I recently quoted one report speculating on John Kerry as Obama’s running mate. While I still doubt it will happen, here’s another blog post in favor of choosing Kerry from The California Majority Report:
Over the course of a prolonged Rovian attack, Kerry got “swift-boated.” His decorated war service became a liability (although Kerry’s goofy “Reporting for duty” entry at the 2004 Democratic convention certainly didn’t help matters), and the campaign seemed far too unwilling to light the fire.
But that was then and this is now, and with President Bush’s approval rating now well lodged in the low 20s, there’s a bit of buyer’s remorse out on the campaign trail. Kerry can wear being slimed in the Swift Boat ads as something of a badge of honor these days. Here’s the man that should be president but for everything you hate about the Republican party, electorate! More importantly, Kerry has been an effective Obama surrogate, willing to go on the offensive at a time when, quite frankly, that seems to be Obama’s biggest weakness.
Kerry has moved on from his 2004 defeat to continue his work as a distinguished 20-year veteran Senator on the Foreign Relations Committee (where he chairs the obviously relevant Subcommittee on Near East and South and Central Asian Affairs), so if the Obama folks have deemed international experience to be their liability, Kerry’s easily fits the mold. Kerry also chairs the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, and sits on the Finance and Commerce, Science and Transportation committees, providing some helpful economic resume points to boot. And if Obama is destined to be eternally compared to Camelot, wouldn’t having a Senator JFK from Massachusetts, at a minimum, make the narrative just a little less attenuated?
There are other people out there who would make fine vice presidential nominees, to be sure, but since the moment of speculation will soon be over, it doesn’t hurt to remember that we could do much worse than a widely-known standard bearer of our party — the man with more Democratic votes than any other candidate in history.
