Wednesday, July 25, 2007

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly ... and the Honorable

The Good

In the five months since we’ve launched this site, we’ve been overwhelmed with the eloquent and passionate supportive messages for Senator Kerry. And the pace of these has definitely accelerated since the Democratic and Republican candidate presidential debates began.

The Bad

We’ve also seen a variety of abusive and in a few cases even threatening emails (directed to Senator Kerry or to us), usually from self-professed supporters of the current sorry excuse for an administration (perhaps among the ever dwindling 25% of the population that still approves of them). We’re not even surprised by this – we expected it, and that’s the primary reason why we’re not “public” right now. We don’t need the harassment from these people – and the Delete key is easy to use.

The Ugly

But what really irritates us – enough to take time out from an incredibly busy non-blog life to make this post – is the sanctimonious messages and blog references we’ve seen from people describing themselves as Democrats, and more specifically identifying themselves as supporters of either Edwards or Obama. Few of these individuals actually take the time to read what we have to say, just repeat the typical anti-Kerry myths – usually lies - in order to prove their candidate’s (or their own) superiority.

And we’ve had enough of the naiveté of these people, who continue to perpetuate the lies originally told about Senator Kerry by the Republicans – or by other Democratic candidates in the 2003/4 campaign. Or ones invented later on by those in the Democratic power broker base with an ax to grind, or a candidate to promote. (We are also angered by the constant disrespect of Senator Kerry’s history and current activity by the never-been-elected Democratic pundits, who most often seem to be shills for the Clintons.)

As we can find the time, we’re going to once again try to shoot down these oft-repeated anti-Kerry myths (lies) by actually using some facts. And also, as anyone who’s ever studied history or past events knows, the understanding of an event or action has to be set in context of what was going on around it. So we’ll be talking about context a bit too.

But as for the rabid Democratic Kerry-bashers, we have two comments (for now, anyway):

  • Experience counts. Obama is no Lincoln, and the 21st century is a bit more complex than the 19th! And unlike Abraham Lincoln (a presidency one of us has extensively studied and published on – and a Republican president that we DO admire), Obama seems to emulate the seamier genus of attorney by splitting hairs (He “won’t take money from lobbyists” – but will take money from lobbyist’s spouses, state lobbyists, or partners of
    lobbyists).
  • It’s not the haircut that counts, it’s the lack of judgment, and the lies... (He wasn’t involved in the haircut that led to all the flack?) Or the repeated efforts by the Edwardses to make his origins or current status seem more humble, more working class, than they really were or are. Or the really messy intricacies of his relationship with Fortress, and the borderline illegal/unethical way his foundation funded his pre-candidacy (probably improperly under US tax law). Or EE’s trashing of the Kerrys and her blatant re-writing of history …

and the Honorable

We’re starting to see more people noting publicly that Senator Kerry was - and is - right. And even the current Democratic candidates seem to think so, as some are “recycling” – without attribution – proposals that the Senator has made previously.

If you’re tired of the lies, the evasions and the hair-splitting from many of the current crop of candidates, join us in asking an honorable and even heroic man, Senator Kerry, to once again sacrifice his self-interest in favor of the best interest of the country.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Progress Report - The First Round of Messages Delivered!

We are pleased to report that we had more than 1,000 unique visitors in the first 8 weeks of the DraftJohnKerry08 campaign. About 20% of the visitors came from The Democratic Daily and the JohnKerry.Com blog. The remainder primarily came from web advertising syndicated via Google. We had visitors from 42 states and 6 other countries during this time!

We are EVEN MORE PLEASED to report that on April 21st, we personally delivered all of the wonderfully supportive and heartfelt messages we received to Senator Kerry at an event in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Thanks to an earlier, much appreciated mention of our effort by one of the leading bloggers, Senator Kerry was already aware of our effort, and was very pleased to receive the messages of support.

The messages we delivered included all those received through midnight on April 18, 2007. We have received additional messages since then, which we will gather and deliver to Senator Kerry when the next opportunity arises.

There’s lots of important news to comment on – we expect to be posting more regularly going forward.

To each and every one of you – thanks for your messages to Senator Kerry. We CAN make a difference!

Health and peace.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

With Friends Like These... Rice's Obama comments

From an AP article:

''I think he's very appealing and a great person. He's on my committee. And we've always had good exchanges. I think he's an extraordinary person,'' [Secretary Condoleezza Rice] said. Rice declined to say whether she thought he had enough experience, especially in foreign policy, to be president. ''Oh, I'm not going to make that choice. The American people are going to make that choice,'' she said.

Kind of interesting that she commends him based on his work in the committee. Such as that outlined in the profile article in the last Rolling Stone, perhaps?

Listening to a bloviating colleague at his first meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama slipped a three-word note to a member of his staff: "Shoot. Me. Now."

I'm not sure that an "endorsement" of this - or any other - type from Secretary Rice is a positive, based on the results she's [not] delivered during her tenure. Especially for a candidate with such limited foreign policy experience!

PS Interesting to note that both Senators Biden and Obama voted to endorse Secretary Rice in the Foreign Relations committee hearings before her nomination. Senators John Kerry and Barbara Boxer voted against!

A personal plea for intelligent leadership

I've started this blog to accompany a website devoted to the campaign to bring Senator Kerry back into the 2008 presidential campaign as a candidate. I'm doing this because I'm unhappy with the other available options - and I believe many others are as well. (For more see website)

In the same way that I'm not a professional campaign employee or volunteer, I'm also not a professional, full time blogger either.

Also, I want to be clear that this is a moderated blog - any comments that are germane, civil and intelligent will be posted. But abusive comments will not be...

Please join me in discussing how we can bring Senator Kerry back into the race - for our sake and for the country!