The New Kerry: He’s Learned A Lot
by Pamela LeaveyOn the heals of yet another great speech today from John Kerry about “dissent” and “patriotism,” Ari Berman writes in today’s The Nation about “The New Kerry.” Berman notes that during his speech at Faneuil Hall last month, “on the thirty-fifth anniversary of his stirring testimony before Congress as a representative of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Kerry was invoking a theme downplayed throughout his 2004 campaign and confronting the issue that bedeviled his candidacy: the war in Iraq.”
“As in 1971, this is another moment when American patriotism demands more dissent and less complacency in the face of bland assurances from those in power,” Kerry told a crowd of 800 full of fellow vets and Democratic activists. “As in Vietnam, we have stayed and fought and died even though it is time for us to go.” Kerry had recently broken with the Democratic leadership and proposed setting a deadline for Iraqis to form a permanent government and for US troops to leave. According to the Boston Globe, the audience was “wildly enthusiastic”–a phrase not often used to describe crowds listening to the junior senator from Massachusetts. Former DNC chair Steve Grossman called the speech “profoundly presidential,” which is exactly what Kerry once again wants to be.
In the past few months Kerry has presented a side of himself very different from the one the public saw during the 2004 campaign. Freed from the grip of consultants, the spotlight of the national media and the Republican attack dogs, he is looser, clearer and more compelling. Call it the Al Gore Effect. At the end of a presidential campaign, losing candidates either retreat, keep up the good fight or attempt the arduous task of redefining themselves. Kerry’s both fighting and redefining these days.
“The fact of losing so narrowly tends to concentrate the mind,” Kerry tells me in an interview in his Senate office. Only a week after the death of his first wife, the mother of their two daughters, Kerry is surprisingly relaxed and upbeat, frank about his past failures and future aspirations. People close to him certainly sense a change in attitude. Former Senator Gary Hart, a confidant, believes Kerry has circled back to the Vietnam era, recognizing the folly of current US policy and rising to protest against it. “He’s much more outspoken, much more decisive and much less likely to give credit to this Administration,” Hart says.The notoriously cautious Kerry has gone bold, conveying his views on Iraq and national security through an aggressive schedule of speeches, op-eds and talk-show appearances. Into the void of Democratic Party leadership, he’s speaking for the vocal opposition–even endorsing Senator Russ Feingold’s resolution to censure President Bush. Kerry’s been written off before and is rising from the political graveyard yet again. “What does he have to lose now?” says Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley. “He might as well go for broke.”
“That wasn’t always Kerry’s attitude,” says Berman, noting that after the 2004 election, when he returned to the Senate, Kerry “gave Bush some space.” Kerry “blocked drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with a threatened filibuster,” and focused on “for the most part on noncontroversial issues like children’s healthcare and a bill of rights for military families.”
Over time, he grew more outspoken, renaming the Bush Administration “the Katrina Administration” after the devastation of New Orleans. Soon he was plunging into intraparty squabbles, and he led a failed attempt to filibuster Samuel Alito’s Supreme Court nomination.
And after years of vacillation, he has found his voice on Iraq. He’s visited the country three times since the election, on each trip growing more dismayed by the lack of progress. After his second visit Kerry gave a major speech at Georgetown University, in October. “It is time for those of us who believe in a better course to say so plainly and unequivocally,” he declared. For the first time, Kerry said he’d made a mistake in voting to authorize the war in 2002 and suggested that the bulk of American forces be withdrawn by the end of 2006. On his third trip to the region, this spring, Kerry witnessed a war between insurgents and occupiers transforming into a civil conflict, with US troops caught in the middle. Claiming that “Iraqis have only responded to deadlines,” Kerry suggested two of them in a New York Times op-ed: an immediate withdrawal if Iraqis don’t form a government by May 22, or a US exit by the end of this year if they d0, in coordination with a Dayton Accords-style international summit. Of all the votes he’s cast in the Senate, Kerry told Tim Russert on Meet the Press, his Iraq vote is the one he’d most like to take back. As one Kerry adviser wryly put it, “He’s got a position now where there’s no room for nuance.”
“Why now,” Berman asks? Why the perceived change in Kerry?
Pollster Frank Luntz recently showed a focus group of Democratic primary voters in Iowa and New Hampshire footage of Kerry over the past few months. “Where the hell was this John Kerry?” Luntz says the voters asked him. “Why didn’t he have this passion, this specificity, when we needed him to?” If Kerry had run in 2004 using his 2006 language, Luntz argues, he might be President now.
Kerry has internalized much of this criticism. “You get kicked on your ass, you get knocked flat, you dust yourself off and say, OK, What did I learn from that?” Kerry tells me. “I think I learned a lot.” His endless modifiers have been replaced by short, punchy phrases: “Tell the truth, fire the incompetents, get out of Iraq, have healthcare for all Americans.” He shocked Chris Matthews in a recent interview by answering some questions with just a yes or a no. His new mantra, says Kerry, is “clarity and brevity.”
“Policy and rhetoric only partly explain Kerry’s resurgence,” notes Ari Berman, “his 3 million-plus e-mail list and the $7.5 million he’s given or raised for fellow Democrats since 2004, by far the most of any 2008 contender, solidifies his standing in the party.” Kerry even “raised $150,000 for Hillary Clinton at a Boston fundraiser last year.”
Two top operatives from the DNC are overseeing his PAC, Keeping America’s Promise. He’s visited twenty-four states and donated to 110 candidates this election cycle alone. Kerry’s Cash May Buy ‘08 Loyalty reads a recent headline in Roll Call.
The presidency is never far from his mind. He freely admits to “thinking hard” about running again. “I have an anger, a level of frustration about the failure of the public sector, that is as burning as when I first got involved in the 1960s,” Kerry says. In March he returned to New Hampshire for his first full day of political campaigning, later penning an op-ed defending the state’s first-in-the-nation primary status. In early May he was back in the Hawkeye State, speaking at a local college and fundraising for Iowa Democrats. “That’s someone who’s running,” says former Kerry campaign strategist and Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart.
To bolster his national profile, Kerry is launching a think tank–helmed by Gary Hart–to train the next generation of progressive foreign-policy thinkers; coming out with a book on the environment this fall; and scheduling a full plate of political events before the 2006 midterms.
But Kerry’s future cannot be separated from his past. “Democrats have to be willing to give him another hard look,” says Grossman. “It’s a very, very tough hill to climb.” Kerry trails Hillary Clinton 57 to 30 percent among Democrats in a head-to-head matchup, faring worse than his former running mate, John Edwards. He runs no better than 3 percent in online straw polls like MYDD.com. Grassroots Democrats don’t want to nominate a previous loser, but if they did, there’s always Al Gore. “The first step of Kerry’s new campaign,” says Brinkley, “is to answer the questions Democrats had about the last one.”
Taylor Marsh has a wonderful post on her blog today about John Kerry’s speech today, and this piece from Ari Berman… Read it here.
RELATED POSTS:
– John Kerry at American University: “Real Patriotism”
– John Kerry Speaks to Students at Grinnell: Defends Right to Dissent, Discusses Iraq Plan, Helps Mobilize Students For Real American Agenda
– Kerry Leads in Raising Money For Democratic Candidates
– John Kerry’s Speech at Boston’s Faneuil Hall: “A Right and Responsibility to Speak Out”
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Why can’t Hillary Clinton take them for granted? Democrats talk tough among themselves but deep down they are not very comfortable and not so confident to really believe what they preach. But yes she understands and knows how to take advantage of the lame, and play-it-safe policy of her own party’s soft culture. The fear of the party discourages and even suppresses those who dare to challenge her. And that is her ultimate strength.
To me, John Kerry represents hope. He did in before, he does now.
While I never quite believed things would have to go as low and insane as they have gone– my worse-case scenario times 100,000,000,000– the fact that people like John Kerry and Al Gore are still in the field helps keep my spirit afloat.
In the chorus of voices who have been continually chanting against the Bush wall of deception, the Ray McGoverns and Steven Colberts are beginning to be spotlighted. And old voices, the Scrowcrofts, the Wilsons, the Clarkes & etcs are being replayed. We’re louder and we’re filling the air with truth, idealism and love of country. Also, responsibility and a sense of the world as one.
It’s all good.
We will prevail. Nothing has been in vain.
Green bean has point- Hil and bil are counting on her large stash of money and name recognition and star power to scare away all challengers. Funny how all these polls have her at 70% when she was in the whitehouse for 8 years bubba was more popular than she was.
JK has to loosen up a bit more and talk about his life that folks don’t see a little bit more so people can get a different pic than what the msm and dem operatives want them to see. Time for momma T to come back on the seen to.
I’m still backing JK and though the GOP and msm and DLC want us to believe hil has this thing in the bag she will only truly win if we don’t raise our voice and show them different.
Anybody else get this? Have no clue how I did.
Ten Ways to Stop Hillary Clinton
New York Post columnist John Podhoretz is warning that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will win the 2008 presidential election unless Republicans start focusing now on a plan to defeat her.
“If you Republicans don’t get real serious real fast, if you don’t wise up and settle down and get focused, it will be Hillary up there on the podium taking the oath of office” in January 2009, he writes in his new book: “Can She Be Stopped?: Hillary Clinton Will Be the Next President Unless …”
Podhoretz says the answer to that question is yes — and he offers the GOP a 10-point plan of action to expose Hillary as the far-left liberal that she truly is.
1)Smoke Her Out: “Republicans must now — right now, this week, today — declare [Hillary] the leader of the Democratic Party and insist that she become its primary voice and its primary spokesman.” Enough “blather” from the likes of Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, argues Podhoretz, when Hillary is the real party leader. “On blogs and radio shows, in letters to the editor and op-eds in newspapers, and in communications with reporters, we should insist on ‘hearing it from Hillary.’”
Run a Reform Campaign: Podhoretz says Republicans must acknowledge that “things got messy” on the ethics front on their watch. For 2008, he says, the party “must commit itself to an agenda of reform.”
2)Make Her Vote: “One of the priorities of Republicans in the Senate should be to use their power to make her vote … on matters of controversy where she would prefer to remain silent.” Podhoretz urges the GOP to introduce Sense of the Senate resolutions on parental rights, gun control and eminent domain.
3)Make Her Criticize Tax Cuts: Podhoretz invokes Hillary’s infamous 2004 quote, “For America to get back on track, we’re probably going to cut [the Bush tax cuts] short … We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.” The comment is “pure gold for Republicans” he writes, urging the GOP to focus an ad campaign on Hillary’s tax hikes if she wins the White House.
4)Talk Up Free Trade: One of the crown jewels of the Clinton economic program was the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA]. But Hillary voted against a more modest proposal by President Bush for Central America – CAFTA. The vote against free trade indicates Hillary felt the need to tack left on the issue, contends Podhoretz. “There’s a gap there. Toss her into it,” he urges.
5) Talk a Lot About Health Care: “Clearly the Stop Hillary movement can’t leave her alone on this matter,” Podhoretz says. “If it makes her uncomfortable, her discomfort should only be enhanced” by having Republicans talking up market-oriented reform plans.
6) Suggest a Pullout from the U.N.: Podhoretz notes that Hillary “has a long record of institutional support for the United Nations.” He says that in 2008 her GOP opponent should float the idea of creating a new international agency to replace the failed world body. “Would Hillary be prepared,” he asks, “to defend the United Nations hotly? To argue forcefully that the United States cannot do without?”
7) Fight the Culture War, but with Delicacy: For all her traditional values talk during the coming campaign, says Podhoretz, Hillary “will have nonetheless handed her IOUs out to liberal groups who will expect her to deliver on their anti-traditionalist wishes once the election is over.” Gay marriage will still be a hot-button issue that could put Clinton on the defensive, he says. But with the GOP unlikely to nominate another born-again Christian, Republicans will have to tread lightly.
9) Go Outside Washington for a Candidate: Podhoretz says the GOP would do well to look beyond the D.C. beltway for their next standard bearer. He doesn’t like McCain, complaining that the GOP maverick “is a creature of Washington.” He dismisses arguments that Condoleezza Rice could defeat Hillary, noting: “The presidency is not an entry-level job.”
10) Nominate Rudy: “The events of September 11 are nearly five years in the past, and yet [Rudy] Giuliani remains the only American figure whose enhanced standing as a result of the attacks on America remains undiminished,” writes Podhoretz. To get the nomination, the former New York City mayor will have to relinquish his pro-choice credentials and “declare himself opposed to abortion,” he says.Predicting Rudy will eventually come around on the issue, he notes: “If there’s one thing Rudy Giuliani’s political career demonstrates, it’s that he’s willing to commit to a controversial course for a higher purpose … Defeating Hillary Clinton while becoming president himself – could there be any higher purpose?”
Sure is nice of Podhertz to come up with such a clear plan for our defense…. It would be pretty funny if they get the base all frenzied up and she doesn’t run or goes down early ;0
Maybe it’s me, but why are the Republicans sweating over Hillary? THEY WANT HILLARY TO BE THE DEM NOMINEE!
The GOP will use Hillary as a broom to clean up the Electoral College. Where is her broad appeal to the general electorate?
She wins the nomination, we’er toast.
BTW, this was a great article.
Ginny
Did that come by email? I didn’t get it. I don’t think she’ll run. I hope to god(dess) that I am right.
Blue W
It is a great article. Yesterday was one of those great full on Kerry days. I like the addition of the Doug Brinkley comments to the article. His book on Hurricane Katrina is out now – The Great Deluge. I guess I have to add another book to my list of must reads.
BW,
A lot of us have been saying the GOP/MSM are trying to set her up as a candidate they are afraid of. This sounds like he believes their own spin!!
Pamela,
In the email. Have no clue how unless Amazon is being hacked. I hope you are right,
May the Force be with us
At least this one is interesting though I see a few flaws.
There was an email going around about a couple of months of go saying that Bin Laden was first bought to Washington’s attention by Oliver North at Iran contra hearings and North said he couldn’t answer a question because of his family being threaten and when a senator asked who north was afraid of he said bin laden.
The kicker was in the email it said Al Gore was the senator who asked north the question.
A while later a lady made the point that the email was fake because Gore wasn’t even part of the Iran contra hearings.
the thing of it was some of the people who read the email before it got to me believed it.
Ginny
I get some interesting emails from Amazon suggesting books I might like given the books I have bought through them. Maybe that’s how you got it?