> >Could you offer some insights as to why Kerry was a bad candidate
> instead of
> >20/20 hindsight?
>
> Because he came off as a patrician wuss. Because he couldn't
> enunciate a position without qualifications and emendations and
> footnotes.
And because he was hand-picked and annointed by the DNC leadership to be their man long before there was a Howard Dean or Wes Clark or anyone else, and that same DNC leadership didn't budge from their corporate-like decision to stick with him. They systematically discounted the war experience of Clark, the better soundbites from Sharpton and most anything said by Kuchinich. Kerry just followed the steps on the floor that the DNC dance teachers put in front of him. The fix was in, and it was painfully obvious and offensive to old school grassroot Democrats once they realized that their party was throwing away an opportunity to defeat such a problematic president.
So the candidates I liked did not make the playoffs, but I still voted for Kerry. As anyone who has lived in Texas the last 20 years with any leanings left of center knows ("center" - where is that now?), voting for Bush was never an option.
- Deborah