(Second) Impressions of Kerry...

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

I posted this as part of a response in another thread, but I am shamelessly :) starting a new thread with it since the board is so busy today and this might not get as many responses as I would like :-)

=======================================================================
I am beginning to think Kerry plays on a plane that we are not going to see another politician play at for a very long time nor have we possibly seen anything like this so far. I do believe Gore comes closest in this sense and is often far more eloquent and far more impassioned which is my preference normally. However, Kerry has a certain intangible quality that I am beginning to think not even Gore can touch. I haven't quite identified what it is, but I am starting to think of it as immense self-confidence born of complete self-confidence (hinted at in his selection of Theresa and John Edwards and his utter ease bordering on pride when he talks about them; his immense grace when he offers wholesome praise to others, most especially to Bush -- these are just overt indications. The more subtle indications are in the way in which he responds to some charges which go to his core, only very late, only very reluctantly, but in almost a resigned fashion that is enormously powerful and wipes away months and millions of dollars' worth of vituperation). It is fascinating to watch. I think I am going to quit my day job in a science department and go write his biography...

[AlCzervik]

1. It's that "Nuance" he's always being bashed for

plus he's intelligent.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

2. Agreed...

And yet, it is much more than that...

[AlCzervik]

5. He was my senator for years and i've met him a few times

he's just really smart, graceful and classy. Maybe it's the classy part that wraps it up, Bush is so crass that we've forgotten what a real gentleman is like.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

8. On the money! n/t

[GOPFighter]

3. He'll be a wonderful President

Someone that will make America proud again.

[vi5]

4. I agree about Kerry but not the Gore comparison...

I don't think Gore is even in the same league as Kerry. I thought Gore was a terrible campaigner and not a great politician (not that not being a good politician is not an entirely bad think). I think Kerry is a consumate campaigner and a great politician.

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

11. Gore is a tremendously decent and thoughtful man...

but he resorted to some slightly opportunistic conduct in his campaign that never quite paid off, partly because it did not sit well on him (and *that* really, in my opinion, speaks to his innate decency).

However, if you follow his speeches post-2001, he is just plain awesome in the courage and wisdom he exhibited. He was not saying things too different from what many rank and file Democrats (like me) were thinking. But he said them all and said them well too -- in the 2002 and 2003 climate, it took enormous personal courage to speak out, speak out regularly and clearly, with no punches pulled and some landed quite devastatingly. If the hand-wringing NYT and WaPo had given him any decent coverage then, we wouldn't be in this mess that we are in currently.

Not even Kerry had the courage to speak out in those days -- so in some respects, I do respect Gore far more than I do Kerry, but I am more impressed with the intagibles of Kerry. Gore is a politician in the mold of his own honorable father (who stood up to those civil-rights rejectionists and Vietnam war-mongers).

(Remember that Dean started speaking long after Gore started -- Gore gave a spectacular speech in San Francisco a few weeks before the IWR vote was due and practically invited the Democrats in joining him and calling the idiot-macho on his pre-election bluster and blather.)

P.S. edited for grammatical errors...

[wildflower]

6. To me it's that undefinable 'presidential' quality.

A statesmanlike bearing, but more than that.

I remember back during the primaries, when Kerry was behind and then suddenly was winning, they interviewed a couple of Iowans. They said they had been leaning toward another candidate, but Kerry just seemed 'presidential.' So in the end they went for him.

-wildflower

[Sick_of_Rethuggery]

10. I think so too...

I am a very sceptical, very "rational" kind of person who absolutely scorned such sentiments as "presidential" -- but I am beginning to see what people might have meant by this!

(Strictly speaking, I dont think it still applies to anyone other than Kerry :-))

[daydreamer]

7. Well put

Kerry will become one of the best president in U.S. history.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

9. Gravitas

integrity, intelligence, courage, passion.....