John Kerry is running for president in '08. In fact, he has never stopped running for president since he kicked off his campaign in 2003. Just look at what he's doing with his time; he's constantly out on the stump pushing his liberal agenda, he has formed a Political Action Committee, and he has been privately dining with donors and political operatives. As Perry Bacon Jr. puts it, it's as if his defeat last November "was merely a detour on his road to the White House." Another Kerry bid in '08 has now become more of a certainty than a Hillary Clinton bid, which is something I welcome with open arms.
But unfortunately, the chances of Sen. Kerry getting the Democratic nomination again in '08 are slim to none. Sen. Clinton is leading by leaps and strides over all other possible Democratic hopefuls, including a sizable lead over Sen. Kerry in his own home state of Massachusetts. Furthermore, presidential losers have not gotten a second chance from their party for decades, and Sen. Kerry is likely to be no different.
This is unfortunate, for I would love to run against Sen. Kerry again in four years. Throughout the previous campaign every Democrat I talked to said they didn't really like Sen. Kerry, they just despised President Bush. Sen. Kerry was able to overtake Howard Dean in the Democratic primary simply because the Democratic base viewed him as the best man to beat the president. His primary source of support from within his own party wasn't any position he had, personal leadership skills, or infatuation towards him from the base, but rather a commonly held conception that he was the only viable option available who could help them get that dunce Bush out of office.
Come '08 Sen. Kerry will lose his best and really only means of support. President Bush won't be there for him to kick around anymore, which will force Sen. Kerry to actually get Democrats to support him instead of simply oppose Bush. For him to actually accomplish this would be the equivalent of experiencing a blizzard in the Sahara.
Sen. Kerry has nothing to offer the Democratic Party. He is a liberal from Massachusetts in a center-right nation, he brings in no constituency the Democratic Party doesn't already have, and he has no reputation in the Senate that will bring the Democrats the credibility they need to stop the hemorrhaging they have been experiencing over the last couple of election cycles. Another John Kerry ticket will insure that the GOP holds the White House for another four years, the Democratic Party knows this and they are preparing to move on. Though the fact that they elected Howard Dean to lead their party gives a sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, by some unexplained miracle, John Kerry will be the Democratic nominee in four years.
This probably won't happen, but I can dream can't I?
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