About the Kerry endorsement. Unbelievable!

In a year when the Dems should be able to walk into the WH blindfolded, the Dems will come out of this election season more fractured than ever.

WTF, Kerry?

He should have made no endorsement at this point and been ready to support whoever gets the nomination. This not only hurts Edwards but it helps to fracture the Dem party. I have lost all respect for Kerry as a politician. He's still a good mad...but this stinks!!

:crazy:

thing for everyone around if he had demured. Everyone has a RIGHT to endorse but some should consider whether they should. It looks real mean and petty. Of course, he could really support Obama but voting would have been enough. This is a slap at Edwards even if he didn't mean it because it is going to be perceived that way. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. IMHO.

in fact, most of them already have. Why should he be any different?

It also, unfortunately, makes Kerry look petty because of the very public swipe at Edwards. It also makes him look a bit weird, imo: Edwards was good enough for his running mate (and second in line to the Presidency), but not good enough to endorse?

ALL Big Hats should wait to maybe ST or probably the convention to endorse.

I agree: we need solidarity right now.

But being politically astute is not one of them -- just look to the way he handled the 2004 campaign.

JAFO


Welcome back to the Fight, John.

proved to be presidential candidate.

He should never have let those backing A.W.O.L. Bush get away with ridiculing his excellent and heroic military record.

should have alerted Kerry that this would look bad. he's got a tin ear, this one.

Also, why wait until after Super Tuesday. It would appear that his endorsement will have an effect on more voters if he endorses before the majority of them have voted.

I'm an Edwards supporter, so I'm disappointed by this also, but I still don't understand your points.

I guess what I'm saying is, they should support whomever gets the nomination, but should never endorse anyone. I mentioned Super Tuesday, because in many years, the nom is obvious by then. I personally feel it's divisive for no real reason.

I've thought this for a very long time.

So far we've seen Bayh come out in support of Hillary and Johnson for Obama. Both are seated senators. I guess we'll see more of them throw their support behind candidates before it's over.

Kerry's choice of Obama is most shocking to me due to his having had Edwards as his VP running mate.

I imagine it could move some who were still undecided between the Edwards and Obama to the Obama camp. To me it was as if he was saying he's declaring this a two person race between Obama and Hillary and Edwards is irrelevant.

I'm sure he'll get behind whoever winds up with the nomination, as will all of the top people in the party.

And welcome back to the fight !


"Garry Owen,John !"

Haven't seen you around in ages.

:hi:

How are you doing?

I've pretty much stayed away from the primary wars around here -- some lurking, but not much posting. Since I've been a Gore Girl, I haven't really had a horse in the race. I then went from Richardson as my second choice, to Dodd, to Biden, and now Edwards with Obama as my second choice. My pipe dream is a brokered convention with Gore saving the day, but I know it most likely won't happen that way. Without Gore, I'd love an Edwards/Obama ticket or vice versa.

He goes with the wind. When the wind changes, he is left in the water, unfortunately.

:sarcasm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADwjvAs9J-0
Can you imagine the scene in the Kerry household when Edwards did an 180?

YOU grow up . . . !

:silly:

:thumbsdown:

is the Clintons.

It will be nice when they get out of the way.

about the endorsment

Seems to me. I can't speak for him or his reasons. But that's the way I see it and I think it's about damn time.

ANYTHING... to stop the Clinton Machine.

There is too much at stake for this country to risk letting Hillary become the Democratic Nominee.

ANYONE but Hillary. She WOULD be a good President. But she also has the BIGGEST chance of LOSING to the GOP.
The country has too much at risk to take a CHANCE with Hillary.

This is the most important election in my lifetime, I am forty-three year old.
I don't want to risk losing it with Hillary.

ANYONE but Hillary.

Next Stop: L-Z NEVADA + L-Z South Carolina !

My hero, Hal Moore @ LZ X-RAY

She would not be as good as almost any other Democrat we have, save Joe Lieberman. Between the fundraising scandals and the corporate connections, I don't think losing to the GOP is his biggest concern.

:crazy:

welcome.

Though I wouldn't have begrudged JK his right to endorse any of the candidates.

We are really revealing an ugly aspect of our own party- Politics brings out the very worst in people.

:shrug:

And we all would do well to NEVER think we can "walk into the WH blindfolded"- the fractures in our party are already there, and run deep - they are being exposed by us all right here on DU on a daily basis.

peace,
blu

US Senators and Representatives have as much right to endorse/support candidates in primaries as any other citizen. It's happened for decades. I doubt Senator Kerry is saying that if either of the other two win, he will refuse to support them in the general election.

More, I think that he is helping to elevate the discussion. Things like the finger-pointing and rants about racism and sexism are what will divide us. Intelligent discussions will unite the party.

So can anyone else.

be looked at beyond the-"He can endorse whomever". For sure he can. But Kerry's running mate is now running for the job he wanted. What we are now being asked to entertain is that it isn't personal, it's politics AKA "business".

Kerry has some apparent personal issues with both Edwards and Clinton, so this looks a bit petty, especially where Edwrads is concerned.

nothing to frature the party. Kerry waited until after NH to do this. It doesn't hurt Edwards; he already unviable. It's rather pathetic that you've lost all respect for Kerry as a Senator over this, but that's your business.

I still have my slight arthritis, but fractured...no.

:shrug:

Whether they support Edwards, Clinton, Obama, or another, they should entirely and completely be devoid of any emotion in selecting a candidate and only use their heads. These candidates are just regular humans like you or me. They take a shit in the morning, they have body odor, and they pick their noses. They are not gods. In fact, they may very well be intellectualy inferior to many of their constituents and have only boundless ambition and raw chutzpah to account for their political successes. They have their pluses and minuses. I don't understand the desperate and tumultuous emotional reactions every time something happens, like an endorsement of one candidate over the other.

That's one thing I have never been able to understand about American politics. People fall in love with a name, with an image, with a slogan uttered by their beloved, who is marketed like a TV product. The love affair lasts for awhile, at least to the end of the campaign. A few years later, the people move on to another love affair and sometimes even turn on their former lover with hatred when he or she doesn't praise the new lover. They gather to listen to their candidate and cry or fawn at his or her feet, wearing colorful buttons, hats, or carrying balloons. Instead, they should be sternly challenging this presumptuous upstart who dares to pretend that he or she can represent them adequately and fairly. They should be opening their minds instead of their hearts and listening for the errors, lies, and distortions along the way. They should be dispassionately wary at all times that the politician they see in front of them might have motives behind their words other than to merely serve the public good. The candidate should run an exhaustive gauntlet of questions, even before their own supporters, before the people give up their precious vote. The people should play hard to get and stand aloof and suspicious until the very end. But when you are in love, you can't see the faults in the loved one, or maybe you refuse to see them. It's like buying a car. You fall in love with a particular model and it becomes an emotional experience rather than just buying a mode of transportation. The car salesman when he discovers this, knows he can wrap you around his finger and sell you the full package of options and even mark up the price and you will still buy it.

But you're absolutely right.

Thank God he didn't plant it on Edwards.

Kerry does fine co-sponsoring bills and making speeches in the Senate.

But his 2004 presidential campaign was a virtually unmitigated disaster. Undoubtedly there was quite a fallout between Edwards and Kerry at the end because Kerry had been promising for months to fight a legal battle in Ohio if necessary - to "fight for every vote" and even put up a special donation link on his website to raise money for that specific purpose. If I recall correctly, he received some $5 million in special donations for that cause. Does anyone but Kerry know what happened to that money? Meanwhile, on the night of the election he trotted Edwards out on stage to repeat his message of fighting for every vote. Then he stabbed Edwards and his own backers in the back the very next morning after the election with a premature concession speech, sent his Ohio legal team home, folded his tent, and disappeared to parts unknown.

I imagine Edwards is feeling like he dodged a lethal bullet when Kerry announced his endorsement of Obama.

pretty funny post, tho I doubt that was your intention.

...were going to endorse Obama ~ we'll see.
<><><>

GET OUT THE VOTE! http://www.cafepress.com/powerboutique

Are people going to be as pissed if Gore endorses Obama as they were for Kerry's endorsement of him? I won't be surprised to start hearing some Gore- and Kennedy-bashing, if this is the case.

I've never really given much of a flying f&*k about either political or celebrity endorsements - they carry faaaaar too much weight for some people. I do remember how pissed off people in other camps were when Howard Dean got Gore's endorsement 4 years ago - and I remember the "establishment" folks (remember, folks? Kerry was seen as the "establishment" and "electable" candidate) were insinuating that Gore was a loony and a bad ex-candidate anyway, so it didn't mean anything. Touche. Things certainly do come full circle.

What about Feingold? If he endorses Obama (which may or may not happen), will he get the same vitriol that people are spewing out here re: the Kerry endorsement? I would hope not.

I say good for him.

but I personally think that Kerry was disloyal to Edwards by not endorsing him. He was his running mate in 2004 and they went through the whole process together and Edwards deserved better. If Kerry chose to endorse someone before Feb. 5th, it should have been Edwards.

I was never too enamored of Kerry when he ran in 2004, I thought that he was a poor campaigner and that he should have defended himself against the Swiftboat attacks. I voted for the man, but had a sinking feeling that he was not going to win.