'I can't believe I'm losing to this idiot'

[emad]

Times
By Tim Reid
The Democratic challenger repeatedly shot himself in the foot



JOHN KERRY constantly squabbled with his difficult and hypochondriac wife, ran a campaign team riven by internal feuding, and repeatedly begged the Republican senator John McCain to become his running-mate, according to a riveting inside account of his doomed presidential bid.

The Massachusetts senator was so obsessed with getting advice from a multitude of rival advisers that one aide confiscated his mobile telephone. His wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, became such a moody distraction that in the closing weeks of the campaign another aide instructed her to stop whispering advice in his ear and back off.

At the same time, according to Newsweek, the relentlessly disciplined Bush White House, which only once descended into near panic after the President’s disastrous first debate performance, became so aghast and delighted at Mr Kerry’s ability to shoot himself in the foot that they almost felt sorry for him.

One of the untold stories of the presidential campaign was the erratic behaviour of the candidate’s wife, the Heinz heiress Mr Kerry married in 1995, according to Newsweek. She drove her Secret Service detail mad with her chronic lateness, constantly demanded attention, including her husband’s (who seemed to tread on eggshells when around her). She even sent him off on errands, such as fetching bottles of water. She clashed with Mary Beth Cahill, Mr Kerry ’s campaign manager, and Mr Kerry was caught in the middle.

More venom:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1344943,00.html

[demokatgurrl]

1. Sorry, I ain't buying a word of this. Is this a Murdoch paper? nt

[emad]

3. It is.

Posted for its novelty value.............

[THUNDER HANDS]

2. my girlfriend hated THK

I mean, HATED. And she likes Hillary, she just thought that THK was someone who didn't want to be there at all. She felt she didn't even like John because she'd never kiss him or hug him or even stand close to him and act like she was his wife.

She's an independent person and I personally have nothing against her, but I don't think I'm alone in saying that Kerry's candidacy would have looked a lot better if he had switched wives with his running mate.

[emad]

4. Selling a dream ticket on the lines of Schwarzenegger/Shriver

may work in California, but on a national level an ex-Republican senator's widow is not the best window dressing for a Dem candidate.

[demokatgurrl]

5. Oh for the day when a Presiden't spouse is more, or less

than window dressing. Hillary tried to get rid of that antiquated "First Lady" role but I guess Laura brought it back.

[THUNDER HANDS]

8. no, it was hard to like THK

She was smug and arrogant and didn't give off the impression she was enjoying what she was doing.

Its not that people really like Laura, its that she gives people no reason not to like her.

THK was not helpful to her husband's campaign. She's not the reason he lost, but she brought NOTHING to the table.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

7. I disagree

Maria Shriver had a great political antenna... It was bred into her....

What did she do to hurt Arnold's campaign?

[Bread and Circus]

6. No fuckin' way, if this is true, I should have voted for Nader.

For him to court John McCain is a slap in the face.

What a dick.

[ncbiker]

10. How could you NOT believe it???

Let's be honest with each other. The Kerry campaign should have sent her of to Idaho on Labor Day and leave her up there for the remainder of the season. Her mere presence hurt our chances of winning. To believe otherwise is to be in denial.

[Bread and Circus]

13. It's the McCain stuff that offends me....I thought it was just a rumor.

[davepc]

9. here

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041104/nyth186_1.html

[Bread and Circus]

14. Hey wow, the Dem leaders are a pack of losers and Carville is a big prick

as well. I've been saying so for months, and there it is.

We shoulda nominated Dean or Clark. At least it would have been
interesting.

I guess us "chicken littles" as we were derided here on DU were
right. We deserve a big apology.

Next time, unless we clean house, count me the fuck out.

[SammyWinstonJack]

18. That was a depressing read

:-(

[foo_bar]

11. typical post-mortem stuff

If Kerry won we'd be reading vignettes about Laura Bush and her furious smoking habit.

[GDoyle]

19. I agree...

Look Kerry basically lost by about 100,000 votes in Ohio. Last time Gore "lost" (although he really won) by 500 votes in Florida.

If it were reversed, we'd be reading about the brilliant strategy of Mary Beth Cahill, the discipline of Joe Lockhart, how Karl Rove screwed the pooch and blew it for the best funded candidate in history, yada yada yada.

In other words, perception isn't reality. These stories and the way they swing are dependent on a miniscule number of votes.

GDoyle

[leesa]

12. Bush shot himself in the foot about a hundred times, but when did Kerry?

We have got to bring these media whores down. So Teresa was late and therefore she cost the election??? Who would even know?

This is nothing but a fantasy hit piece.

[gauguin57]

15. No ... Newsweek does this every election ... a behind-the-scenes...

... of both campaigns. Both campaigns give complete access, and Newsweek promises not to print anything until after the election is over. This is just a preview story of that upcoming Newsweek edition.

I read the Newsweek story on the 2000 race ... it was FASCINATING!

This is going to be THE NEWS next week when the mag. comes out, so get used to it.

[Bread and Circus]

17. So we wasted $300,000,000+ on this kind of crap.

My dog would have ran a better campaign.

[emad]

16. Here endeth the lesson - The Guardian

John Kerry was undone by the emergence of the churchgoing 'values voter', says Philip James

Friday November 5, 2004

If 2000 felt like being robbed, this felt like a mugging. Don't get me wrong, Bush won fair and square, by more votes than any other presidential candidate in history, including Ronald Reagan in 1984. But by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, Democrats up and down the country were suffering from delusions of imminent victory.

Friendly journalists surreptitiously leaked preliminary exit polling numbers taken in the early afternoon that presaged a momentous Kerry win. Voter News Service surveys had Kerry significantly ahead in Florida and Ohio, but they were just plain wrong. So when it slowly dawned on us that there would be no celebration, it was a sucker punch. Defeat had never tasted so bitter.

So who were the millions turning out for Bush? The final exit polls defined it loud and clear. When asked which issue mattered most, the most repeated response wasn't terrorism, it wasn't Iraq, it wasn't the economy; it was moral values. The new block that emerged Tuesday night was the "values voter".

Over one-fifth of everyone who voted was a self-described evangelical. Evangelicals have been around in US politics for decades, but this year they really came of age as a decisive factor. Bush won their vote by a crushing margin, and they turned out for him in greater numbers than ever before. Democrats saw this coming but they weren't prepared for the intensity.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1344461,00.html

[Moderator]

20. Link to read article without registration

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11300506%255E2703,00.html