Kerry comes out fighting despite loss

Former US presidential challenger John Kerry plans to use his Senate seat and Democrat supporters to remain a major voice in American politics despite his election loss.

Friends and aides said he was assessing the feasibility of trying again for the presidency in 2008.

But in a glum post-mortem to the presidential campaign, Senator Kerry's senior advisers said he lost the election because he had failed to turn it into a referendum on the economy.

A pollster for Mr Kerry, Stanley Greenberg, said the campaign saw evidence that its position was slightly deteriorating among white rural voters 10 days before election day and that the erosion began "cascading from group to group".

Mr Greenberg said voters had been open to backing Senator Kerry but pulled back after he failed to persuade them to make their decision based on economic issues.

"Voters were very concerned about the economy," Mr Greenberg said, "but in the end, they did not respond to John Kerry on the economy. And after that, they voted their values. And that produced a cultural polarisation of the electorate."

Senator Kerry will attend a post-election lame-duck Senate session next week and aides said he was relishing the prospect of renewed combat with President George Bush, fighting such measures as Mr Bush's proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

Senator Kerry has spent the better part of the past two years on the campaign trail, meaning his return to Capitol Hill will be something of a reintroduction to colleagues.

His plans contrast starkly with the approach taken by former vice-president Al Gore, who all but disappeared from the political scene after losing to Mr Bush in the disputed 2000 presidential election.

Senator Kerry fuelled talk about a 2008 bid at a Washington restaurant at the weekend. He provoked a thunderous reception by reminding about 400 campaign aides and volunteers that Ronald Reagan twice sought the Republican nomination for president before winning it in 1980.

"Sometimes God tests you," Senator Kerry told the crowd. "I'm a fighter, and I've come back before."

Bob Shrum, Kerry's chief campaign consultant, told reporters during a Democratic panel on Monday that Senator Kerry "will not do what Al Gore did after the last election - he will not disappear".

"He will be active and vocal," Mr Shrum said. Several Democrats expressed scepticism about Senator Kerry's plans, saying they believed the party needed a fresh face and must turn a corner.

One well-known Democratic operative who worked with the Kerry campaign said opposition to Mr Bush, not excitement about Senator Kerry, was behind the senator's fund-raising success. "If he thinks he's going to capitalise on that going forward, he's in for a surprise," said the operative, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Senator Kerry has mostly remained at his Boston home since election day and has spent some of that time preparing for his return to the Senate.

In the White House, chief of staff Andrew Card will remain in the job and is expected to play a key role in shaping Mr Bush's cabinet for a second term. Mr Bush has told aides he wants a smooth transition and officials said they expected that any major personnel changes would be made gradually, in order to ensure a measure of stability.

"Senator Kerry will attend a post-election lame-duck Senate session next week and aides said he was relishing the prospect of renewed combat with President George Bush, fighting such measures as Mr Bush's proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling."

Oh gee, another Kerry lie, another Kerry flip-flop:

Robert B. Bluey, CNSNews.com
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004
Teamsters union chief Jimmy Hoffa has confused environmentalists and free-market advocates after saying that Democrat front-runner John Kerry, if elected president, would "drill like never before" across the United States.
Hoffa made the comments Feb. 17 during a segment on "Hardball" with Chris Matthews. Matthews had asked Hoffa why the union chose to endorse the U.S. senator even though Kerry opposed drilling for oil in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"Well, we talked about that," Hoffa responded. "He says, look, I am against ANWR, but I am going to put that pipeline in, and we're going to drill like never before."
The union supports drilling in ANWR and the creation of a natural-gas pipeline that could stretch from Alaska to Chicago. Neither plan draws support from Kerry's environmentalist base, however.
When Matthews pressed Hoffa for details on the promises Kerry made, the Teamsters president offered a vague response.
'Drill All Over'
"Well, they are going to drill all over, according to him," Hoffa said. "And he says, we're going to be drilling all over the United States. And he says that is going to create more jobs."
After the exit of Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri from the Democrats' presidential race, Kerry courted unions, including the Teamsters, to support his candidacy. He secured AFL-CIO's endorsement last week.
But Hoffa's comments have left Kerry's largest environmental backer confused about what the union chief meant by Kerry's intentions to "drill like never before."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/2/25/125814.shtml

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