Kerry Wants A Mulligan
The New York Post's Deborah Orin has an amusing account of John Kerry's anger over Senator Mark Dayton's apparent endorsement of his rival for the '08 nomination, Hillary Clinton:
A fuming John Kerry had "daggers in his eyes" after a fellow Democrat promoted Hillary Rodham Clinton for president — suggesting the 2004 loser is green with envy at a potential rival.The flap was touched off two weeks ago when Clinton spoke at a Minneapolis Democratic dinner and Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) told the cheering crowd that he was introducing "the next great president of the United States."
Two days later, Kerry came over to Dayton on the Senate floor "with daggers in his eyes and said, 'What are you doing endorsing my 2008 presidential opponent?' . . . He was very serious," Dayton told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
The most striking thing about this story to me was that Kerry and Dayton were simultaneously present on the Senate floor. Rumor has it that Kerry is so determined to run again in three years that he has resolved, after twenty years in the Senate, to begin actually performing his duties there.
Kerry won't be the Dems' nominee in '08. If last fall's election proved anything, it was that Kerry isn't a very good Presidential candidate. The Dems weren't in love with Kerry last year, but turned to him in a panic when Howard Dean imploded. Kerry is finished as a Presidential contender, I think, but he could perform one last valuable service. If he is really so determined to run again that he is angry about losing the endorsement of Mark Dayton, who is retiring next year and by 2008 won't be in a position to influence any voters outside his immediate family, Kerry might be fired up enough to go after Clinton hard during the primaries. That would make his candidacy worthwhile.
Orin's column concludes on this pathetic note:
Meanwhile, Kerry — and his outspoken wife Teresa Heinz Kerry — are increasingly claiming he was robbed last November and should have won.
On second thought, there might be method to Kerry's madness. Normally it would be a bad idea to base one's campaign on an appeal to voters who are delusional. But at the rate the Democrats are going, by 2008 that group could represent a majority of the party.
