Kerry to be interviewed on NECN NewsNight With Jim Braude

[whometense]

Monday night at 7.

http://www.boston.com/news/necn/Shows/news_night/

He's supposed to talk about Iraq and "why he's staying out of the 2008 presidential race." That's what they said on the promo, anyway. They'll put up a video I'm sure, but does someone want to TIVO it to be sure we get it all?


Edited to add that if you're interested in seeing the Boston slant on politics, there are some great videos at that link.

[whometense]

1. They had a story this morning about Mittens

politicking in NH yesterday to a pretty skeptical reception, noting that both McCain and Giuliani are way more popular in the state right next door.

Maybe because NH knows what he's all about??? Hmmmm?

[TayTay]

2. Thanks!

I don't get NECN because I have Dish Network. (Everything has it's advantages and disadvantages, sigh!) I am looking forward to this. Braude's last interview with Sen. Kerry was very good. I am looking forward to this one as well. I guess that means that the good Senator will not be in DC on Monday for the opening of the Senate though. He will be at home, taking care of business for the Commonwealth.

[whometense]

3. just a reminder - on in 15 minutes n/t

[whometense]

4. Video's up.

http://www.boston.com/partners/worldnow/necn.html?catID=80780&clipid=1263962&autoStart=true&mute=false&continuous=true

I don't really know what to say about it - I'll be interested in hearing what others have to say.

[karynnj]

5. Thanks for posting the link

It's no fair that you didn't comment first - then I could likely say "i agree".

It was a very different interview than many in the past. Senator Kerry was brutally honest on how bad the current policy is and he was honest that getting Senate to pass a binding resolution is going to very tough and may not happen the first time. He also admitted that the President will veto it. He admitted that they may not be able to do more than define the two parties for 2008.

He rally sounded frustrated, angry and resigned that they won't be able to constrain Bush. It may be because he is not running that he is not going to express an optimism he didn't feel. He was asked if he regretted stepping out - and it was clear that it's hard not to be involved in the race, but he said it was the right decision.

He was very kind to the 2008 people and refused to take any bait to attack any. On the IWR vote, he said the current policy was more important than looking backwards. He also committed to running for Senate.

Overall, this was a more subdued Kerry. Though it may be presumptuous, I onder if he's kind of like us - ok for gaps of time - but with moments when he wished a President Kerry was still possible or that there was something dramatic he could do to get Bush to change and get the kids home.

[whometense]

6. Okay, now I can say

that I agree with you!

Honestly, I wasn't trying to be coy - I wasn't sure how I felt about it. At the end of the interview I felt really sad - and I didn't want to color anyone else's viewing of it.

I think he feels he made the correct decision, given the current situation, but that doesn't mean - as he very clearly said at the end - that this is over. I'm not sure whether he was saying he wasn't through running for president, or if he was just saying his career is far from over, but that part seemed particularly emphatic.

Braude has a good rapport with Kerry and he asked interesting questions - much as he tried to get Kerry to say something controversial about the current participants, it didn't feel like a game of gotcha - I felt he was really trying to get Kerry to share his thoughts. And those are two very different things.

What made me feel so sad was the clear impression I got that Kerry wishes the circumstances were different. I think Al Gore enjoys the attention, but I get the feeling from him that he has moved on from politics and is happy with where he is now. With Kerry it seems very different. He's made his peace with the way things are, but he is still very much in politics. It may be just me, but I get a feeling sometimes that part of what he is doing is a very public (and very Catholic) penance for that vote. What did you give up for Lent? John Kerry (at least for this year) gave up an ambition in order to try and make things right. I wish everyone in congress felt his sense of personal responsibility. Never mind the administration.

[karynnj]

11. I asn't meaning to suggest you were being coy

After reading that, I was very intrigued to see the video. I do think he has taken way more responsibility for that vote than he had to - I'm sure he knows that the war would have occured however he voted. I assume it has a huge amount to do with his own history and this is the thing he so much wanted never to happen again. There may also be a recognition that the Senator he spoke to were really in the same position he is now - and had as little leverage over Nixon.

He seemed sickened over the way the vets were treated too - and his answer was very good there. All and all what came out was that this was two ineherently decent men speaking about really bad things. It made me even more eager to see the Kerry book tour. Partly because he will be with Teresa but also it seems his approach there is to identify the feasible and push to do them. Here again time is of the essence - though there Gore out there who has already created the demand. It will be nice to see the positive engaged Kerry.

[whometense]

15. I was just teasing ;-) n/t

[blm]

16. It took Gore at least a year to recover keeping a low profile. With his determination to effect

public opinion on Iraq and counter Bush policy in other areas, Kerry had no real break from the Bush smear machine and its complicit media mouthers.

[whometense]

17. That's absolutely true. n/t

[MBS]

13. I missed this interview

(I was busy trying to get my car out of the ice, and had forgotten to watch this), but your description, along with karynnj's, makes me feel like I was there. I could just picture JK. Your description of the differences between Gore and Kerry are right on the money.

I hope to check out the link soon.
I, too, am looking forward to that book tour.

[Inuca]

14. "penance for that vote"

It's not just you, it's at least the two of us. I was thinking the exact same thing a short while ago, I do not remember what triggered it, but even the wording was almost identical, which is quite unbelievable actually...

[TayTay]

7. I thought it was a realistic interview.

It reminded of when I saw Sen. Kerry speak at Faneuil Hall in April of 2005. That was after the '04 race, but before the Senator really started to 'get back in the game.' At that speech, Kerry had spoken about what it would take, 18 months down the road, to get a Democratic Congress and to start to get real change on the issues. He brought up, during that speech, the fact that the environmental movement in the early 1970's had a list of 12 Congressmen that it dubbed 'the dirty dozen.' After concerted effort, 7 of those Congressmen were defeated and we had real progress on an issue.

The deck has been reshuffled. There is no doubt about that and we are dealing with the aftermath of new conditions and new circumstances and it will take a while to figure out what will happen going forward. This is difficult because there is no road map to follow on what to do. It is also difficult because the Congress is not just fractured along Party lines, it is fractured along ideological lines about what to do going forward. (There really are, in essence, more like 4 or 5 parties in the Congress now. The votes that occur are, in a way, a smokescreen that hides that.)

It is true that it real change in Iraq and Afghanistan probably won't happen until after the '08 elections. As the Senator pointed out, that is how things happen in a democracy. He also said that he is running again for the Senate and he smiled at that point. Perhaps it is worth it to be 'in the game' and still wish to be there when a shift occurs.

I am not surprised that Kerry had no real criticisms of the '04 field. Politics is often referred to as the 'art of the possible.' It would be binding on all concerned if bridges were burned now. That would be a bad thing for the race in '08 and for the new President and Congress that take office in '09. A very bad thing. Grownups know this.

[whometense]

8. I like what you said about the '08 comments.

The naughty child in me wants to hear him trash everyone, but the adult recognizes that that would be irresponsible amd totally not in character with who he is as a politician, and as a man.

I didn't get the feeling that he will be in any kind of a rush to make an endorsement - I think he may well wait until after the primaries are over. Unless, that is, he sees a dynamic developing that truly rubs him the wrong way. He is certainly well aware of the kind of power his words on the subject will carry.

[MH1]

9. Ditto the thanks for the link!

I really enjoyed the interview. I liked the way he handled the questions about the 2008 candidates - I especially liked the way he handled the one about Hillary and her IWR vote (note to Hillary: this is example # 258 why Kerry is a much better person than you are).

I am wondering about the choice of shirt and tie, though. Is he being bolder now that he's not running for prez? (Or is it just me?) Okay, I know that's pretty shallow. :P

Back to serious - the part that got me was when he talked about Iraq, he seems to know now that we are stuck, and people will continue getting killed and maimed in this disastrous policy for a long time yet, and there really isn't much the Dems can do about it, except to make their stand clear.

It's really a very grim outlook and I got the sense that JK feels the grimness of it very deeply. But he's mature enough to know that all he can do is all he can do. He's going to take what gains can be made and fight for every bit he can, knowing still that it won't be enough to end it any time soon. But for his efforts it will end sooner than if he quit fighting. And that will be worth it.

[karynnj]

10. I like your last paragraph

but are you sure this is only #258 - he really did what EVERYONE should have done for him in 2004. He positioned things as well as possible and he is right that what we do now is more important. Somehow, I can't picture either Clinton being as generous.

[wisteria]

12. I liked the interview, if not just for being able to see and hear him

talk about the progress or lack of progress in Iraq.
Funny, I didn't notice the tie and shirt. I will have to go back and take a look.

[ginnyinWI]

20. a fine, serious interview

I even liked his tie :).

He is angry about Iraq and the veterans and this admin. as we all are. He tells it like it is and in the serious way that it deserves. I know he wishes he were in charge right now, and thinks about what he would have put right by now. ("...when it's wrong, make it right!") But he's living in the real world and dealing with reality--that's what smart, intellectual, committed, honest, hard-working legislators do.

Meanwhile,over at the White House, the "inmates" are in charge of the asylum. :crazy:

[beachmom]

18. Thanks for the link. I really liked the interview, and agree with

Tay Tay that it was about being realistic. Some brutal honesty -- as in, we're not going to be able to stop the war in the next 2 years (unless Bush decides to) -- is in order. I think it is correct to continue to move the debate, and be "sensible" about it. I especially liked that he talked about the Iraqis who are helping us, and that we need to think about what will happen to them.

Okay, so here's a thought that sprung into my head, and I am indeed curious as to how people feel about this. Kerry defended Clinton -- and that's news. He said she had said she wouldn't vote that way now with the information she has today and has been criticizing the war the whole time. He said (and this was one of his ever wise pronouncements that come out from the top of his head) "the Democratic Party is spending too much of its energy on the past" and that what is most important is what we're going to do about Iraq now. Um, he didn't defend Obama, and completely dodged the question (needless to say he wasn't going to remark on Romney). I think the reason he did this re: Clinton is because it's the truth -- she is being attacked for the wrong reasons. And it's the same attack that was launched against him in the '04 primary. It was BS then and it's STILL BS.

So . . . who's going to post it in GDP? Because it's kinda news.

[TayTay]

19. She is being attacked for the wrong reasons

and the line of logic on the IWR vote that some candidates are employing is not sustainable. The argument that the IWR vote is the sole arbiter of conscience or judgment for elected officials is just plain wrong. It is wishful thinking on the part of the left wing. This argument should be abandoned. It is, essentially, meaningless. It is also harmful. I do not want the Democratic Party to go into 2008 as the 'I told you so' Party. That is an elitist viewpoint that can, potentially, turn off voters.

There is ample evidence to show that the country supported this war from 2003 - 2007. The latest polls from the WaPo show, for the first time, that a majority of Americans think the initial war itself was a mistake. They did not believe that before. I think many voters would reserve the right to change their minds for themselves and would resent the smug and self-righteous calls that only those who knew the war to be wrong in 2002 should ever be listened to again on this issue. That is an exclusionary, elitist and smug point of view. I would never, never, never use this line of logic on actual voters. It would get me thrown out of a lot of places by people who bear no love for the self-righteous.

When is the left ever going to realize that no one is ever going to go to them and say, 'You were right, we were wrong, he's the parade in your honor.' It will never happen. It doesn't work that way and will never work that way. Sigh!

[wisteria]

21. You know what? I agree with everything you said. I just hate that the "vote"

has become more important than fixing what we are faced with now. Of course, the media has been playing this point up relentlessly.

[rox63]

22. I was out last night and missed this interview

But I'll play the online video after I get home from work. It's been crazy here lately. :crazy: