From Reuters:
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry said on Sunday he is still considering a second run for the White House in 2008, despite public criticism of what he has has called a “botched joke” about the Iraq war.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Kerry was asked he had given up on a presidential run after the flap over his comment to students that they could “get stuck in Iraq” if they did not study hard enough.
“Not in the least. I am looking at it in the same way. The people that I have talked to across the country, my team’s confident and strong. I don’t know what I’ll do.
“I’ve apologized and we have to move on to the real issues that face this country.”
Kerry said that he, unlike some other presidential hopefuls, would not yet set up an exploratory committee, deferring the decision for a bit longer. “I’ve said this all along, my decision would be somewhere around the turn of the year, the beginning of the year,” he said.
He calls it a botched joke, others think more in the direction of a baseless stab at the American troops in Iraq by a guy who bases his political career on his military record - you decide. If it was a joke, it certainly wasn’t a funny one. The picture I saw posted at Little Green Footballs in response to Kerry was, in my opinion, hysterical.
But I have to disagree with the other pundits, who say that Kerry is just not a funny guy. Kerry is hilarious. Does he actually believe he has chance to both win his party’s nomination and beat the likes of Rudy Giuliani or John McCain? Two years ago he was running against an incumbent president whose approval rating was very low. It was said that the people wanted change, but they obviously didn’t want it enough to propel John Kerry into office.
There won’t be an incumbent running in 2008, though. Every candidate will represent change in one form or another. If he would end up on the Democratic ticket, his likely opponents would be either a) a bona fide war hero of much greater stature than Kerry or b) the ‘Mayor of America’. I wouldn’t bet money on those odds. But even thinking he would win nomination is a stretch: Kerry consistently ranks 5th in recent opinion polls on Democratic candidates after Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Al Gore and his former running mate John Edwards.
Still, I’m looking forward to seeing him on the campaign trail. I can always use a good laugh.
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