious, fundamentally flawed moments of foreign policy that I can think of in my lifetime."

Do you think that same anger is propelling Dean's candidacy?

Other people have to determine that. I'm not an analyst. I'm running for president based on my vision for the country, and I think I have a longer, stronger, deeper record of fighting against those interests, and representing that anger, than Howard Dean.

http://www.rollingstone.com/features/nationalaffairs/featuregen.asp?pid=2454

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. I have a longer, stronger, deeper record of fighting those interests

This truth will sink in.

[Bucky]

2. longer, stronger, deeper

As any good poet will tell you, adjectives are a sign of weakness. I like Kerry, but no one buys chablis at the rodeo. Zogby's read on him is pretty on target--his message is too nuanced to fit on bumper sticker.

[sandnsea]

3. Did you read the article?

And what in the world are we doing electing President's who are so daft that their policies can fit on a bumper sticker in the first place?

[DemDogs]

5. Nonsense

You may have legitimate criticisms of Kerry, but the are not the use of adjectives or that Kerry is capable of nuanced positions. The fact that he is thoughtful and his opinions are a tapestry not a bumper sticker makes him MORE appealing, not less.

And I am not a Kerry supporter, but this kind of attack is ridiculous. Let me guess, you are a Dean supporter?

[JohnKleeb]

4. Ok Sandsnea lemme give you my thanks because again I agree with Kerry

You have talked in the past of smoking pot when you returned from Vietnam. What do you think of the way the pot laws are prosecuted today?

We have never had a legitimate War on Drugs in the United States, ever, and we won't until we have treatment on demand for addiction and until you have full drug education in our schools. The mandatory-minimum-sentencing structure of our country is funneling people into jail who have no business being there.

He thinks the war on drugs is basically bs, and I agree with him. He wants to reform our drug policy just like Kucinich, now I dont think hes where Kucinich is on drugs, but its pretty good to me. Thanks Senator from a non addict for sensible drug laws.

[helleborient]

6. This articles spells out very well Kerry's problems...

It is very strong journalism from Rolling Stone:

First - Iraq:

Kerry: "What I regret most of all is the way the administration dealt with it -- the extraordinary failure of the administration to keep its promises, to be mature and thoughtful about how you take a nation to war. They misled us; they presented false intelligence to us. The president made a series of promises to us -- number one, that he was gonna make every effort possible to build a legitimate coalition. He did not -- he built a fraudulent coalition. Second, he was gonna exhaust the remedies of the United Nations and the inspection process. He did not. And third, that he would go to war as a last resort. He did not."

Many many of us still wonder why John Kerry trusted the Bush administration when so many other liberals did not...and Iraq wasn't the beginning of lies from the administration. Kerry still admits he was "taken in" by the administration...that is an alarming weakness.

Kerry again: "Well, not blindsided. I mean, when I voted for the war, I voted for what I thought was best for the country. Did I expect Howard Dean to go off to the left and say, "I'm against everything"? Sure. Did I expect George Bush to fuck it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did. "

I think there were plenty who did...plenty of people who had read PNAC with all of the Bush administration signatures on it. I guess I still don't want to believe Kerry really did trust the Bush administration. I want to believe he's covering his butt now, because if he did believe Bush, he seems incredibly naive.

Kerry on Arnold Schwarzenegger: "Well, first of all, Arnold's a friend of mine. I've known him for a long time, and he's a capable guy. I mean, he's smart and capable."

Hmmmm.


Earlier, the article covers the resume and covers this ground again:

"Until pretty much the moment he started running in earnest earlier this year, Kerry's campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination had about it an aura of inevitability. Most watchers attributed the four-term Massachusetts senator's overconfidence to a hubris born of his patrician roots. The shorthand became: Because this guy went to a fancy prep school and then was tapped to join Skull and Bones at Yale, he just naturally assumes the nomination is his. But in person, Kerry projects something different: He doesn't seem elitist or aloof. Just the opposite, in fact. He is eager to connect, intense and hopped-up, pulling near-strangers in tight for old-friends-style handshakes, throwing around a lot of "man" and "dude." In these moments, the detail about Kerry that seems most important is not his elitist roots but the fact that he's a sixty-year-old guy who likes to snowboard."

and

"With less than two months to go until he faces voters in Iowa and then New Hampshire, Kerry is refashioning himself as a bare-knuckled longshot -- the insider as outsider. Neither a bleeding heart, an insurgent, a new face nor a technocrat, Kerry is selling himself to voters as the guy who knows how the game is played in Washington. His challenge will be to show them that's not all he knows."


Well over a year into this, Kerry is still trying to fashion a message that will stick with voters. What happened? Where is the campaign skill? Such a disappointing candidacy.

[sandnsea]

9. Dean slash and burn

Just like he did in Vermont. It shouldn't have been a surprise, but no candidate has been willing to destroy the entire party for his own candidacy before. It worked on Kerry, it won't work on Clark because people will see through it the second time. It was a campaign strategy, Trippi has said it was. Run Dean as the anti-war maverick outsider. It's as made up as that Halliburton turkey in Iraq.

Kerry is not saying he was taken in by the Bush Administration. He says the intelligence was manipulated, which nobody knew at the time. He does say that it is mind-boggling that a U.S. President would behave in such a completely disastrous manner. And it is.

What is really mind-boggling, however, is how people can beat the hell out of Kerry when Howard Dean expressed the exact same views that have been posted here so many times that they don't need repeating. It's a slash and burn campaign and it's worked well. It doesn't mean we're getting the best candidate to beat Bush and certainly doesn't mean we're getting the best choice to run for President.

[ludwigb]

7. Nice Interview...

Likable guy, etc. etc. But I just don't think he can defeat Bush.

[blm]

8. With what BushInc has prepared, only Kerry and Clark

will be able to break through the national security issue. Clinton wasn't kidding when he said 2004 will be ALL about national security. You think those latest al Qaeda tapes are meant for anything but ginned up fear and renewed anger?