Kerry interview this hour on NPR

[whometense]

Don't know if it's a local interview, or a national one, but you can stream it here: http://www.wbur.org/news/archive/

Talking about religion and the 2008 presidential race and Iraq.

[whometense]

1. Anyone hear it?

He was great - serious, pissed-off Kerry. It was a local interview with Bob Oakes; I'm sure the audio will be archived there at some point.

[TayTay]

2. I heard it.

Very good. The Sen is using the same arguments he has been employing since last April to say that the troops need to come home.

Very strong interview.

[beachmom]

4. Nope. When did they play it? It certainly wasn't on my NPR

station here. Right now a story about Romney. I didn't know NPR was different in different places.

[beachmom]

5. The same Romney story is playing on the Boston station.

See, you wonder why Kerry didn't do well in Virginia -- well, he's censored here. This is not the first time this has happened -- another time he was on your station and another story was put on my station.

[karynnj]

6. I just got Romney too

from the link in the op - it was WBUR out of Boston - I wonder if the net lags the radio.

[Luftmensch067]

3. Thanks for this!

I saw it just in time to pay attention to the radio and hear the interview. JK was great, as usual. I wish he'd mentioned setadeadline.com, but at least a lot of people probably heard his words, and every person who hears him is another person with the chance to understand the situation better.

[Mass]

7. Excellent interview - Thanks for the alert.

I was happy that he made clear that if they did not solve the situation in one year, there was no point continuing to be there anyway. This was the point that was missing in some interviews (largely because the interviewer did not ask).

Also, I was surprised that he said he would introduce the bill in the next few weeks. But I guess that, given the current circumstances, there is no urgency because no bill will go to committee anyway.

[TayTay]

8. That actually does make sense

The Senate squandered this week on a non-debate about debating on Iraq. Sigh. The federal government is currently funded by a stop-gap measure that runs out of money on Feb 15th. Therefore, next week must be scheduled to talk about the budget. (The Repubs punted on the budget last fall and skipped town without voting it in. So, the Dems have to do this or risk a government shutdown.)

The Senate is on it's first recess of the year the week after next. That means that the earliest Sen. Kerry's bill could be looked at is Feb 26th. So, he has time to introduce this.

[whometense]

9. The story (and audio)

are up now: http://www.wbur.org/news/2007/64411_20070208.asp

[ginnyinWI]

10. thanks, whome! n/t

[whometense]

11. Enjoy!

It always makes my day to hear him speak. :-)

[ginnyinWI]

12. I jotted down a summary:

Most troops come out within a year--there's no military solution.

The war is in a "terrible condition" (he didn't want to say failing). It's not in any way the way the pres. is portraying it.

We need to get out without causing further chaos. Not abandonment--give the Iraqis a year, get a summit and a political settlement to go with the withdrawal.

Redeploy in a way that encourages solutions--with over-the-horizon forces, etc.

If you can't do it in a year, what's to say it can ever be done?

Either Iraq steps up, or we have an implosion--and we shouldn't have our troops in the middle of that either.

On the Senate: there will be a debate--in a few weeks if not before. It's very hard to change the pres.--he has a personal stake in the outcome. But it will define the next election (2008)

[beachmom]

13. Thanks, Whometense! Yeah, it looks like it was more a local interview,

so that's why it wasn't played down in Virginia (thank God for the internet!).

What I thought he said that was most interesting was that this was all personal for the president and not in the troops' or national interest.

That kind of ties in with what Jon Stoltz said yesterday: you're either with the troops or with the president.

Good interview.