John Kerry stops by my work
Today John Kerry, the Democratic candidate for the last election, gave a talk at my work. For the first 15 minutes, he railed on about Republican incompetence in D.C., and then he took questions.
It was fascinating to hear him talk about his defeat in the election. He never seemed to acknowledge that he ran a poor campaign; he seemed to blame a lot of other people for his loss. He talked about how he won three debates. Someone asked him if he lost because his message wasn't simple enough. He agreed with that. Someone else asked him how he and the Democrats are going to simplify their message for the mid-term elections and the next Presidential election. Kerry went on to define a simple 8-point list.
It's clear to me why Kerry lost the last Presidential election. He let others define him. He was on defense, not offense. But Kerry also pointed out two things that contributed to his loss that were external factors:
It was fascinating to hear him talk about his defeat in the election. He never seemed to acknowledge that he ran a poor campaign; he seemed to blame a lot of other people for his loss. He talked about how he won three debates. Someone asked him if he lost because his message wasn't simple enough. He agreed with that. Someone else asked him how he and the Democrats are going to simplify their message for the mid-term elections and the next Presidential election. Kerry went on to define a simple 8-point list.
It's clear to me why Kerry lost the last Presidential election. He let others define him. He was on defense, not offense. But Kerry also pointed out two things that contributed to his loss that were external factors:
- Osama bin Laden went on TV the weekend before the election. After this appearance, Kerry's poll numbers started to drop and never recovered
- No president has ever lost an election in the middle of a war
