As All Good Tales Begin

September 2002

When I Was a Young Man, by Bob Kerrey

Politician's memoirs are often self-serving, and more so if written before they retire. Senator Bob Kerrey's tome about his life thus far defies this rule, and offers insight into the man's character. For those who care about the personality of the candidate, this work is a significant one for the 2004 presidential race.

The book itself, as literature, is clearly not ghost written -- the writing is mediocre, and Kerrey's facts are not always precise (e.g., in describing his family in Europe, he says they were from Lincolnshire which he places a few miles south of London. This will clearly shock many who live in a Lincolnshire north of London by a good couple of hours drive and then some). The truth is, if someone who wasn't a US senator and a potential president had written it, it would never have been published.

But it was. And what we learn from it about Bob Kerrey is that he possesses a modesty, honesty and humility that grows naturally in places like his home state of Nebraska. Prime example, he says that at the time, his views would probably have supported the defense in Brown v. Board of Education. There were few blacks in Lincoln, NE, he didn't know any, and he had no reason to believe they should change.

More than being a Navy Seal, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, a possible war criminal, a governor of Nebraska and a US senator, his comments here attest to an honesty of spirit that many will find appealing. He could very easily have said that he was pleased with the decision, that integration should have come sooner, and then, moved on. Instead, he told what smells like the truth when he didn't have to, and when it made him look smaller than one might want.

The jury is out on whether personality matters in a politician. Many in our Oprah society believe it does. Those of us who know history can tell you that Hitler's non-smoking, non-drinking, non-fornicating, vegetarianism appeals less than Churchill's drinking and Roosevelt's mistress.

Bob Kerrey reveals himself to be a rather decent fellow, who once went to war, and in doing so, became a different man. Perhaps not better, but certainly wiser.

Order When I Was a Young Man.