Do Democrats love Kerry, endearingly?

They loved FDR, JFK, Clinton and now, more than ever, Carter.

Does, or will Kerry stir the same adoring affectionate response with you?

Or is it simply, "anybody but Bush" and it's more about, political ideology when it comes to Kerry?

emailed him to run for Prez

At this point in the process when Clinton was elected to his first
term, I wasn't really paying much attention to him. I only came
to respect him later (though I think some blame for the scandals
must be dropped on his doorstep). I've only come to "love" him
because I can contrast him to the Chimpmeister.

I never knew Kennedy, I still don't love LBJ, and I didn't even
vote for Carter (I voted for Anderson, remember him?).

I turned eighteen and voted for a very sound and proud liberal, George McGovern.

(No one liked "lyin" Lyndon).

Heck, I voted for Dean. If it werent for Dean, i might not be here.

Still, as a Dem, there is an overriding sense of getting in line.

Kerry won the early states. He's the captain of the team.

Theres some ABB going on here, but also, this is a vote against bush, not, in my mind, for Kerry.

I asked my dad the question " is there any politico you have ever voted for, or has it mostly been that youve been voting against someone"?
He said he voted for carter, but after that, he's voted repub (abortion).


I hope John Kerry doesnt screw this up. I'm going to work my ass off for him so that Bush can be sent back to Texas.

Kerry is here by default. We cannot let a rough primary divide us

As it says in Kerry's website: WE WILL BEAT BUSH

He was my first choice.

When he beats Bush, I'll have his baby.

Ok...My wife will.

But to me, -Kerry seems more, I don't know...distant, as if it that aspect doesn't matter to him, ("just the facts Mame") and it shouldn't, just repairing the damage of four years of republican rule is what really matters.

But I feel it's important for fence sitters to feel that affection and passion toward Kerry...how many votes did bonehead get because people thought he was just a nice loving little frat boy...(Man, were they wrong!)

Help me love Kerry, I want to.

not everyone loves all those people you mention. not everyone is going to love kerry.

there are those of us who do love him though and with good reason.

i love john kerry a lot. he is the first candidate i got to vote for and will get to vote for that i'm REALLY excited about. the 2000 primary was the first time i was old enough to vote in a national election and i voted mccain because i hated bush. and gore pretty much had it by then over bradley. i also didn't feel that strongly for gore over bradley and would have supported either one in november. but i was VERY STRONGLY for john kerry in this primary and of course even more in the elections coming up in november.

even though some on here might not like kerry the people who do support him are very strong supporters of his. and it's one reason he won the primary. they stayed with him through it all. even when it looked like he had no chance they went on working hard for him.

My first was Carter. I was too young to vote for him, but I still look up to him. And how many candidates can you find that never let you down?

My first "big" campaign was for Mike Dukakis in the 1988 primaries.

However, I feel I redeemed myself by getting behind Paul Wellstone early and solidly in 1990.

Paul faced some stiff competition for the party endorsement that year and despite the "conventional" wisdom got the DFL endorsement. I was on board organizing a couple of precincts and a county in conservative SW MN for him.

I myself love John Kerry v.1986, but the current v.2004 leaves much to be desired. However, I'll still vote for him nonetheless. BUT,.... if he came around to DK's positions on Iraq and Universal Healthcare, I'd work my @$$ off for him, too.

Beside the fact that he is not whistle ass, I see nothing to love,

Nothing.

So I'm supporting John Kerry

He was one of the few real liberals under Clinton. He's a statesman and a natural leader. He's a bit stiff, which makes him a bit unsure at times, but that endears him to me.

Gore really still has my heart. Carter is a saint and a hero. Clinton really was Slick, in all the good ways. I don't remember LBJ or JFK.

Kerry is more than the default choice for me. I wanted to support him from the beginning, but he ran such a weak campaign, I had turned away, though I never got sold on the others. Dean was too Dean, Edwards too inexperienced, Clark too uncertain, and the others too far back. Kerry was the only one I developed an emotion for.

He's got a certain nobility to him. None of the others did. They each seemed to be reacting to the issues of the moment, without a full ideology. Like Bradley did, like Tsongas and Browne did in 92. Kerry was the only one I saw with the unified theory, like Clinton, Gore and Carter.

I might grow to love Kerry. What he does with Iraq may decide it.

He may just become the best Democratic President in my lifetime....certainly the most progressive.

ABB 2004! But part of me still misses Bubba (aka the esteemed President Clinton). I don't care what they say -- we prospered then, he was very savvy, he paid attention to his briefings.

nt

Rather difficult to compare two completely different things. Potential presidents are hardly viewed with the same rose-colored glasses. The only guy I loved in this race was Kucinich, but I would have been as capable of loving Howard Dean, John Kerry, WEsley Clark, John Edwards etc. after their having been in office. As potential candidates, they didn't really thrill me. I did LIKE some of them.

and have already supported (donations)...that's an aspect, I think is overlooked.

Dukais, came out even less endearing than even pappy Bush (maybe because pappy was the incumbent, I don't know)

Mondale, seemed like a goofy shoe compared to Reagan's tilting of the head and grin charm.

Ike, was as dry as a bone but people wanted that change from
no-personality intellectual Stevenson.

Ford, well Ford...Carter had at least his personality to love.

But there was Nixon, (two terms)..as slimy and less loved than Lima beans. Going against two awkward Dem's, HHH and McGovern (However I loved McGovern).

LBJ, against Goldwater...a toss up, both with as much charm as public restrooms (but people were still mourning Dem JFk and his brilliant direction for the country).

Nixon, against a handsome charming JFK (he still only squeaked by).

Dole, never had a chance against Clinton's charisma.

The chimp lost! even against a not very charismatic Gore...

So in retrospect, maybe it's not that important.

And that's from someone who used to look up to him a great deal.

The John Kerry I see today is not the one I saw 30 years ago, when he stood up against the Vietnam war. He's not the one I saw nearly 20 years ago, when he helped investigate Iran-Contra.

Rather, he's someone who turned his back on his earlier self by first voting to allow, then failing to oppose the start of, and now continuing to try to justify an illegal and unnecessary war; who voted to allow significant erosion of civil liberties with the so-called Patriot Act; whose economic proposals look more Republican than Richard Nixon's; who had more important things to do than help prevent the recent abortion of a Medicare bill from becoming law; and who's willing to say just about anything to be elected president and is taking his cues from the neocon look-alikes who've wormed their way into the leadership positions in our party rather than from the party membership at large.

I see someone who became the nominee for one reason only: the primary voters were made to believe that he was the one who could beat Bush, and that's where he got most of his support according to exit polls, at least before the bandwagon effect took over (and even then pollsters often got kind of a blank stare when they asked voters why they voted for him). So it should come as no surprise that there's not too much love for Kerry among a lot of people who have nonetheless managed to convince themselves that they need to vote for him.

- bill

this Kerry is definitely not the same one we knew 30 years ago . . . and the more I hear from him, the more I don't think a whole lot will change if he's elected . . . that having been said, I still think it's critical that we do elect him, because at least we'll have a seat at the table and can press our case to someone who will have to listen . . . unlike the current resident of the White House . . . I also think he'll make far better Supreme Court nominations, and that it and of itself is sufficient reason to elect him . . . I still have grave reservations about whether he CAN be elected, however, given that BushCo still owns the voting machines . . . and it doesn't look like the BBV problem is going to be resolved in time for the coming election . . .

n/t

That's why I posted the thread...

My wife and I were very impressed with Kerry's performance in last summer's hearings on Climate Change (global warming) in the Senate. Kerry's scientific knowledge and reasoning on the subject was impressive and he proved that he would risk his career to protect the Earth's climate from human interference.

This is the guy who would talk honestly with the American people about these things and put Al Gore's "Earth in the Balance" into action (along with the states).

If you want more heat waves, droughts, floods, tropical diseases, rising sea levels, dying coral reefs, more insect infestations, shifting precipitation patterns, melting glaciers and all sorts of other calamities to befall humanity, then don't enthusiastically support John Kerry for President. (By the way, many of the above consequences of global warming were included in a report created by the Bush Administration.)

On second thought, perhaps Kerry was not so impressive - he is just reacting the same way anybody would when confronting the same information. It is just that everyone else's performance in the hearings was so bad that they made Kerry look really good. I mean, one member of Bush's "Climate Action Team" refused to reveal the name of the organization that employed hime prior to joining the Bush Administration.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

I read a post on the Kerry forum almost every single day from somebody who says I hated him, but I saw him do a townhall on C-Span or went and saw him in person... and then rave. Or the people who heard the NPR interview and loved what he said... but didn't even know who was talking until the end of the interview. Alot of people got on a bandwagon, believed what their fearless leader said about Kerry, and never bothered to listen to Kerry themselves. Now that they are, they LOVE him.

This is a junior high girls' lunch table topic.

First of all, no one loved Clinton or FDR or Jimmy Carter when they were running for the Presidency. (JFK got a fair amount of loving from his Boiler Roomer gals, though!) And you seem to have forgotten all about what Democrats felt about Al Gore last time around.

Let's be blunt: even though we have been told quite a lot about John Kerry and gotten some good photos, he doesn't let us 'know' him as we imagine to have 'known' Bill Clinton. (And as Monica Lewinsky proved, we actually didn't know half as much as we thought.) That makes it tougher to make a vicarious emotional connection- there aren't the imaginary objects to fetishize, to possess, to obsess, to lionize, to monger. So a lot of people who yearn for a vicarious emotional connection subject him to a lot of, objectively silly, 'tests'.

Kerry grows on you with time. If anything, the campaign season is long and you'll get to see all of him. He just doesn't beg for affection, though, doesn't flirt with his audiences. He is the Strong Silent Type at bottom and quite private. You'll see him start his hard charging in July or August, though, and once things start going forwards you'll see why such a number of us have decided to ride with him. He's our Sherman- no ideologue or advocate for the cause, just a general who has decided to do what it takes to win the war and does it, leaving his opposition outmanouvered, outgunned, outplanned, and ultimately shattered, in his wake.

To say Kerry is more respectable and honorable than Bunnypants is to damn him with faint praise, I know.

I'd rather have a leader to respect. If he does a good job, love will follow.

while for others, it's about how it makes the nation feel.

It's politics as entertainment.

until we get a chance to see him perform.

Ever since I first started paying attention to politics (which was around '99), I've been a fan of him. I used to like his appearances on Hardball...(I believed right after '00 that he would be a great candidate for '04), but in the last two years (patriot act and war vote mainly), he admittedly has disappointed me.

Ultimately, I still have no doubt that he would make a great president. He wasn't my first pick, simply because we had such a great group of candidates, but I will throw a party if he wins this election! At this point, my "love" (or anyone else's for that matter) for him isn't necessary. What is, is our support.

He's my man and I'm going to grow to love him with all my heart, because if I don't I'll be in for a lot of heartbreak and turmoil.

... and gain the respect and admiration of the Democratic Party and the nation, IMHO. Too many, I believe, are quick to dismiss him.

Nobody "loved" FDR in 1932. The voters were terrified and he re-assured them. After 13 years, a Depression, and a World War, most Democrats could hardly imagine a world without FDR. He was definitely loved, but he was ALWAYS the president, it seemed.

Kennedy was never exactly loved by Democrats. He barely won the nomination in '60 (and a lot of people thought he cheated to do that) and he squeaked out the Presidency. He finally started to get respect after the Cuban Missle Crisis and was growing in stature during '63 when he essentially became a martyr. Kennedy was/is loved by Baby Boomer Democrats and Catholic Democrats but a lot of the Party Establishment at the time including Southerners (and his own Vice President) could barely tolerate him.

He and FDR have grown over the years as near mythical figures, like Lincoln, Jefferson, and Washington. It's hard to separate the myth from reality with them.

Trust me. Nobody loved Carter. Democrats in Congress pretty much hated him. Ted Kennedy eviscerated him in the primary. Voters fled him in droves. There was a reason for the phenomenom of "Reagan Democrats."

I don't think Clinton was loved either. He pulled off a miracle to win the nomination and really didn't get any momentum until Perot dropped out. I think Democrats were excited that they finally had a winner, and we defended him because the attacks were so unfair. But I never "loved" him.

Kerry has his supporters who "love" him, I suppose. So did every nominee (including Mondale and Dukakis). I respect Kerry. I trust him. I do think he's aloof. I am not drawn to his personality, like I was with Clinton. He actually strikes me as most like Carter - a welcome change from what he have now.

Kerry had a good record, but lost my respect when he voted for IWR, PATRIOT Act, et al. I've always admired FDR, JFK, Jimmy, & Bill. However, the 2nd JFK will just be a political footnote for me unless he manages to make some REAL environmental reforms, gets the US internationalized in Iraq, starts upholding the rule of law in this country, and prosecutes the Bush Admin (assuming the Monkey doesn't pardon them all on his way out...):eyes:

as it is an expression of an emotion between two indviduals based upon knowledge built up over time...

I can have fondness for people....

But I guess the main question is why some have the need to "love" a politican!

I would rather have a President who I can't stand but performs their job well than "love" a complete failure....

But that's just me....I don't need them to be somebody I love...hell even like....they just need to do their goddamn job well....

I'm only going to vote for him, not sleep with him.

And there are a helluva lot of liberal folks who feel the exact same way!

To engender that kind of feeling. Or not.

Unless he was your guy during the primaries, he is basically "The Nominee" until he becomes "The President" and then you will know if you love him or not.

Clark was my guy and I love him still. Everyone else is just a platonic relationship. :)

I was actually hoping he'd go up against Gore for the nom in 2000...

I went for General Clark then, who I had previously envisioned as the dream VP for Kerry. (Now I'm back to square one!) Anyway, I'm willing to forgive my first choice for one, albeit serious, mistake. Too much is at stake and I really, really like Kerry otherwise.

I don't trust him-- the more I see of him the less enthused I am. He is not voicing the outrage I feel at the current policies. The fact that he has a PNAC member for a foreign policy advisor concerns me greatly. His decision to stay in Iraq is deeply disturbing. He voted for the war and for the Patriot Act. I do not find him inspiring. I am very concerned that he is in the pocket of the same powers that control Bush and that we might have a "kinder, gentler" version of the current bullshit. I'm glad I'll still get to vote for Kucinich in my primary-- now THERE'S a candidate I could get behind!