I say its time to let Kerry lead - agree or not?

[Skip Intro]

Poll question: I say its time to let Kerry lead - agree or not?

The particular incident changes, but over and over again somebody seems to be ringing the bell on the Kerry campaign - "he needs to fix this or its over...." or some such thing.

I know this has been said in so many words by duers more eloquent than myself, but I'm gonna say it again, in my own way...

Kerry is where he is. He got there - one way or another, he did win the nomination. And despite all the supposed missteps and missed opportunities - the Kerry/Edwards ticket is on top, poll-wise, however close the dark side may be.

Anyway, this week - today, its the Kerry condemnation of MoveOn's ad shining the light on zero's pitiful war record. Personally, I think it was a brilliant move on Kerry's part. But that's not the point, or the question, of this post.

The point here is this, imho: Kerry is our leader. That is a done deal. I believe there's always room for constructive criticism, but at some point, you have to put your faith in the leader, and allow him/her to lead. To Lead.

So that's the poll question:

If you agree that Kerry is indeed now the leader of our party, now OUR leader, isn't it time to give him the benefit of the doubt, to have some faith in what he's doing without screaming the sky is falling, in short, isn't it time to let him lead?

[Racenut20]

1. If he leads, they will follow. We have been waiting.

[noahmijo]

2. I say Yes BUT

The minute he gets into office we gotta keep reminding him WHY he's there, and that WE got them there, and the minute he goes Washington Politics on us, we can have his ass tossed.

A popular idea I am trying to circulate is the idea that we need to have a government that fears us not the other way around. To me it's the principal this nation was founded on.

[realisticphish]

8. exactly

we need to get him up there, but NOT stop protesting and getting our views out there...its gonna be wierd not having shrub to piss on, but there are a LOT of issues that will still need to be dealt with

:hippie: The Incorrigible Democrat

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. I Vote No...

Before he takes a stand he should run it by the supporters of all the candidates he vanquished in the primaries...

[Guaranteed]

10. No...instead, he should run it by the advisers of all

the candidates who lost their elections.

[olddem43]

4. We don't need a poll for this -

Kerry is one damn smart politician and is doing very well at the moment. No one here needs to try to tell him how to do it better.

[Kierkegaard]

20. exactly

Anyone who has witnessed a Kerry debate knows he is a very keen strategist. He's not some highschool dropout. He has been in this game for more than a couple decades, knows his opposition better than any of us do and I'm sure he has a good grasp on what its going to take to kick *'s a$$.

While we may disagree on whether he is doing the right thing, he already has a campaign strategy in place, and we are not privy to it. He isn't making rash decisions without consideration of the consequences, he is returning calculated responses to anticipated opposition. No plan is perfect and certainly cannot have answers for every possible contingency. There will be some bumps in the road.

Ultimately, we have no choice but to wait and see how it turns out; grousing and sniping optional.

[bigtree]

5. I once had a conversation with a young lady who listened patiently

as I groused about the lack of leadership on our side. She finally answered that, "We need good leaders, but we need good followers, too."

[Guaranteed]

12. There are no good followers without good leaders. nt

[union_maid]

6. I agree

I understand a lot of the feelings. So many times we've lost when it seemed so obvious that we should have won. And then there was that time when we lost when we actually DID win. But I agree that we'd do more to help by intelligent followership at this point. Kerry is the best leader of this party in my adult life. Cheerleading is absolutely called for. He needs to be elected and afforded a honeymoon period - I can't imagine any new president inheriting a more daunting situation than the one he's asking for - and if we do that, we might start to get some of our country back. At this point that's the goal. Getting it back. Might be able to start to improve it in Kerry's second term.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Nixon didn't get a honeymoon on Vietnam

and Kerry is not going to get one on Iraq either! This war must end NOW!

[IndianaGreen]

7. I won't follow his policy on Cuba, Venezuela, Iraq, PATRIOT Act!

ABB is only a temporary alliance among groups that hate Bush's guts and want his ass out of the White House. Nowhere does it say we are going to follow Kerry's lead on anything. All we are doing is voting for him in order to get rid of Bush. If Kerry makes a policy statement that we disagree with, we will certainly make our views made.

Once Kerry is President, what he says will matter far less than what he does in the White House. It will be on his policy that our support, or lack thereof, will be based.

The country can ill afford a Bush victory in November. At the time, the country will be ill served if Bush's policies survive in any form under a Kerry Administration.

[Skip Intro]

15. NAIL ON THE HEAD!

That's all I'm talking about.

Winning this election.

Getting bush's ass the hell out of office.

My views are way more in line w/ Kucinich and Dean.

But on winning the election - I say let Kerry do what he needs to do to win it.

We'll be having a different discussion in January.

[noahmijo]

17. Um where did he say he fully agrees with the Patriot Act?

I recall him saying he's going to change it around or amend it. I doubt anyone disagrees with the provisions in the act which require Federal Law Enforcement branches to work together.

Constructive criticism is one thing, what I'm sick and tired of is hearing whining and more whining with no solution as to how to fix the problems at hand.

[ulysses]

9. ok, so let the man lead

and when we don't think he's doing so, we'll speak up to that effect. :)

[northstar]

11. Yes, but....

"Once bitten, twice shy"....

Kerry will have a more difficult task (he will have the opportunity to be 'more honorable') than this * administration - and, in fact, be more honorable than the leaders of these last 30 years or so. Honor, dignity, noblese....all these things can be restored (or not).

I don't envy his position should he (hopefully) win.

edit: typo

[borat sagdiyev]

13. Kerry isnt winning because of strategy,

He is only winning because of Bush.
Criticism of his pathetic campaign is NOT criticism of Kerry himself.

[Uzybone]

16. No, he should let primary partisans

who were soundly rejected by moderate to liberal democrats run his campaign.

[Bread and Circus]

18. Nomination...abomination....

Just because Dean made a fool of himself and idiot Kingboy Bush found Saddam doesn't make Kerry a brilliant strategist....

Here's how the primaries really went....

Dean kicked Kerry's ass for about a year.
No one believed in Kerry and his campaign financially folded.
Kerry dipped into his vast wealth and bought a lifeline.
King idiot Bushboy found Saddam.
Due to Saddam's capture, Iowa Dems took a good hard look at Dean.
They decided it might be a good idea to get someone with some war medals on the ticket.
Clark wasn't in Iowa to challenge Kerry.
Kerry was the only one with enough war medals to pass that sniff test.
Kerry won Iowa.
Dean embarrassed himself with "the scream".
The vast "liberal" media hyped Kerry and Edwards.
Like lemmings, sheep, or whathaveyou NH voters rocketed Kerry from middlin' to the top...
Kerry and Edwards further hyped....
Kerry rides a crest of media driven hype and wins a bunch of primaries.
Kerry wins the nomination.
The press further hypes Edwards.
The Kerry campaign takes some internal polls and find the dems like Edwards (big surprise)...
Kerry picks Edwards.

The end.

Sad, but it's about what happened.

[Bread and Circus]

19. P.S. Iowa and New Hampshire picking our nominee is

stupid. Just plain stupid.

My condolences to those not in those 2 states. My apologies to those who are, including some dear friends in Littleton NH.

But geesh...why use such an antiquated non-scientific method for picking a nominee...

Oh...I know why....Party Politics and all the hackneyed idiocy they engender...

[Guaranteed]

21. Hey...leave our party leaders alone!

Why, they figured out why Kerry voted for the IWR just a month ago! Don't act like they're not doing us any favors!

[MaryBear]

22. Uh, well . . .

he IS our leader, isn't he? And he doesn't need our permission; he already won our votes.

Are you saying, "quitcherbitchin"? I agree to that!

I adore the deep thinkers of DU, I must say, and I enjoy posting my short comments, but the doomsdayers cause me to wonder if they be moles.