Just so you know, what Mass Papers think of Sen. Kerry

[TayTay]

Yes, we have family fights. Yes, the local news media is hard on Kerry. It is hard on every politician in the State. But this article shows what the foundation is for Sen. Kerry here. It is the baseline, what is thought about him, the core of how he is looked at.

From the UPI News Roundup for 2-12-2002

Boston Herald

What is it about Massachusetts that breeds such political ambition?

Not that such ambition is a bad thing. It isn't. It's just that those with a little distance and a little more objectivity would find it all a bit mystifying.

This isn't a state with a huge number of electoral votes. It is, when you think about it, a little remote -- tucked off in a corner of the nation, and a cold corner at that. (But then neither of those drawbacks are stopping Vermont Gov. Howard Dean from making a presidential bid, now are they?) Oh sure, there's the proximity to New Hampshire and its first-in-the-nation presidential primary -- itself an entirely bizarre political phenomenon. But it does seem that attaining high office here is like a sprinkling of political pixie dust -- it makes all things seem possible.

So now Sen. John Kerry is just about off and running in his quest for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. It's a gutsy move, taking on an incumbent president whose conduct of the war on terror has made him enormously popular. And it could be even more problematic should this nation decide to engage in a war against Iraq.

But Kerry has never lacked for courage -- not the real kind and not the political kind. We may differ with him on some issues (his stand on the Bush tax cuts among them), but his command of issues is broad and deep -- just ask his last real political rival, Bill Weld, no slouch in the intellect department himself.

The national Democratic Party needs more than political retreads to speak to its values and issues. It could do a lot worse than having John Kerry as its standard bearer.

Boston Globe

Sen. John Kerry is having his presidential debut this week, with mostly favorable national media coverage as he establishes an exploratory committee for the 2004 campaign. Massachusetts Democrats might be forgiven if they already feel a hangover coming on given the state's still tender memories of the Dukakis campaign, now 14 years old, and the added burdens of hosting the 2004 national convention in Boston. ...

Kerry, 58, presents a meaty alternative to the intellectual laziness of the current administration. He is a rigorous thinker, studious and nuanced, if a bit dry in the delivery. Famously decorated in the Vietnam War, he has a visceral understanding of what it means to ask Americans to sacrifice in foreign adventures. What he calls the ''rough, sloppy'' foreign policy of the Bush administration would not characterize a Kerry agenda.

Kerry is an internationalist, appalled that foreign aid is billions less than it was when Ronald Reagan was president. He is not averse to a muscular role for the United States overseas, but he understands that there are many more notes to be sounded than the one harsh cry now emanating from Washington. He was most persuasive in explaining his vote to authorize force in Iraq when he said it was needed to spur a multilateral U.N. resolution. ...

Kerry has already staked out important policy differences with Bush as well as other Democrats. He would halt the inequitable Bush tax cuts and replace them with a cut in the payroll tax that would be far more progressive and a better stimulant to the economy. He would launch the environmental equivalent of the space race, with massive investments in new energy technologies to reduce US dependence on foreign oil.

In an interview before his reelection last month, Kerry said: ''I feel as focused and energized as at any time since I came back from Vietnam.'' He isn't a pork-rind populist and shouldn't pretend to be. But he could take a lesson from his fellow veteran John McCain and fashion his own straight-talk express: honest, bold, distinctive. He may find a surprising number of troops behind him.

(Compiled by United Press International.)

We don't hate John Kerry here or are out to get him. It's just different here. The press here picks fights with everyone. They like to pick fights with Kerry mostly because he is a most worthy opponent. (Who picks fights with an unarmed opponent? What fun is that? You don't test yourself by going up against the 98 pound weakling down the street. You test yourself by going up against the best. So it is here.)

We don't have it in for Kerry anymore than anyone else. Honest to God. All these picky little fights mean nothing. The good Senator does not have to 'prove himself' at home. We know who he is. The respect for who he is has always been there. It is the baseline. The rest is just family fights.

[beachmom]

1. Thanks for posting that, Tay

This week has added to my enormous respect for Sen. Kerry watching him in those committee hearings. His intellect, his knowledge of the region and the players in Iraq was breathtaking to behold. We are very, very lucky he's in the Senate. Yes, we'd like him to be promoted, but let's not take for granted how much he adds to that chamber right now.

[wisteria]

2. What wonderful comments. How come the American people didn't

get to read or hear about any of this praise in 04?
I particularly took note of the comment in the Globe about taking on Bush,

So now Sen. John Kerry is just about off and running in his quest for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. It's a gutsy move, taking on an incumbent president whose conduct of the war on terror has made him enormously popular. And it could be even more problematic should this nation decide to engage in a war against Iraq.

The above comment from the Globe shows exactly what Senator Kerry faced in 04, and it serves as further proof that Senator Kerry took on a tough challenge and rose to the occasion. I get tired of the comments that Bush was beatable and the election was Kerry's to lose. It was never Kerry's to lose regardless of some people's opinions on the Iraq War at the time. Bush was a seated, war time President,with more people liking him, than disliking him,there was a trust in him at that point, that made people feel secure, and in our 250 plus history, a war time president has never lost reelection. You know, it sometimes amazes me that Senator Kerry came so close.
So, I like this Globe comment. I am going to save it and bring it out when people talk about kerry's campaign and use it as an excuse to discredit him.

[karynnj]

3. Thank you for posting these

These both show exactly what you say - they know exactly how good he is. This was what the country needed to see in 2004.

It was Kerry in the debates, in the Senate and on talk shows. It is only when pundits speak of Kerry that he is anything else.

[rox63]

4. Some of the snark is actually a sign of affection

Not the worst offenders, of course. But some of the ribbing is because they know and respect Kerry. Kind of like the way a brother and sister will snark at each other. They still love each other. But they can't resist pulling the other's chain at times.

[whometense]

5. That's right -

and it works just fine in-state. Problems only arise when it all gets extrapolated out onto the national stage, where people don't understand the MA Snark Principle.

[TayTay]

6. Ahm, well I wouldn't go that far.

But the respect is there. The Herald does not love John Kerry. (At all. They wish he was gone.) But they do respect him. They should. He went from being an 'orphan' in local politics to one of the most powerful offices in the Commonwealth. He did it without the help of the Massachusetts political machine and without any real mentors in the State. That is an amazing achievement and deserves respect.

The local press knows that Kerry is a very smart man and one who has standards and does his homework. (He is a workhorse. They expected him to be a showhorse. LOL!) He is also a courageous man who has supported, at times, measures that were not popular in the Bay State. He was able to do that and get re-elected because that base respect, even from adversaries, is there. That is quite a tribute. It is a tribute that comes with snark because all Bay State pols get snark. All of them. It is the way here.