Reply #15: Even if you look just at the speech Kerry gave him it's reasonable [View All]

[karynnj]

The victory was Obama's, but the fact is that the help of many people's was necessary and it requires the luck of being in the right place, with the right stuff at the right time. The fact is that Kerry met Obama, because a Chicago businessman, with a vacation home in Nantucket, who was Kerry's national finance person, told him about Obama. Kerry saw Obama, was impressed and the rest is history. The Chicago businessman is now the Ambassador to London. It is very hard to argue that Obama, without that speech would have done enough in 2 years in the Senate to gain the visibility needed. You could also credit Dick Durbin for suggesting he run.

In addition, Kerry's endorsement was important and Kerry's excellent work as Obama's top surrogate in the primaries was important. The Clinton numbers in states like NJ, MA, CA, and NY, superTuesday states in early January, even after Iowa, were high enough that she would have gotten huge landslides, getting the lion's share of the delegates and becoming the presumptive nominee. As that nearly happened, it is very hard to rule out significant support as not needed. I suspect that Kerry"s and Kennedy's endorsements helped at least some who questioned if he was ready make the jump. After 2004, I also think having really good surrogates is important - and Kerry stopped a lot of Bill Clinton's attacks by strongly refuting them.

So, there are at least 3 things Kerry did for him; the opportunity of the speech, the early endorsement, and his work as a surrogate.