John Kerry: "An Unexpected Powerhouse," by WP Harold Meyerson

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58512-2004Jan28.html

NASHUA, N.H. -- If Karl Rove thinks he can take down John Kerry the way his mentor, Lee Atwater, took down Michael Dukakis, he's got another thing coming.

The Kerry who delivered that victory speech in Manchester on Tuesday night was the most effective Democratic politico since the fall of Bill Clinton. Within his first two minutes at the microphone, Kerry had delivered a stinging populist attack on the president and managed to identify himself with his Vietnam vet comrades who surrounded him onstage.

"I depended on the same band of brothers I depended on some 30 years ago," said Kerry, thanking Max Cleland and a bunch of guys wearing the insignias of their old units for delivering in New Hampshire as they had in Iowa. "We're a little older, a little grayer, but we still know how to fight for our country!"

Almost instantaneously, Kerry deployed both his offense and defense.

<>Like FDR, Kerry doesn't claim the populist mantle, nor does he have to. "What I'm talking about is fundamental fairness," he told me while bouncing down a New Hampshire highway the day before the primary, addressing people's outrage "that powerful lobbyists could achieve their ends on the Medicare bill to the detriment of the larger interest of the country. I don't call that populism; I call that Teddy Roosevelt-style 'Let's make the market fair.' Republicans misjudge the sense of institutionalized unfairness that Americans are confronted with every day."

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Worth reading in its entirety.

[girl gone mad]

1. Kerry's speech was good..

but I thought Dean, Clark and Edwards were all better. I know Kerry's been working hard to re-invent himself as a populist, but he still has a ways to go.

[blm]

3. His 35 year record of service is populist.

You don't get a lifetime rating closest to Wellstone's by being a corporatist.

You did know that Kerry's record is closest to Wellstone's of ALL the candidates, don't you? Even left of Dennis Kucinich's lifetime rating.

Kucinich and Kerry are the two most liberal candidates in the race.

[WiseMen]

11. Next to Wellstone, Kerry is the man.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

2. Yep. Just read it on johnkerry.com

I love the closing: "Real men support John Kerry. How would Lee Atwater get out of that one?"

[AlinPA]

4. Bush losing it in the "boonies"?

I know a bunch of guys from a Sportsmen's Club (hunting, fishing enthusiasts in rural PA) where last night at a public meeting of an environmental group at their club , I heard them arguing about politics. Guns were the main issue. (They have a picture of Charlton Heston next to Bush's on the refrigerator). More than 1/2 of the twenty or so were arguing that Kerry is better than Bush. Why? Their main argument is that he is a decorated Navy veteran and owns shotguns and goes hunting. They also said Bush was a phony referring to the aircraft carrier stunt. (A lot of these guys were in the service). All of them seemed to indicate that they voted against Gore in 2000. BTW, I am not a hunter nor do I own guns. Just passing on a little glimpse of what's going on from here in "the boonies".

[Zech Marquis]

5. also saw in USA Today last night

that a large number of outdoor sportsmen groups are realled PO'ed at *--he has bascially sold out all of the great otudoor hunting areas, which just happen to have the mostbeautiful and plentiful environments..largs sections of untuched forests, rivers, streams,mountian rnages, etc. Add another group of people who want the space cadet sent back to Crawford!

[blm]

6. Kerry happens to be a crack shot, too.

They admire both, a man who's a crack shot and a man who loves the forests enough to preserve them.

[WiseMen]

7. Kerry is turning the Media elites around. They had written him off

Problem is with the Corporated Bosses who wanted Bush so much
they boosted Dean beyond anything that made sense.

[blm]

8. Except the people recognized the Real Deal.

In spite of the media declaring his candidacy dead.

[WiseMen]

9. Kerry still needs a better grass roots effort to win big in GE

[dolstein]

10. "If Lee Atwater thinks he can take down Michael Dukakis . . . "

Sorry, but I've lived through this before.