Iowa focus paid off for Kerry

[ProSense]

Iowa focus paid off for Kerry

By Mary Beth Cahill
January 2, 2008

<...>

For the month of December, Kerry traveled through Iowa on a bus, refused to leave events until every last question was answered, and worked to exhaustion.

Rather than attacking Dean directly, Kerry focused on a series of speeches and events laying out the first 100 days of a Kerry presidency.

<...>

And the campaign's relentless message about the future took hold. We won.

After Kerry's victory in Iowa, he flew to New Hampshire in the middle of the night, and for the next week crisscrossed the state, hitting every small town and retail center to make up for lost time. Kerry was in rare New Hampshire form - playing hockey against a team of former Bruins, standing on street corners at rush hour to greet workers, holding town halls in every corner of the state.

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[MalloyLiberal]

1. Yeah we should trust anyhting mary beth Cahill says lol

[ProSense]

2. You don't believe Kerry won Iowa and NH?

LOL!

[NewYorkerfromMass]

17. I'm sure after 4 years

a lot of folks STILL can't believe it! (heh heh)
But I was always a believer. And I like the Monkees too.

[LittleClarkie]

20. It was all a dream...

just a dream...

[karynnj]

7. Why not?

Mary Beth Cahill ran an excellent primary campaign. She came in when Kerry's campaign was dead in the water and led a beneath the radar return to frontrunner status. What she writes here is what happened.

Cahill's strategy of concentrating on Iowa was excellent - as history showed. Imagine he had split his time and come in tied or second to Edwards, a NH win would have been downplayed by a media that pushed Edwards even after Kerry won 16 states to Edwards 1 and was ahead double digits in races the next week in which he clinched the nomination. NH would have been written off as Kerry and Dean being next door neighbors. In 1992, the talk was not the win by the neighbor, Tsongus, but the second place showing of Clinton.

Kerry and Cahill between them had the smoothest campaign to win the nomination that I have seen for any open seat without a VP. In the general election, it may be that too much cat herding for anyone was required to control the people who came in from other campaigns- not to mention a vain VP who even refused to use the campaign's slogan. You also had the Clinton people angry that they were not put in control, who spent the time whining to the press, criticizing everyone in the campaign, while lavishly praising their cohorts (McCurry, Lockhart etc) who were in the campaign. Kerry and Cahill were not flawless, but they would have been better served by more loyalty by Democrats supposedly working for the campaign.

[sniffa]

8. brilliant

:thumbsup:

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. i get sad anytime I read anything about Kerry

I really really wished he became president, and I hope he runs again some day. Some people say they foudn it hard to connect with him, or understand him, but I did.

[ginnyinWI]

9. me too

I connected with him like no other candidate before or since. It's hard to decide on another candidate this time because of it. Nobody is that inspiring to me.

[karynnj]

11. Exactly the same here

and his actions since 2004 have only made that feeling stronger. I first voted in 1972 and I find it very likely that there will never by a candidate who inspires me more.

[MBS]

12. and me, too

I have never admired a candidate as much as I admired (and admire) John Kerry. A man of courage, integrity , depth, and deep patriotism, with real-life experience. compassion, and wisdom to bring to our deep problems. (All this, and, along with Gore, 35 years of continuing commitment to environmental problems and conservation, which none of the current crop of candidates can even begin to match) He would have been an absolutely first-rate president.

And, yes, he ran a first-rate campaign in Iowa (Mary Beth Cahill was key, but so was his ground operation, and, most especially, himself, displaying true grit when everyone had written him off. . ), and he totally deserved to win.

[LittleClarkie]

24. I just gave him $50 today

actually $58, the 8 being in honor of the 2008 election.

I still support him, and I still have his back, regardless of whether he ever runs for president again.

But if he ever did, I would be there.

Kind of hoping for Attorney General or some such this time around though, if a Dem gets in.

[mtnsnake]

4. Hey, maybe he can still get in the race. He's been known to change his mind before, right?

"I was against running in 2008 before I was for it" :evilgrin:

[ProSense]

5. Nah, but

thanks for your comment!

[Inuca]

6. How cute and enlightening

Weren't you criticizing various RW talking points elsewhere?

[LittleClarkie]

22. And original

Don't forget original

[karynnj]

10. Would you like a contest where we look at candidates who have really changed their positions

We all know exactly what happened with Kerry's $87 billion funding comment - it was never a real flip flop but an extremely bad summary of a very well explained position when the question was asked again a few minutes after it was answered. As Biden said, Kerry's philosophy and position on Iraq has been consistently the same since before the invasion.
Here's a video link - http://www.kerryvision.net/2007/09/biden_gives_props_to_senator_k.html. Here is a Knight/Ridder article saying much the same from 2004. (http://media.www.pittnews.com/media/storage/paper879/news/2004/09/27/PittCision/Despite.Accusations.Kerrys.Position.On.Iraq.Has.Been.Consistent-1789042.shtml

On other issues, Kerry had a 96% lifetime LCV score, so there were no flip flops from when he worked on acid rain in 1982 until 2006 when he was the only representative from Congress at Bali. His 1966 Yale speech on foreign policy, quoted by Madeline Albright in her book a few years ago is consistent with the more mature speeches he gave in recent years, including this year.

Compared to at least two 2008 candidates, he is a paragon of consistency. In the 1990s, the Clintons boasted of trianglization - bragging that they were expert at it. Recently, HRC has practically channeled JK saying that without a deadline the Iraqis won't make the hard political decisions needed and that the war has no military solution - comments she vilified JK for in 2006, calling Kerry/Feingold "cut and run". Edwards has more major shifts in fewer years than any politician I know of.

[mtnsnake]

13. You mean like an annual DU Flip-Flop Competition? I'm all for it!

Edwards has more major shifts in fewer years than any politician I know of

I agree, karynnj. Afterall, he learned from the master, didn't he? :shrug:

[karynnj]

16. Actually, per Edwards own comments,

he didn't even listen to Kerry when he was the VP. He wouldn't even use the far better "Help is on the way". Leading to criticism that the campaign wasn't consistent on that slogan when he used his lame "hope is on the way". It was lame, as we already had hope, what we needed was the help that would come if we won.

As pointed out, Kerry is a very solid person, with very well developed and consistent philosophies on nearly every issue there is. Edwards is only a decade away from being a trial lawyer, so disinterested in politics he often failed to vote. It is clear that he has very little in common with Kerry, who I have not seen rushing to endorse him, though he is too classy to return Edwards' attacks.

Again - HRC and JRE have flip flopped more in far shorter careers. (HRC fans don't hold her responsible for unpopular BC positions, so she is only on record since 2000 - otherwise, she gets credit for BC's abysmal Arkansas environmental record.)

[LittleClarkie]

26. I remember the wonderful comments by Edwards re: Kerry in his farewell to the Senate speech

which had me that much more disappointed when I heard him criticize Kerry later. It is said that Kerry feels betrayed by Edwards' second-guessing of the campaign and his quickness to distance himself from their campaign.

Don't worry yourself too much Karynnj. mtnsnake is only lobbing cheap, kneejerk jabs at Kerry to get our goat. Best to leave him to himself. I'm sure he's grumpy as of late, considering his candidate's momentum has gone south, as it were.

[politicasista]

27. Bingo!

:hi:

[beachmom]

14. Kerry has a deep respect for citizens of this country, and thinks they

deserve to have their questions answered. I don't always feel that with many elected officials, and that is why I think he is unique. We should be grateful that he is still serving our interests in the U.S. Senate, and lament him not being in the oval office right now.

[zulchzulu]

15. I was in Des Moines in 2004

It was an amazing time to be in Iowa to see events happen.

[ProSense]

18. Kick! n/t

[politicasista]

19. K&R

:kick:

[goldcanyonaz]

21. Yeah, and went on to become President! Iowa!!! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, wait, he lost!

LOL!

[ProSense]

23. Wait,

it was stolen, just ask John and Elizabeth Edwards, they have evidence!

Oops, still waiting!

LOL!

[LittleClarkie]

28. One day, DU will come to a concensus on that

but then two different groups of people wouldn't be able to berate him for two opposite things. He won, but didn't fight! He lost against the worst president ever!

I ask the "he won but didn't fight" people how he could have fought when even we can't agree that he won, but mostly don't get an answer.

Lol.

[MGKrebs]

25. He also had the best GOTV guy there is: Michael Whouley.

And who is Whouley working for this time???





H.R. Clinton.

[karynnj]

30. Whouley may be great,

but the results today suggest that the win in 2004 - versus that loss this time may be due to the excellent candidate he had in 2004!

[ProSense]

29. Obama wins! n/t