Ted Kennedy: I’ll Support Kerry, Not Hillary
Sometimes you just have to wonder what world Teddy boy lives in, don’t you?…or the AP, for that matter:
Sen. Edward Kennedy said Wednesday he would back fellow Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 – even if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton also pursues a White House bid.
“If he runs, I would support him,” Kennedy told The Associated Press in an interview at his Boston office.
While Kennedy has frequently entertained the New York senator and her husband, former President Clinton, he said his loyalty is to Kerry. Early polling shows Clinton and Kerry among the favorites for their party’s nomination in 2008, but neither has said for sure whether they’ll run.
Kennedy called Kerry, the 2004 nominee, an “able, gifted and talented political leader.”
Really? An able leader? How’d that 2004 election go for you guys?
And what polls, exactly are showing Kerry as one of the favorites? Really, I’m quite serious…I mean, I guess if the choices were, say, John Kerry, and a stuffed moose, or say John Kerry, and that really mangy dog down the street, yeah, Kerry might come in second…but what REAL poll anywhere, anytime, has shown Kerry winning anything other than his own safe liberal Senate seat?
Having said that, if John Kerry runs for President, I just may contribute to his campaign…with JFK II reporting for duty, victory in 2008 is assured…for the Republicans…
I wouldn’t read a whole lot into this — my guess is that it’s a trial balloon to see what kind of reaction there is to speculation of a Kerry candidacy — Kennedy and Kerry have always been close, and I would imagine that Kerry wants to take the temperature before saying anything publicly himself about 2008 plans — if he wants to run, he has to decide whether to throw in his hat now or wait until much later in the game in hopes that everybody else gets too bloody to win.
Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum. Hillary has a huge weakness — too many people hate her — and there are no other obvious Democratic candidates. Say what you will about Kerry’s political skills, but remember that on election day we didn’t know who the winner was until hours after the last poll closed. For a few hours, he looked like the winner. We later learned that 60,000 Ohio voters determined the election. In 2008, he will not be matched with an incumbent war President. If I were John Kerry and if I thought seriously about running again, this is the time I would start making a move. (Actually, if I really were John Kerry, I would live off his wife’s money and play golf every day, but that’s another story).
If you were Kerry, I bet you would think: it worked for Nixon. It could work for me too.
I have no doubt John Kerry has the ego to think he could run again and win. But I have a hard time believing he’ll convince his fellow Democrats that he deserves a second shot. His whole pitch to Democrats was “nominate me because I can win,” not “nominate me because I embody your hopes and dreams.” While he came close, he didn’t fulfill his promise. And running as the “I’m not Bush” candidate won’t get him far in a year when Bush will be busy deciding whether to build the presidential library in Austin or Waco or College Station.
As for the polls saying Kerry is one of the early favorites, I suppose that’s technically accurate. The problem is just about every poll has Hillary is the 30s or 40s, while Kerry and Edwards are tied in the mid-teens and everyone else is in the single digits. It’s like looking at a Super Bowl matchup where the winner blows out the loser by five or six touchdowns, and claiming the winner and loser enjoy equal status.
I shudder visibly everytime I try to imagine Ter-ay-za as first lady. (That’s after the violent convulsions of imagining Kerry as prez.) Kerry wouldn’t stand a chance. Even though people have feelings about Hillary, at least they’re strong feelings one way or another. Nobody has strong feelings about Kerry either way. He’s just sort of “there”. Kennedy’s endorsement might mean something in Mass. But that’s as far as it goes. They’re gonna vote blue no matter who it is.
Who gives a rat’s a**……..
it amazes me that so much of our birthing/history as a nation is founded/based in the state of mass.
how can and where/when did the state become socalist?
is that the evolution of a constitutional republic?
is that what will happen to the other…49?
let’s vote on things for a couple hundred years and then let’s go nanny/welfare state.
maybe that’s what the constitutional birthright gives us. a democratic candidate from the state of mass. in every presidential election. just can’t seem to find the Article in question guaranteeing it.
Teddy has done some mighty stupid things in his lifetime, both in his personal life and his professional one, but publicly backing Kerry at this point in time isn’t one of them.
Kerry and Kennedy are both from the same state. That gives Kennedy cover to back Kerry without offending Hillary. Since nothing would be gained and quite a few egos would be bruised by endorsing Hillary, Kennedy has made the safe (and essentially meaningless) choice.
There is precedent for this. You may recall that, in 2000, Utah’s junior Senator endorsed Orin Hatch, notwithstanding the fact that he never rose higher then fifth place in any presidential poll (after Hatch dropped out, he quickly endorsed Bush). True, McCain didn’t get that level of support from his fellow Arizona Republicans, but if you recall that wound up being a HUGE issue during the Primaries.
Gee, could Ted drive the Kerry election tour bus?
It is the only vehicle left that would allow Ted to get his stomach behind the wheel.