Fascinating

[whometense]

Just look at what google accidentally turned up:

Gore's obvious choice

By Joshua Micah Marshall

Memo to Al: Never mind what everyone's trying to tell you. Your ideal running mate is Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

- snip -

Some of this complexity shows through in his biography. Take an example from Kerry's young adulthood: After graduating college Kerry enlisted in the Navy and served as a gunboat officer in the Mekong Delta, earning three Purple Hearts and a number of other medals along the way. Then, after leaving the Navy, he became the leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a key antiwar group. He's unassailable. No one can gainsay his courage or patriotism; yet he's got perfect credentials for anti-war types. For a Democrat, you just can't get a better record than that. Kerry's mix of political views doesn't match that dramatic flair, but for a Democrat in the year 2000 they make for an equally good combination.

Second: temperament. Kerry is intelligent, knowledgeable on policy, attractive and articulate -- like Gore. Also like Gore, he's no glad-hander, or emotion-gusher like Bill Clinton. He's not stiff and wooden exactly, but more cool and perhaps a touch distant. But for Gore's No. 2, that's a good thing. Kerry is a deceptively good campaigner, as he demonstrated when fending off challenger William Weld, then the most popular pol in Massachusetts, in 1996. Like Gore at his best, Kerry oozes experience and seriousness of purpose. And maybe a little unlike Gore, he's got flair.

Third: He just looks the part. And that matters more than you might think. Kerry has the look of a future president, and it's no secret he'd like to be one. Graham could help a bit in Florida. But does anyone think Graham would have any hope or chance of being a president unless Gore puts him on the ticket? Or that the party faithful could get excited about the idea of Graham (who'll turn 64 a couple days after the election) as a future president? Of course not. Graham's an impressive figure, but not a future president, or the equal partner a modern veep candidate should be. Dick Durbin of Illinois? Same thing. He might help a bit in Illinois (and he'd probably be the second-best pick), but he lacks Kerry's punch and style.

Kerry has his shortcomings, as every pol does. His second wife is heir to an almost billion-dollar fortune, and that will get him a little ribbing. Kerry's a bit of blue blood, or as they call them in Massachusetts, a Brahmin. And Kerry's choice won't electrify the press the way someone like Colin Powell would for Bush. But Kerry would be a deceptively strong choice, and voters would warm to him the more they got to know him.

Hmmmm....

[TayTay]

1. Sigh!

Nice desciption. But the part about the war record being unassaiblable makes me sad. (It was and is unassailable. But people without morals or conscience or regard for the truth did so anyway.)

[whometense]

3. I know.

Me too :-(

I was struck by the journalistic revisionism. Same guy ran in 2004, didn't he? The guy with FLAIR?

[ginnyinWI]

5. Joshua Micah Marshall

That's the guy that runs Talking Points Memo, isn't it? Still every bit the leftist now. I think I read that his blog was the top one, or won some award or other?

Flair, yes, JK's got it!

[JohnKleeb]

2. Gore should have picked Kerry or Edwards in 2000 not Lieberman

Its funny how the media and punditry can remake people like that.

[ginnyinWI]

4. thanks, whome, I loved it

Catnip!

I was just saying it the other day: Gore really should have picked Kerry from his short list. They would have made a great team, and Kerry could have run for president after Gore was finished. How different history would have been!

When JK picked JE, I think he was following the new way of thinking: that the public wants someone who could be president, and that their administration would be a team like Clinton/Gore.

Unassailable, yes, in a sane America. I think it's gone a little insane since 9/11.

[sandnsea]

6. Yeah, I know

Have you found the 2000 Kerry is charismatic articles yet? They're out there. How people wrote such positive things in 2000, then wrote such shit in 2004, is beyond me.

[TayTay]

7. The Rethugs adjusted the chips

and made their pet journos write crap.

[sandnsea]

9. If it were just that

Go back and look what Josh said about Kerry's speech. Look at his blogs for that week and the following week. He makes one comment about August being a difficult time, and that groups will need to have his back, and that's it. Kerry lays out his entire agenda in the convention speech, and Josh can't manage one post to push either Kerry or Edwards. And in his blogs about the DNC speeches, he lists Clinton, Obama, Sharpton, and, get this, Clark. I don't even remember Clark's speech. I do remember his black crew mates speech, I remember Cleland's speech, Vanessa & Alex's speech. It isn't just the media whores who sink our candidates.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_07_25.php

[whometense]

11. That struck me too.

The absolute stinginess of so many on the left towards Kerry. I wonder if it was strictly because of the IWR, or if they would have been the same towards him in any case.

Josh sounded somewhat more liberal to me in this piece than he is now. He's gotten more mainstream-journo cred since then, and seems more cautious in expressing opinions.

[k j]

14. TPM

I've never really cared for that blog, the style of writing didn't grab me, nor the topics.

One of the most powerful speeches at the Convention, in my opinion, was Jimmy Carters.

And, count me in numbers of people who were greatly disappointed that Al did NOT chose Kerry as his running mate in 2000. Clinton had the moxie to pick to Al, and it was an inspired choice. I thought Gore should follow suit and pick someone that was his equal, as Clinton did.

[Dr Ron]

8. Great advice

We'll have to remember this in picking our 2008 nominee.

[whometense]

10. Excellent point.

:-) I know we'll remember, but we may have to do some nudging of others.

[BlueIris]

12. Damn. That IS fascinating.

Sometimes it really amazes me that although I had heard of Kerry before '04, as the result of a paper I wrote in school about a committee he chaired in the early '90s, I really didn't recognize what kind of potential and reputation he had until he won Iowa. But as soon as I took a peek--it took me only three days after that to have my "THAT's my candidate" epiphany--I was dead certain he was the one and have never looked back. He's like the secret weapon everyone knew about but me (well, and all those other people who, ahem, post in some other areas of this board.)

[whometense]

13. Thinking about this:

And Kerry's choice won't electrify the press the way someone like Colin Powell would for Bush. But Kerry would be a deceptively strong choice, and voters would warm to him the more they got to know him.


reminded me of something I kept thinking all through the campaign. If only Kerry could have been everywhere at once, he would have won in a landslide.

The people who voted based on what they heard on radio talk/read in the papers/saw on cable tv thought Kerry was possibly a weak flip-flopper who was soft on terrorists and had no ideas.

The people who already knew him well and the people who got a chance to actually meet him saw him as a warm, responsive, engaging and intelligent man with a definite idea on where he felt the country needed to go.

Naturally, this is a huge failure on the part of the media. If the man who was too charismatic and a threat to overshadow Al Gore became 4 years later wooden, stiff and weak, that was not the fault of the candidate. But I also see it as a major tactical reason (apart from how wonderful he is) for him to run again. He would be building on a great head start. And, judging from the crowds he's drawing around the country, we're not the only ones thinking of him longingly as the shadow president. What a fantastic platform for 2008. "Kerry was right."

[Vektor]

15. Oh, the fucking irony.

"He's unassailable. No one can gainsay his courage or patriotism; yet he's got perfect credentials for anti-war types. For a Democrat, you just can't get a better record than that."

Except the FUCKING PUKES and ROVE-HOLE RAT-FUCKER DID assail him. They smeared him, they attacked him, they impugned his patriotism and besmirched his character.

They lied about him.

And millions of brain dead sheeple bought it.

Sometimes it is just too much for me to bear when I think about what this nation has lost by complacently allowing the phony re-selection of the Shrub. John Kerry is a true hero and I love him more than words can say. America truly suffered a great loss on Nov 2, 2004. I pray with every fiber of my being that this courageous patriot runs again in 2008, and that THIS TIME his victory is recognized. I would understand if he wanted to turn his back on the whole rotten mess - I really would.

But I'll never turn my back on him.
John Kerry, America needs you - now, more than ever.