Max Cleland

[JI7]

<Last fall, during the desperate days when few gave his candidacy much hope, Kerry would sometimes get a call on his cellphone from Cleland. Don't give up, each would tell the other.

One day in the spring of 2003, Jim Jordan, manager of Kerry's presidential campaign, called Cleland and invited him to lunch. "I asked him what he was prepared to give the campaign," says Jordan, who has since left the Kerry camp in a staff shake-up. "He warned me he was going through a rough patch and didn't have the strength or the energy to do a whole lot. Happily, he underestimated himself."

When the summer semester ended, Cleland threw his body and soul behind Kerry, barnstorming through the key states of Iowa and New Hampshire and rallying others with his energetic example. At one point, when just about all the political experts had written off Kerry, the head of his Iowa campaign, John Norris, put Cleland on a statewide phone hook-up with staffers and volunteers. "He told people to hang in there, to remember what we were fighting for and told them we could win this thing," Norris recalls. "He was an inspiration, especially during the down days."

But Cleland and the veterans he helped pull to Kerry's side provided more than a morale boost. They were crucial to his victory in Iowa, which proved to be the pivotal contest of the Democratic primary fight. (Anecdotal evidence suggests as many as half the Kerry supporters in certain precincts were veterans.) And vets continue to play a vital role as Kerry works to broaden his support for the general election. Indeed, no presidential candidate in the last 40 years has wrapped himself so tightly in green khaki.

And so, Cleland says, is his campaign on behalf of Kerry, Knowles and the other Democrats he calls his "band of brothers." It is not a political story, but a love story.>


i only posted a few paragraphs but the entire story is long and focuses on Cleland's life and it's very good.

http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/magazine/la-tm-cleland29jul18,1,462579.story?coll=la-headlines-magazine

[murielm99]

1. Nice story.

Thanks for posting.

[JohnKleeb]

2. Those two do have an amazing friendship

Ive read a lot about it, just a shame that Cleland got beat by cheap tricks by Chambliss.

[ampster]

3. Sounds like the Max I know.......

Great article. I worked for Max for two years. Nothing would be more poetic than a Kerry victory. Bush came to GA often during Max's re-election campaign. He supported the trashing of Max and his patriotism.

I am so proud of Max!

[JI7]

4. that's great to hear, he must have been a great person to work for

i only hear good things from people who know him. even those who don't know him well but just meet him love him.