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Weird Stuff/Unexplained Title: John Kerry SAYS IN 2008 “I’m prepared to kick the SWIFT BOAT VETS ass from one end of America to the other” KEENE, N.H. - Moments before Sen. John Kerry shows up to campaign for a local politician at a backyard rally here, voter Sue Borden wrinkles her nose at the mention of the man who lost to President Bush. “You get one chance,” the Democrat tells a reporter. “If you can’t win, then it’s time to let someone else try.” But less than an hour later, after she meets Kerry and listens to him deliver an impassioned speech from a wooden deck, Borden softens and says she would consider voting again for the Massachusetts Democrat. “I always liked what he stood for but felt that he was very snobbish and arrogant,” she says. “He’s not that way. People told me I would change my mind once I met him. And they were right.” It is not clear whether Kerry will have enough time to personally meet and convert every disaffected Democrat in the nation by the election of 2008. But he appears determined to at least counter the conventional wisdom that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., has all but locked up the Democratic presidential nomination. “I don’t buy it,” he said in an interview with The Examiner this week. “You know, people sit with you and talk with you here, and they’re going to make judgments about who can be president. They’re going to make judgments about who can run. “I think I’d be a good president,” he adds, sitting on the wraparound porch of an old house in Keene. “I don’t care what the dominant, conventional wisdom is today; it will not be the dominant, conventional wisdom in a year.” But even if Clinton were to stumble or withdraw, other Democrats are poised to step in. Some are already hinting that Kerry had his chance and blew it by losing the all-important swing state of Ohio in 2004. Similar arguments were made against former Vice President Al Gore when he lost the crucial state of Florida to Bush in 2000. “We are making a mistake if we put up candidates that are only competitive in 16 states, and then we roll the dice and hope we win Ohio or Florida,” says former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, another Democrat eyeing the White House. Far from being offended by this remark, Kerry says he agrees with it. “I would say the same thing,” he says. “If I were lucky enough to do it again, I’m going to make sure we’re campaigning in way more states.” Kerry says the only reason he didn’t compete in more states in 2004 was that he ran out of money. He says this was also the reason he did not adequately respond to a series of devastating TV ads by Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, a group that questioned Kerry’s service in Vietnam and criticized his later opposition to the war. “They had money behind the lies, and we did not have sufficient money behind the truth,” Kerry laments. Asked if he dreads the prospect of being “Swift-Boated” all over again, Kerry counters that he would relish such a fight. “I’m prepared to kick their ass from one end of America to the other,” he declares. “I am so confident of my abilities to address that and to demolish it and to even turn it into a positive.” Kerry’s tough talk triggers laughter from John O’Neill, a fellow Vietnam veteran who helped found Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth and wrote a blistering 2004 book on Kerry, “Unfit for Command.” “Well, he’s got eight times as much time to prepare for us as he spent in Vietnam,” says O’Neill, referring to Kerry’s short tour of duty. Kerry’s blunt rhetoric on the Swift Boat Veterans is a far cry from his 2004 attempt to straddle the question of whether to fund U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it,” he said during the election, cementing his reputation as a flip-flopper. The utterance was draped around Kerry’s neck and was widely viewed as a factor in his defeat. And yet now he voluntarily alludes to the gaffe while criticizing Bush’s recent reversal on the handling of enemy combatants. “No American president should be for torture before he’s against it,” Kerry said at Boston’s Faneuil Hall last weekend, allowing himself a rueful smile as the crowd erupted in cheers. Eager to shed his image as an overly cautious politician, Kerry now prefers to “let it rip,” according to several of his closest advisers. “I learned a lot of lessons in the campaign,” Kerry tells The Examiner. “And one of them is to keep it simple. Direct.” Yet Kerry’s stance has been anything but simple on the question of whether to implement a specific timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. While Kerry opposed such a timetable last year, he now supports it. “I don’t see that as a contradiction,” he says while munching chocolate chip cookies. He explains that the politics of Iraq have changed dramatically since he opposed a timetable. “We didn’t have an election; we hadn’t had a constitution; there was no provisional government,” he says. “To set a timetable in that circumstance would have been wrong. “But once you’ve had the election, once they’ve accepted democracy, once they’ve put together a government, the only thing left to do is complete the task of security transformation,” he adds. “And I think it’s reasonable, then, to have a standard by which [the Iraqis] assume a sense of urgency and responsibility.” Charlie Cook, publisher of the Cook Political Report, says it will not be easy for Kerry to convince Democrats to give him another chance after coming up short in 2004. “Kerry came out as damaged merchandise,” Cook says. “Badly damaged merchandise.” Kerry acknowledges there is some “legitimacy” to such analysis. “If you have hundreds of millions of dollars spent saying something about you, some of it sinks in,” he shrugs. And yet such damage was part of an invaluable experience — passing through the crucible of a presidential campaign. “On the plus side, I think if I were to decide to run again, I’d bring a lot of assets, including the fact that I’m the only guy who’s fully vetted,” Kerry says. “I have the experience of three presidential debates and a convention, of having come out of the campaign being accepted by 50-whatever million Americans with being able to be president.” That’s a resume that cannot be matched by others in the crowded presidential sweepstakes of 2008. “If you win 10 million more votes than Bill Clinton did in 1996, a sitting president, and you come within 59,000 votes of beating a Republican president in a time of war, it seems to me you’ve done better than others who ran and didn’t win the nomination, who are thinking of running again,” he says. As for those who believe politicians get only one chance for the top job, Kerry rattles off a list of Republicans who lost elections, only to rise again. “I mean, John McCain got just beat up in South Carolina, and he’s fighting,” he says of a possible 2008 foe. “Ronald Reagan ran three times. Richard Nixon ran after a miserable loss in California. “So the question is, what do you offer? What do you bring to the table?” he adds. “I think the agenda I laid out is viable, is as urgent today, and that’s why I think about this.” He points out that while his 2004 candidacy failed, many of his foreign and domestic policies remain popular among Democrats. In fact, his anti-war stance may resonate more in 2008 than in 2004 because more Americans are tiring of the bloodshed. “If my ideas had been rejected overwhelmingly, if I was wrong, then maybe I should just go put my head down and go somewhere and work in the garden,” he says. “But I don’t think I was. And a lot of people, as I go around the country, reaffirm that with me.” People, indeed, like Sue Borden. John Forbes Kerry 1943 » Born in Aurora, Colo., son of an Army Air Corps test pilot 1962 » Graduates from St. Paul’s School, Concord, N.H. 1966 » Graduates from Yale, enters U.S. Navy 1968 » Serves on Swift Boats in Vietnam 1969 » Returns to U.S. 1970 » Marries Julia Thorne. The couple will eventually have two daughters. 1972 » Runs unsuccessfully for Congress 1976 » Law degree, Boston College; becomes prosecutor 1979 » Opens private law firm 1982 » Elected lieutenant governor of Massachusetts 1984 » Elected to U.S. Senate 1988 » Divorced 1995 » Marries ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz 2002 » Votes to authorize Iraq war 2003 » Successfully treated for prostate cancer 2004 » Wins Democratic presidential nomination; loses general election to President Bush. Kerry’s positions on the issues Abortion Believes women have a right to abortion. Wants to uphold Roe v. Wade. Capital punishment Opposes the death penalty except for terrorists. Gay Marriage Voted against 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, signed by President Clinton, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Still, Kerry says he believes that definition. Immigration Supports President Bush’s call for a guest-worker program that would grant legal status to illegal aliens. Iraq Voted to authorize Iraq war in 2002, but now calls that vote a mistake. Taxes Opposed Bush tax cuts for Americans making more than $200,000. What observers are saying David Yepsen Political columnist Des Moines Register PRO » “The experience of a national campaign is pretty unique, and he has certainly been through the grinder. And I think that’s worth something.” CON » “A lot of Democrats wonder: ‘How could you screw this up? We gave you a chance — you blew it. We need to move on.’ ” Charlie Cook Editor Cook Political Report PRO » “He has very high name recognition, and he has an enormous list of donors from his 2004 campaign, a gold mine for anyone wanting to run for president.” CON » “He also has very high negatives, the highest of any Democrat in the country, and there is a been there, done that, got the T-shirt‚ feeling among many Democrats who don't want to vote for him again.” Larry Sabato Political scientist, University of Virginia PRO » “A former presidential nominee knows his way around the track, has a Rolodex to die for, and a ready-made platform of ‘I-told-you-so’s’ that will sell to Democrats.” CON » “Kerry is still the same inadequate campaigner and liberal from Massachusetts that sunk him in 2004. Unlike Republicans, Democrats rarely give their losers the time of day, much less a second chance.” After studying the polls, consulting the handicappers and interviewing the candidates themselves, The Examiner has winnowed a list of some 30 potential presidential contenders down to 10. The result is Meet the Next President, a two-week series of in-depth profiles of the 10 people most likely to become the next leader of the free world. It's a behind-the-scenes look at Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, front-runners and dark horses in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes - even before the 2006 midterms have been decided. With presidential campaigns starting earlier each election cycle, why wait? bsammon@dcexaminer.com
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