Kerry On

17 November 2003


Senator Sacks Campaign Manager -- Presidential Bid Imperiled

Senator John Kerry, currently the Democrats best chance at stopping Governor Howard Dean from becoming the 2004 nominee, fired his campaign manager, and two of this staffers quit in protest. This has shortened the odds on Governor Dean's chances considerably. Mr. Kerry's real problem is not the campaign manager as much as it is the candidate.

In a rational democracy, John Kerry is a slam-dunk nominee. A not-unattractive man with a history of national service both civilian and military, the Senator has the added advantage of his wife's hundreds of millions to call on (she's the Heinz ketchup, or is it catsup, heiress).

So, why hasn't he mopped the floor with the rather weak field that is competing with him? He has selected to be a gray candidate rather than a black or white one. He voted for the war in Iraq, but he has qualified it to the point where one is not sure if he remembers which way he meant to vote. He opposes gay marriage, but he thinks gay couples should be allowed to adopt. On the Patriot Act, he's willing to let it lapse without congressional action -- but is he for it or against it?

Senator Kerry's defenders, who will find no small sympathy for their argument here, suggest that his nuanced positions are more honest than the black or white, binary demands of the sound-bite-as-debate politics America has. But theirs is an argument that gets no activists organizing, no donors writing checks, no audience members applauding wildly at debates.

There is a great potential for him to galavanize those for whom Governor Dean is a great step back, but firing one campaign operative to replace him with someone else won't do the trick. He must find an issue with which to beat Governor Dean, and he must use that issue until the voters leave the polls. Thus far, there is no such issue.

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