Sure sounds like he's setting the stage for another run.

Who can blame him really? Does anyone think he'd actually do worse at the polls this time around?


Dear Friend,

The topic of this email -- and the subject of a major speech I will deliver in Boston's Faneuil Hall tomorrow -- is national security.

If you think I'm planning to alert people to Republican pre-election fear-mongering on this vitally important issue, you're only half right.

Of course, we need to reject the Republicans' idea that a "debate" on national security involves them demanding another book of blank checks for policies that don't work. And, needless to say, we can't tolerate them smearing any Democrat who stands up to their miserable record of failure.

I will be campaigning for Democrats all across the country this fall. And, everywhere I go, I will talk about the Bush national security disaster and the need to change course in Iraq. They don't want Americans to remember that Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, the Taliban is gaining strength in Afghanistan, Iran is closer to nuclear weapons, and the mess in Iraq has become a recruitment poster for terror. There is no way to overstate how Iraq has damaged our efforts to actually fight global terror. It has overstretched our military, divided and pushed away our allies, and diminished our moral authority in the world.

But, here's the other half of the story. As Democrats, we have to do more than oppose what has failed. We have to actively propose a new course that can clean up the disaster in Iraq, and defeat jihadist terrorism once and for all.

We must offer the American people the kind of real national security debate they deserve -- and that the Republican Party, top to bottom, would deny them.

Tomorrow I will share my ideas on how we can do just that, achieving a more secure future for America.

I look forward to working side-by-side with you on this critical issue in the weeks ahead.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

P.S. Remember, we'd be glad to email you the speech after it's delivered. And we'll also be posting it on our website at www.johnkerry.com. I hope you'll read it yourself and share it as widely as possible.

I hope he does, he'd lose to nearly anyone the republicans throw out there.

kerry is bush's cousin. they belong to a lot of the same 'clubs'. somehow, i dont think we would see much change with kerry in office. Barak Obama!!!!! he is our saviour, i hope he runs.

I hope he does, he'd lose to nearly anyone the republicans throw out there.
If the Dems are stupid enough to run Kerry again, they deserve to lose. They have other candidates who'd fare much better, like Bill Richardson. I'm really curious who the Republicans run. Except for Frist, none of the early candidates I've heard thus far seem all that electable by the Southern Baptist faction.

The dems always find some way to shoot themselves... and here we go again.

I don't care if Kerry has been chosen by Jesus Christ himself to run for the office, he's a liberal Catholic Senator from New England, and any one of those is, IMO, grounds for dismissal -- but he owns them all.

Quickly, Mxy, name the last Catholic to become President? Now, name the last Senator to become President? Now, name the last New Englander to become President?

I'm not a fan of John Edwards, but he can win for four reasons:

He's from the South.

Girls seem to think he's hot.

He's got a bowl cut.

And the stupid-assed Buick-hauling geriatric Florida contingent will mistaken him for this guy --
http://www.dailyhog.com/images/edwards.jpg

-- and vote his ass in.

Name recognition is everything, my friend.

Edwards hasn't done much to show that he's enough of a heavyweight to win as the lead on the Presidential ticket, and has been relatively quiet owing to his wife's breast cancer. If Kerry/Edwards won one of the Carolinas (or at least made it a race), if he had maintained his Senate seat, or at least not have it succeeded by a Republican, then he's Presidential. That's why I look at folks like Richardson and Warner, who seem to have more pull.

The Catholic argument gets interesting when you see Giuliani among the top Republican candidates at this early stage. I don't think it's the Catholic card so much as pro-choice vs. pro-life. A pro-life Catholic could potentially pass the sniff test, but not a pro-choice one. The leading Republican candidates thus far -- McCain, Giuliani, Condi Rice are pro-choice. The pro-life names bandied about are:

- Bill Frist, who can probably weather through his medical license flubs
- George Allen, who might not even win his own state at the rate he's going
- Newt Gingrich, tossed out as yesterday's news by his own party
- Michigan's own Mitt Romney, but will a Mormon get a presidential nod?

Inside info says George Allen with run.

George Allen may not even be able to beat Jim Webb in Virginia, who's showing up tied or ahead of him in recent polls without the benefit of running TV ads. If Allen loses re-election, stick a fork in him for 2008.

Too bad Kerry can't run against Bush again. But then again, I don't have as much faith in the American voting public that I used to after what has happened the last two elections.

The dems arent supporting Kerry for a rerun. Honestly the only guy i'd vote for if he re-ran would be Gore(not counting the Hillary/Bill rehash).

It don't mean a thing
'til we see that Dem swing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070124/ap_on_el_pr/kerry2008


Kerry to bow out of presidential race

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
27 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democrats' losing presidential candidate in 2004, does not intend to run again in 2008, a Democratic official said Wednesday.

This official said Kerry intends to seek a new six-year term in the Senate.

Kerry plans to disclose his political plans in remarks on the Senate floor later in the day, according to this official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting a formal announcement.

Kerry, 64, who lost the White House when Ohio voted for President Bush by 118,601 votes on election night in November 2004, was attending a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting and unavailable for comment.

His decision leaves a field of nine Democrats running or signaling their intention to do so, including Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois, and Kerry's 2004 running mate John Edwards.

The Republican field has a similar number with Bush constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.

Kerry's 2004 campaign drew widespread criticism from fellow Democrats after his defeat. His critics said he had failed to make a forceful enough response to Republican criticism as well as charges by conservative groups that he did not deserve the medals he won for combat in the Vietnam War.

The Massachusetts senator stirred unhappy memories for Democrats last fall, when he botched a joke and led Republicans to accuse him of attacking U.S. troops in Iraq.

He apologized, then hastily scrapped several days of campaigning for fellow Democrats as party leaders urged him to avoid becoming an unwanted issue in a campaign they were on the way to winning.

Polls showed Kerry trailing his Democratic rivals. Last October, an Associated Press-AOL News poll had Kerry at just 1 percent and recent surveys indicated he had gained little among Democrats.

In a CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday, 51 percent of Democrats said they would not like to see Kerry run in 2008. When asked who they would support, only 5 percent said Kerry, placing him fifth and far behind leader Clinton at 33 percent.

The Massachusetts lawmaker decided to clarify his political plans on a day in which he participated in a debate over the war in Iraq by invoking memories of Vietnam. At the committee hearing, he said a memorable question he first posed in 1971 had relevance today: "How do you ask a man to be the last person to die for a mistake?"

Despite his difficulties on a national level, Kerry customarily rolls up large victory margins at home in Massachusetts. He won his first term in 1984.

While Kerry was saying privately as recently as December that he would likely wage a second campaign, the tone among his aides changed in recent weeks as Clinton and Obama announced their White House bids.

Instead, aides began talking about Kerry's concern about the personal toll a campaign would take. Kerry had millions left from his 2004 run — a sore point with some Democrats. Despite the advantage, he would have faced intense competition with Obama, Clinton and Edwards for campaign dollars.

That guy is ALWAYS stealing my thinder.
I'm putting the announcement of my candidacy on hold for another couple of weeks.

Look for another Republican prez if the Dems run Hilary and Obama.

2004: A liberal Catholic Senator anti-war protester

2008: A woman and a black.

Not to say Barack Obama is no good -- he's got tons of promise -- but he's simply not "seasoned" yet. Give him a couple of more terms. Hilary is a clown. The best chance the Dems have is Richardson, but ONLY if he stumps the "senators never win the White House" platform (JFK was the last senator to win the White House who WASN'T a Vice President first).

Obama should've run for Illinois governor. He'd have won in a landslide. As long as he avoided legal woes and blatantly criminal behavior, he'd be way ahead of the last 3 Illinois governors and be in excellent shape for a 2012 or 2016 run.

I agree that despite a ton of promise, Obama is getting into this too soon.

It won't take much for the neocons to get the word out to the red states that his name sounds a lot like "Osama".

That should pretty much take care of him.

Maybe he's running interference for Hillary?

Haha. Typical Dems. Have Obama as a decoy for a WOMAN candidate!

Jeb Bush in '08!!!!!!

Sincerely,

Taymelo.

If Obama doesn't get the presidential nod, he may get the VP nod or some cabinet position from whoever does win. The worst case scenario is that he still has a good future, and he'll have warmed up the crowd for a future run.

If Hillary doesn't get the presidential nod, she almost certainly -won't- get the VP nod either.

My dark horse candidate has been Bill Richardson. Besides Obama, I couldn't imagine any other candidate putting out an ad like this one:

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