Posted on 03/28/2006 10:02:51 AM PST by raccoonradio
SALEM — Truth be told, John Kerry didn't want to be at the Hawthorne Hotel yesterday, talking to a group of North Shore business and political leaders.
Or at least if he was going to be there, he wanted the Secret Service to have to be there, too.
"If 60,000 votes had shifted," he told members of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce, "you'd have had a harder time getting into this breakfast today."
The votes didn't shift, of course, so Kerry was in Salem yesterday as Massachusetts' junior senator, not as the president of the United States. But in an hourlong talk on issues ranging from vocational education to the war in Iraq, Kerry sounded every bit like a man still running for president.
"There is an absence of leadership that I have never seen," Kerry said. "(There is a) complete and total abdication of responsibility of serious engagement in issues that affect every single one of you here. It is driven by ideology, partisanship."
It was Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll who asked the question on everyone's mind: Will you run again in 2008?
For that matter, Driscoll said, would you consider New York senator and former first lady Hillary Clinton as a running mate?
"Let me dutifully avoid the latter part of that question," Kerry quipped.
But he did address the first part.
"The short answer is, I'm thinking very seriously about it," Kerry said. "I know what it takes. I know how to do it, I know the mistakes we made, and we did make some mistakes."
That — and the rest of Kerry's speech — sounded a lot like a "yes" to many in attendance.
"Whether or not he's made the decision yet, he certainly sounds like a candidate," state Rep. John Keenan, D-Salem, said after the breakfast. "My unofficial estimation is he sounded like somebody who's running."
Wooing the business crowd
If he does run again, Kerry probably doesn't have to worry much about Massachusetts, where he won 62 percent of the vote in 2004. But the audience at yesterday's breakfast was not Kerry's core group of supporters, and he spent much of his talk trying to appeal to the business-oriented crowd. He said he wants to reduce the deficit, open up trade with China and support research in coal, oil and nuclear power, as well as alternative energy sources.
"I'm for drilling," Kerry said. "We're going to need to drill for the next 40 to 50 years at least. ... What I've been pushing for is that in our use, we're smart."
But Kerry didn't pull his punches when he turned to President Bush's tax cuts, which have been popular with many in the business community.
"There's nothing conservative about what they're doing," Kerry said. "Warren Buffet, the second-richest man in America, said that he thought the tax cut was absurd and that he, as an investment adviser, said, 'Don't do the tax cut. Put the money into these other kinds of efforts, because I'll make more money in an economy that is moving.'"
Robert Lutts, president of Cabot Money Management, said he was impressed by Kerry's candor.
"He knew the audience he was talking to, but he's a pretty straight shooter," Lutts said. "I think he calls them the way he sees them, more or less."
That doesn't mean Lutts agreed with everything Kerry said.
"I was surprised by the negative tone he took," Lutts said. "He accused Bush's administration of no leadership at all. I don't agree with that. He (Bush) has got some shortcomings, but I think there are a lot more complicated issues than Kerry would have you believe."
JOHN KERRY ON ...
Running for president in 2008: "I'm thinking very seriously about it. ... I know what it takes. I know how to do it. I know the mistakes we made."
Iraq: "I think we have to get out of Iraq as fast as we can. ... Our guys are in the middle of a civil war. Who's kidding who?"
Immigration: "You have to have comprehensive reform. ... To just do enforcement is to invite a continued problem. ... We're going to have to have some people come in to do the jobs nobody wants to do."
The role of government: "'It's not the government's money, it's your money' ... (is) a very difficult proposition to defend against. The problem is, it's also your pothole and somebody's got to fill it. It's your school and somebody's got to manage it. It's your bridge and somebody's got to fix it."
Partisanship: "I have never seen the United States Senate and House as partisan as they are today. ... You don't have the kind of compromise that we used to have, where we used to look for 80 votes, 90 votes, instead of 51 votes."
The public's interest in government: "The attention span of Americans has changed. ... The people who don't want to listen to the president go to 'American Idol,' or they go to the game."
March Madness: "You can ask me any questions you want except what happened to Connecticut. ... I don't know what's happened with your office pools, but mine was shredded weeks ago."
Thanks Ohio!
>>and we did make some mistakes
I've got it! We'll highlight my heroic service in Vietnam!
>>"He knew the audience he was talking to,
...and he'll give a DIFFERENT answer to the next one he talks to
Damn if I had only known I would have gone. Thats about 2 blocks from my apartment
Kerry has as much chance as a snowball in hell unless the Republicans insist on running McCain.
"If only frogs had wings..."
Have you spent any evenings at McSwiggins?
What? There's a conversative...in Salem? My word, I all agog! Good for you!
Senator Kerry is the biggest horse's patoot in the Commonwealth.
Wife shopping again? Did Tay-REEZ-a give him his walking papers?
Too bad I can't spell "conservative." :)
Warren Buffett doesn't like the tax cuts because Warren Buffett can make money in "other efforts", so screw Mr. Joe Six Pack. What "other efforts"? Throwing money at China? Kerry is an elitist piece of trash!
...or if only 120,000 more dead people had voted...
I'll get you my pretties!
Laurie Cabot is a Capitalist first and a Witch second.
Because he was living with the unofficial Witch of Brookline.
Howie Carr's advice to politicians: Never put on a hat. Never.
Kerry's been running for President since he took that video camera to Vietnam.
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