John Kerry: I learned my lesson in 2004

[NYCGirl]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/08/28/kerry/index.html

A lot of people are saying, no offense, that they wished they had seen that John Kerry last night four years ago. Do you feel like ...

Well, I feel like -- no, on the contrary, I was that John Kerry four years ago ... particularly in the last six weeks I was. I won three debates against the sitting president. And I think that I'm proud of what we did. We should have taken those Swift boat attacks on more directly earlier. We just made a miscalculation. The calculation was that we had put the truth out and people saw through that kind of attack. The miscalculation is that if you put a lot of money behind a lie, there are some people who don't . And that's where we made a mistake. We should have put more money behind the truth.

And I think the Obama campaign has learned that, and they're not going to give any quarter on these smears, lies and attacks. And I think that's what's important. You know, there are plenty of places where I let fire and let loose, like I did last night -- believe me. If you go back and look at my convention speech it was a strong speech, well received at the time. But people tend to blur that and they don't see it in the context of the attacks that came out afterwards. Yeah, we could have done a better job at making certain that we absolutely murdered those . Believe me, part of the message I was sending last night was I learned that lesson -- and never again.

MORE AT LINK ABOVE

[kwolf68]

1. The attacks on Kerry

Were as offensive of an attack as I've ever seen. I've never been so disgusted at how they swift-voted him and my idiot parents and idiot friends would parot the same bullshit they saw on one of their ads.

To this day I use the attacks on Kerry to show that Republicans are patriots with exception. Fook em all...Kerry is 100x the man Bush is, a greater man, a greater leader and our goddamn nation chose the inferior person. Im still pissed.

[TheDebbieDee]

12. Uhm, I think our nation did choose Kerry...........

but like Ann Richards and Al Gore before him, he was robbed by the * and his band of thieves!

[blm]

18. I wondered about that...what happened in Texas that a much loved Gov like Richards lost her seat?

.

[TheDebbieDee]

19. Everyone in the national media was surprised by the results

of the Texas Gubernatorial Race. It was speculated that rumors Gov. Richards suspected lebianism led many Texas independents to vote for *.

(Guess who probably started the rumor.....) Anyway, that was the "cover story" Rove and his bandits used to explain that stolen election. And it worked.

[blm]

21. Seems to me the real culprit has long been the cavalier attitude of the Dem powerstructure who allow

the RNC tactics to go uncountered for far too long when they HAD to know something criminal was going on - after all, who controlled the DOJ, the FEC, and the FBI in the 90s when BushInc was setting up and preparing to control the election process? Why was there so much inattention to something so crucial as the security of the election process in the age of electronic voting? And how DID GOP activists with a record of criminality gain control of those machines during that same time period?

What WAS the leadership of the Dem party thinking?

[TheDebbieDee]

22. Are you saying that the Democratic Party participated in the

theft of the Texas Gubernatorial and the 2000 and 2004 Presidential Elections? Is that what you are trying to say? The Democrats HELPED the repukes steal these elections?

[blm]

23. I am asking WHY they had such a cavalier attitude towards the election process, and especially

after the unusual losses of Richards and Cuomo. Then there was 2000s theft, and 2002's unusual Georgia and Alabama results. Where was the party leadership when these various tactics were going uncountered? Where were the Dem's FEC allies and election legal teams BEFORE these elections?

[bvar22]

25. Rob me once....shame on you.

Rob me 3 times......

[ProSense]

2. Thanks for posting. No doubt

that Kerry learned a few lessons from the 2004 media ambush. His 2004 Convention speech was well received.

The media simply refuses to acknowledge their complicity. They would rather try to hide and pretend something else happened. Given that most of them commented on his 2004 speech, why are they all acting surprised that he can deliver an effective and passionate speech? In 2006, Kerry gave a speech that reintroduced the word dissent into the debate. In fact, McCain trying to capitalize on the chatter gave a speech suggesting "we should argue."


There's a word missing in the OP text:

"Yeah, we could have done a better job at making certain that we absolutely murdered those attacks."

[BrklynLiberal]

3. IT is good that he is acknowledging and learning from the mistakes that were made in '04, and not

allowing Obama to make those same errors... I.E. NEVER trust, in any way, shape or form, the repukes..to do the right or conscientious thing.

[blm]

7. I'm sure he also explained to Obama how he can't trust McAuliffe, Carville, or Wolfson

or anyone claiming to be a Democrat when they worked AGAINST Kerry all along.

[BrklynLiberal]

13. I would hope so....

:thumbsup:

[phantom power]

4. His campaign didn't learn enough from what the GOP/MSM did to Gore.

[blm]

6. The Dem PARTY didn't DO enough to stop RNC and GOP officials from stealing another election.

Kerry won with the campaign he ran. How did McAuliffe do with his stewardship of the party in the four focking years after 2000s theft?

[politicasista]

11. **crickets**

Good post.

[blm]

5. The media wouldn't LET the truth be heard - you gave it to them and attacked swifts, yourself

but it was the complicit corpmedia who controlled what the public heard about the swifts, despite that you HANDED THEM THE TRUTH early and consistently. They wanted the truth buried.

Yet, you still won, Sen. Kerry, and had McAuliffe's DNC spent its four years countering the known attacks the RNC and Rove machine would launch against Dem voters to purge, steal and block their votes, you'd be seeking re-election today.

[eshfemme]

8. THIS is a President.

When you make a mistake, you own up to it and you learn from it. Not fucking bluster and "Aw, shucks" through it. It might save you at the moment but in the long run, it'll just screw you over. I don't know anyone who doesn't think or accept as fact that Bush is a fucking douchebag that screwed us all over with his choices. What a fucking country that instead of a President that can adapt to changing circumstances, we get "You're either with us or against us" Bush.

[mvd]

9. Great answer

Because he realizes he should have hit even harder, he's a more seasoned surrogate for Obama.

[Stevepol]

10. I don't think Kerry has learned the right lesson.

He didn't lose the election. The swiftboat smears didn't have that great an effect. They probably helped him as much as they hurt him.

He supposedly knew then that the voting machines were giving anomalous results, that many dirty tricks were being played in OH and elsewhere, and yet he didn't even make a peep about it.

The lesson he should have learned is that, when the results are clearly anomalous (exit polls versus alleged results), when there are thousands of reports of people being denied the right to vote, when one precinct even closes down claiming they got a demand from the FBI to close down and keep the vote counting secret because of a terrorist threat when that was a lie -- when these things and many more happen, YOU DO NOT CONCEDE AN ELECTION. YOU DISPUTE IT WITH ALL THE ENERGY AND PASSION AT YOUR DISPOSAL UNTIL YOU CAN BE SHOWN THAT YOU WERE NOT CHEATED BY CRIMINALS OUT OF WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY YOURS.

[Riddler]

14. You're absolutely right! I have no problem with the campaign Kerry ran,

my problem is how he and Edwards just stopped fighting as soon as they assumed the election was over, even in light of 2000 and the alleged corruption and election theft of 2004. I admire and respect John Kerry, but that's the one thing I'll never forgive him for.

[blm]

15. Did you forgive McAuliffe and carville for making SURE there'd be no legal evidence for Kerry to

continue in court? Because a LOT of the theft was institutionalized and made legal by the GOP officials who dominated the OHIO election process, just as McAuliffe expected when he and previous chairs collapsed the party infrastructure in that state the same way they did Florida and other crucial states since the mid90s. And then DELIBERATELY sat on their hands for the entire four years after 2000s theft as the RNC and GOP officials gained control of every level of the process where the votes are allowed, cast and counted. They did that EVERY DAY for FOUR YEARS between 2000 and 2004.

Your beef with Kerry is that he conceded when there was no legal case to make in court because he had no legal evidence in hand to MAKE that case - and THAT was thanks to an Ohio Dem party that was nonexistent for all practical purposes.

Think about what Brinkley is saying here - Why would Clintons and their loyalists be backstabbing Kerry throughout 2003 and even in 2004 when he known to be the nominee?


http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=13354

And who the hell was carville working for on election night?

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2006/oct/07/did_carville_tip_bush_off_to_kerry_strategy_woodward

McAuliffe and Carville made SURE Kerry and ANY nominee would NOT have access to evidence to contest that election.

[politicasista]

16. Thank you. **Crickets still chirping**

It's amazing that people are still letting the ones that should have been doing the hard work off the hook.

[politicasista]

17. K&R

:kick:

[Median Democrat]

20. 3 Word Lesson: Raise More Money (nm)

[Awsi Dooger]

24. He apparently didn't learn anything

Kerry lost due to situational influence, nothing else. The Swift Boating and "for it, against it" nonsense are convenient crutches for analysts desperate to grasp something they remember and can describe.

Kerry ran against an incumbent with his party in power only one term, the most favorable situation imaginable. It was always uphill and unless Bush plummeted to 40ish approval and/or we nominated someone very charismatic versus an incumbent, that race was lost.

All my politically astute friends were hammering that theme throughout 2004, and chided me when I tried to pretend Kerry had a chance via undecideds. They were correct that my partisanship, specifically Bush hatred, was clouding my focus. My friends made huge profit on that race and I ended up winning only on senate and gov races but losing on late bets on Kerry based on the early exit polls. Gad, what a memory.