You know, I thought about this today as I did my 'fall cleaning.' (I am more of a fall cleaning than spring cleaning person. LOL!) I tried to remember what I, as a Mass voter actually thought during that period. (There has been a LOT of water under the bridge since then and I think current events can back-color my perceptions.)
I don't remember being all that interested in the 'rumors' about John Kerry, International Man of Mystery. (Sorry, but that's how I view all those rumors. It's kind of silly. It's an attempt to fill in a blank canvas with pre-selected information. I always thought a lot of the rumors were there because there had to be rumors. I mean he was a striking figure, a powerful man with a very powerful job, and the image demanded two kinds of press: one that dealt with his actual work and one that dealt with the human being. I didn't really pay that much attention to the latter. There were a few times when 'gossip' sort of came up, but, it's gossip. There's always gossip about powerful people, that's just human nature.) I am very wonky by nature, honestly, and I never really gave that much thought to the gossipy stuff, ironically enough, until I started posting in here. (Sigh, tis true.)
I liked Mr. Kerry. He was a damned interesting guy. He had a really fascinating background that wasn't like the usual pols in MA. He stood out. And he went and won a Senate seat, a damned pearl in the Mass political hierarchy, based on two years as Lt. Gov. That was friggin amazing. (Most pols in MA have to work their way up. City council elections, state rep or state senator, maybe a state-wide run as Attorney General or something. Who wins a Senate seat with two years as Lt. Gov under their belt? That was damned interesting and I have been interested ever since.) There are a lot of people in-state that have never forgiven Kerry for getting that Senate seat without 'paying his dues.' There are a lot of people who think he got in because he looked good on tv or something. (Idiotic assumption. Nobody wins a Senate seat in MA by accident. There would have to be a statewide lobotomy for that to happen. He won it fair and square and based on talent and hard-work.)
So, the long answer to your question is that the 'good looks' seems to have only damaged him with the Globe. (Can you say ironic? Isn't the press supposed to be the ones who focus on hard issues, not the soft gossipy stuff?) I had enough to focus on without that. I mean here is a delicious human being, incredibly smart and very talented, who had the chops to get that seat ahead of all the 'blessed locals.' I have always found Kerry fascinating, not least because of the inherent contradictions in the man and the intensity that he has. He has always stood out for me. He's just so different.
Some pols are basically pretty easy to figure out. They are 'pork-collectors' who go into office with the idea that they can stay forever if they just take care of the home folks and bring home the bacon. Mr. Kerry has never forgotten the Bay State and he did a lot to help people and businesses here. But he is also a 'deep thinker' on the national scene. I just found that incredibly riveting. I guess I still do. I still play guessing games as to what he is thinking. That's because he's someone who is worth paying attention to. He doesn't respond the way a lot of people do with his own self-interest at the top of the list. There are dips and valleys in this thinking, some U-turns when the facts warrant it and this wonderful ability to think years ahead of the current situation. I always loved that.
Sorry for the length. I got to ruminating and trying to remember what *I* thought, which is kind of difficult, given the info overload in the last few years.
I like this commentary from the Frontline show last year:
Question: Perhaps you can put him in historical context. I mean, you don't often get investigators of his type in Congress...
Jack Blum: Well, there are very few people who come to the Senate with a beginning as prosecutors who are also war veterans, who have a burning interest in foreign policy because they've come out of a war that was fought on dubious grounds for dubious reasons. And are motivated to try to make an issue of that. To try to follow their own instincts.
This guy had a certain set of skills and a capacity to do things that very few members of the Senate have. Most people who come to the Senate get there by a kind of chair-sitting which is in the state legislature or they come up through the ranks -- maybe they've been a governor of a state. But they haven't been the prosecutor or the investigator, the person who picks the case apart. And he did have that background. …
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/choice2004/kerry/senator.htmlVery different kind of Senator. He bore watching.