The Kerry Persona: Hard-driving, thinking aloud, panoramic perspective

[Kadie]

The Kerry Persona: Hard-driving, thinking aloud, panoramic perspective

NANCY BENAC, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, July 21, 2004

(07-21) 16:46 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --

Vietnam, anti-war protests, the rigor of politics were still years in the future. In 1963, John Kerry was just a college kid looking for adventure on a summer abroad. Traveling on better wheels than most, there were Kerry and a buddy exploring Europe in a low-slung Austin Healey, racing against an Alfa Romeo on the twisting road to Nice, chasing a Porsche across Italy.

The gendarmes caught him in Monte Carlo: Kerry, so intent on retracing the course of the Grand Prix that he headed the wrong direction on a one-way street.

"John had to do those types of things," says his travel companion and longtime friend Harvey Bundy.

Even the youthful hijinks of John Kerry had an extra element of intensity about them.

Now, at age 60, Kerry is pursuing the American presidency with the same doggedness and focus that are lifelong traits for a son of privilege who nonetheless had to fight for much of what he got. The impatient young man whose first two tries for Congress fizzled, who waited another 15 years for the right entree to Congress and two more decades for a good shot at the White House, is right where his stars seemed fixed from the beginning.

much more at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/07/21/politics1434EDT0603.DTL

I haven't finished reading this yet, but it is very interesting so far.

[sandnsea]

1. Great piece, thanks!!

One of the best I've seen. I just think he is an amazing human being.


"Vanessa offers her dad's "spidery walk," a maneuver in which the gangly senator throws out his arms and legs just to embarrass his daughters, as an example of his playful side. The memory cracks her father up; he smiles for the only time in a 30-minute interview.

"You don't want to see it," he laughs. "I'm surprised she even mentioned it. But I do take pleasure in just getting them to say the words, 'Dad, you're a freak.' It's a big deal. ... When Vanessa looks at me and says, "I can't believe you're my dad. What a freak,' I know I've made it."

"Friends speak of small, frequent acts of generosity, and loyalty built up over decades.

Tracy Droz Tragos, whose father served with Kerry in Vietnam and was killed there, remembers how Kerry took time to make rubbings of her father's name from the Vietnam War Memorial to send to her grandparents in small-town Missouri.

"That relationship meant the world to my grandmother," says Tragos.

[Kadie]

2. The best article I have ever read about him. n/t

[sandnsea]

3. Me too

And I've read ALOT of them! I'm highly pissed it isn't getting more response. :mad:

[Kadie]

4. LOL Well hopefully people are reading it

and just not responding. Maybe we should keep it kicked until at least one other person responds. LOL

[sandnsea]

5. We lied!

It really says Kerry is a secret member of the popsicle stick up your butt society.

Think they'll read it now?

[blm]

6. Heheh...

no doubt.

[Kadie]

7. Darn, too late for me to edit the post title

LOL, but at least there another person in this thread now.

[Zorra]

8. Contrast Kerry and Bu$h.

Kerry: Volunteer Vietnam vet, fights for the people. Classy, dignified, athletic, intelligent, concerned, eloquent.


Bu$h: AWOL, weak, all around dweeb cheerleader.
Lying corporate whore.

[Lisa]

9. VERY interesting ...

What a person laughs at can reveal a lot about character.

Bush has a reputation for being self-deprecating, but usually his pranks are played on other people -- and often they're quite mean-spirited (e.g. tricking a reporter into drinking out of a creek, then telling him the water was contaminated).

Kerry doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who'd do anything ugly like that. Too respectful of other people. But look at how he pokes fun at himself -- his hair, his height. Playful rather than cruel, and he evidently cares a great deal about not abusing power.

I'd say he's quite well-adjusted. Judging by the New Yorker article someone posted in another thread, Kerry is an incredibly-observant writer. This might account for the apparent "distance" in his manner -- all the good writers I know are like this. But it doesn't mean that he's self-involved and doesn't care. (Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.)

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040726fa_fact

[bklyncowgirl]

10. That was a great profile n/t

[New Dem]

11. thanks for the great article! n/t

[JohnKleeb]

12. thats our future president

Really good article, I read about Danny Barbiero and the Bundy's in Tour of Duty. I personally think Kerry is very smart, his fellow students in Yale remember how he knew who everyone was in politics, and he certainly is well read too, one of his favorite books is flags of our fathers, I wonder if Kerry who is part Czech identifies with my favorite character in the story, Mike Strank who is a distant relative of mine and who was Slovak which is a simliar but not the same ethnicity of Czech. I remember reading about the death of his friend Pershing in Vietnam, he was so sad when that happened. Kerry's been to war and fights for whats right. I cant wait to see him elected.