Obama owes Kerry. After New Hampshire, the momentum could have switched. The story could have been, "flash in the Iowa pan, South Carolina means nothing, Hillary wins the bigs". But, within days, the 2004 nominee endorsed the insurgent. And gave him his mailing list. His contact list. His donor list. His nationwide 'machine'.
Obama owes Kerry big. If Hillary was going to stop Obama, that was when she was going to. Kerry stopped her for Obama.
But, don't return the favor with the most high profile, influential, important, non elective, non judicial position in the federal government.
2004 was a foreign policy election. It was Kerry's election to lose. And, he did. A majority of Americans rejected Kerry. With 20/20 hindsight, most would agree they were wrong. But, nonetheless, a majority of Americans rejected Kerry. And, since then, he's been a gaffe machine (single handedly costing Democrats at least 2 or 3 house seats in 2006 with his "study hard or you'll have to go into the military" "joke".)
We keep hearing "elections have consequences". That's true. Elections you win have consequences. Elections you lose have consequences. Kerry lost a foreign policy election. Don't make him the face of U.S. foreign policy.
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I believe the line he had was:
Study hard or you might end up in Iraq.
Which makes a lot more sense as he was referencing Bush.
But that "ha ha" played into every negative stereotype of Kerry and the "anti war" crowd. Those Democrats (like Tammy Duckworth) who lost close races or races in more blue collar areas blamed him.
It's like the Sarah Silverman joke - - traffic cop pulls her over and says, "Do you know why I'm here", and she says, "Because you got C's in high school?" It's funny in a snarky way but fairly snobby, elitist and distasteful.
People (especially US Senators) shouldn't imply that the people who take bullets for us and keep you safe and free only do it because they're dumb or lazy.
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