John Kerry Drops Out of 2008 Race, Nearly Nobody Cries
Says here that John Kerry will announce later today his intention to drop out of the race for the presidency in 2008, despite previous communications of a strong intention to run.
If our sales of bumper stickers, shirts, buttons, magnets and other sundries in support of the contenders for 2008 is any indication, this announcement won’t be disappointing many people. Looking at sales data from September 19, 2006 through January 23, 2007, I see that items in support of a presidential bid by John Kerry account for only 0.4% of all 2008-themed items we sold. To put that in perspective, more people bought items in support of Al Sharpton’s presidential bid, or Christopher Dodd’s presidential bid, or Tom Vilsack’s presidential bid, than bought items in support of John Kerry. Nearly three times as many people bought something declaring support for a presidential run by Bill Moyers, who has shown absolutely no inclination whatsoever to run for president.
John Kerry may be a terribly unpopular candidate for the presidency in 2008, but at least we can grant him this: he knows how to read the writing on the wall. So long from the presidential scene, John Kerry. Let’s hope this decision frees you up to become a better Senator.
I got the email an hour ago. The paragraph that matters reads:
“I sought the presidency to lead us on a different course. There are powerful reasons to want to continue that fight now. But I’ve concluded this isn’t the time for me to mount a presidential campaign. It is the time to put my energy to work as part of the new Democratic majority in the Senate, to do all I can to end this war and strengthen our security and our ability to fight the real war on terror.”
Glad to see Kerry isn’t running. With Clinton, Biden and Edwards, we already have enough Democrats running who were for the Iraq War when that was popular and are now against the Iraq War now that opposition is popular.
Will he give back the $15 million he still had left over from 2004?
Oh, that’s a really good question.
i hope he does something basically charitable with it. i’d settle for giving it to the dem campaign after the convention, but i’d prefer giving it to groups that support progressive ideals, like human / civil rights, environmentalist groups, etc.
though there is something kinda dirty-feeling about sending the same money through another round of lobbyists and people peeling off their little pieces before it goes right back where it came from.
so tell us, Tom, Jim, Peregrin… what do you think he should do with it?
How about voter registration drives? Or voter education efforts — a la Project Vote Smart? Or a poster of the United States Constitution for every classroom? Or the founding of a wire service with Congressional information distributed for American newspapers? Or an earmark database? Or, or, or…
Damn Sam, but there’s a lot of good that could be done for the country with “just” $15 million.
I’d like to see some of the money used to educate the masses via posters (on buses and trolleys and in airline terminals for example) on democracy and how it’s supposed to work, since civics isn’t taught by and large anymore. Another batch could be used for ads on what common people can do today to help lessen the impending climate catastrophe for their future generations. Just use it to do some good for a change.