Recalling Anguish in 2000, Kerry Is Mum on No. 2

[AmyStrange]

Recalling Anguish in 2000, Kerry Is Mum on No. 2
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Published: June 19, 2004

FROM: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/19/politics/campaign/19veep.html
WASHINGTON, June 18 - It is happening again to Senator John Kerry: Reporters and photographers are skulking outside his house early in the morning and late at night and mobbing him as he makes his way through the Capitol. At every step he faces questions about the vice presidency.

This time, at least, Mr. Kerry can be fairly certain he will be on the Democratic ticket come November.

Four years ago, of course, Mr. Kerry was a mere contestant in the vice-presidential pageant. He endured weeks of speculation and vetting that he then called a "kind of limbo," and came away from it not only publicly rejected by Al Gore but rankled, his friends say, by the degree to which Mr. Gore's process had played out through the news media.

Now, as Mr. Kerry intensifies his own search, little is known about it except what can be gleaned from glimpses when he is spotted meeting with one of the contenders. On Friday afternoon, the campaign was mum on the subject, even though a man who looked exactly like Senator Bob Graham of Florida arrived at and departed from the building where Mr. Kerry has his campaign headquarters.

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