Political Wire: The Case for Kerry in 2008

Political Wire reports that John Kerry may run again in 2008. Not too surprising, I guess. One of the keys to the case for Kerry is that he "understands why he lost. Strategists in his camp say if he does run again, the campaign will be more nimble in responding to attacks than it was in 2004." Failing to respond to attacks is not why he lost. He lost because he had no agenda and no one really knew what he stood for and why he should be president, a point I made satirically well before the election. As I wrote in another post last year,

Even among the core of the Democratic party, Kerry's support is based, not on him or his agenda, but simply on the fact that he is not George Bush. This has become known as the ABBA (anyone but Bush again) strategy. In any campaign, ultimately the candidate has to talk about him- or herself. Simply saying "the other guy stinks" isn't going to carry a lot of weight with most less partisan voters, especially when the less partisan voters are perhaps not as convinced that the other guy really does stink. It comes down to what the candidate can offer the voters, not how bad the other guy is. If Kerry cannot even motivate his own party, the foundation of his campaign, how do you think he will do with the more centrist voter who may not be so vehemently opposed to what Bush has done as president as a hardcore Democrat?

Kerry got close to winning simply because a lot of Americans really didn't like Bush. He ran against an unpopular president and still managed to lose. If Kerry has learned any lesson from 2004, let's hope it's that.