Posts with the tag 'John Kerry'
Senator John Kerry finally faced some Democratic opposition for his senate seat in his debate with Ed O’Reilly, and it seems like O’Reilly gave him a run for his money.
US Senator John F. Kerry never seemed very eager for this debate, and from the opening moments it was clear why. Edward O’Reilly, an unpolished Gloucester lawyer who is Kerry’s only Democratic challenger in 24 years, came out swinging, throwing jabs about the senator’s six-year-old Iraq war vote and questioning his commitment to serve out another full term in the Senate.
“Will John Kerry give a commitment to stay the six years if he’s elected?” O’Reilly said in the first - and probably only - debate before the state’s Democratic primary on Sept. 16. “And, if he won’t give that commitment . . . will he put up the millions of dollars it will cost the taxpayers of Massachusetts for a special election?”
Kerry, who four years ago was at the political pinnacle as he debated with a sitting president on the international stage, appeared miffed at the question. He told moderator Jon Keller that he thought the debate format forbade the candidates from posing questions.
“I didn’t know we were asking each other questions,” Kerry said. “So, if we can break the rules, that’s one thing, but -”
“He didn’t break the rules,” Keller said. “Go ahead.”
“I’m happy to answer it,” Kerry said. “I’ve said consistently I am only running for one job. I’m not asking for any other job. I’m not looking for any other job. I intend to serve my term. If I’m elected, that’s what I’m doing.”
O’Reilly hammered Kerry on his 2002 vote to authorize the war in Iraq, his lack of influence in the senate, and his lack of financial support for other Democratic candidates. Kerry only denied the charges, and said “I’m proud of the job that I’ve done.”
O’Reilly did fumble the football a bit…
O’Reilly’s lack of experience showed when he stumbled over a question about how he would protect a federal line item for technology funding. He said he would consult with the New England Council on Biotech Industries, an organization that doesn’t exist.
Whoops.
But back the Kerry’s vote to authorize force in Iraq… that was the subject of almost half the debate.
O’Reilly criticized Kerry for not reading the National Intelligence Estimate, a classified compendium of intelligence reports, before voting - an allegation Kerry said after the debate was “just silliness.”
“I did something better than read it - and it really shows Ed’s lack of understanding of what due diligence is in Washington,” Kerry said. “I actually met with the CIA teams. I actually went to the Pentagon and sat down with the secretary of defense.”
It was all Colin Powell’s fault, wasn’t it? What’s worse: voting to authorize the use of force without due diligence; or doing your diligence before voting and then changing your mind years later?
The winner of the September 16th primary faces Republican Jeff Beatty in the general election.
Tags: Jeff Beatty, John Kerry, Jon Keller
September 7th, 2008
Our junior senator John Kerry was on ABC and had some words to say about Senator John McCain’s runningmate and her experience, or rather, in his opinion, the lack thereof.
You know, we’ve been warning against the third term of George Bush. With the choice of Governor Palin it is now the third term of Bush-Cheney. Because what he’s done is chosen somebody who actually doesn’t believe that climate change is man-made. He’s chosen somebody who has zero, zero experience in foreign policy. The first threshold test of a president, of a nominee, in choosing a vice-president is to prove to the American people that the person that you’ve chosen can fill in tomorrow. That they come with the requisite experience to lead the nation in foreign policy and in national security. You know, she may be, I mean I’m sure she’s a terrific person. I’m not attacking her. I think John McCain’s judgment is once again put at issue because he’s chosen somebody who clearly does not meet the national security threshold, who is not ready to be president tomorrow.
This is particularly funny coming from John Kerry, who picked John Edwards as his running mate. Besides having been elected to the Senate, and believing in man-made global warming, what other credentials did he have?
When it was suggested that Governor Sarah Palin has more experience than Senator Obama, Kerry got defensive.
That’s just ridiculous on its face. Barack Obama has been in the United States Senate. He has not been absent more than he’s been there. She’s been a governor for what, two years now. Barack Obama in four years.
So four years in the senate makes you qualified? Casting a few votes and showing up to work is all it takes?
But moreover, Barack Obama has traveled abroad. Look at the trip Barack Obama took. I mean its remarkable to me that the Republicans would try to denigrate a trip that a candidate for president takes where he attracts more attention, more support if you will, than a sitting president of the United States of America. That’s what you need in leadership for a president. You need somebody who can go to Europe and say to them, “We need more help in Afghanistan.” He actually called the Europeans to account on their need to be frankly more front and center in the effort to deal with Afghanistan than President Bush has. I think that’s leadership and I think the United States of America is well-served if we have a president who is able to do that.
Traveling abroad; another pre-requisite. Listen up all you college students studying overseas–you too are also qualified to be president under Kerry’s logic. (I suppose Kerry met the foreign policy requirement to be president after making one trip to Paris in 1971.)
Barack Obama has been recorded as being present during senate roll call a hundred times or so in 4 years, and traveled abroad–this, according to John Kerry, makes him qualified to be president. How many Americans out there show up to work (a thousand times, give or take, over 4 years) and have traveled abroad? I’ve been overseas, and I show up to to work, so I must be qualified to run for president according to John Kerry. Kerry says Obama also attracts more attention (and support) than a sitting president, and that makes him qualified for president. Heck, so does Paris Hilton, or even Michael Phelps (who just got back from China…), should they run for president?
Kerry is clearly trying to argue that a first term governor, particularly one having only served two years, is not qualified for vice president. Oddly enough, there have been a few governors once considered by Obama for his running mate, some also still in the midst of their first terms. Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia, who started his first term in January 2006; Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, who is a few years into her second term; Governor Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a first term governor; and Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who originally was vying for the nomination. Sarah Palin has been governor of Alaska for two years; what executive decisions has Barack Obama made besides picking Joe Biden as his running mate? That answer is none. What has he done in the Senate? According to govtrack.us, Obama has “sponsored 136 bills since Jan 4, 2005, of which 122 haven’t made it out of committee and 2 were successfully enacted.” He has missed 23% of the votes since his term started.
Historically, there are six examples of one term governors who went on to serve as vice president: Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, Thomas Hendricks, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Marshall, and Spiro Agnew. Half of them went on to be president. How about this for a history lesson: former two-term Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge, elected to the corner office in both 1918 and 1919, was elected vice president in 1920; succeeded President Warren Harding after his death in 1923; and was elected to his own term as president in the 1924 election. Palin is not alone.
If you objectively consider Barack Obama’s credentials for president and Sarah Palin’s credentials for vice president, there is no comparison. Palin is much more fit to be vice president than Obama is to president.
Sorry Senator, but your argument for why Obama is more qualified for president than Palin is for vice president is much like your own bid for the presidency: failed.
Tags: Barack Obama, John Kerry, John McCain, Sarah Palin
September 2nd, 2008
Jeremy Jacobs at PolitickerMA reports:
U.S. Sen. John Kerry agreed Friday to debate primary challenger Ed O’Reilly, according the Kerry campaign.
There will be one debate, set to take place on WBZ-TV and it will be hosted the station’s political analyst, Jon Keller Further details are still be finalized.
O’Reilly has made his debate proposal a major part of his campaign, repeatedly charging that Kerry was ducking his debate challenge. The final agreement falls well short of O’Reilly’s original proposal, which called on the candidates to meet in each of the state’s 14 counties, each University of Massachusetts campus and on four television networks.
Tags: John Kerry, Jon Keller
August 22nd, 2008
In a pathetic attempt to redirect blame for his 2002 vote to authorize force in Iraq, Senator John Kerry blamed Colin Powell, then Secretary of State, for his decision.
In a phone interview with conservative talk show host Ken Pittman on WBSM Tuesday afternoon, Pittman asked Kerry (D-Boston) to explain how he at one time voted for the use of force in Iraq and then came to vehemently oppose the U.S. operation there. Kerry welcomed the opportunity.
“Absolutely, I’d be delighted to do that,” he said. “I spent a long time on the telephone with Colin Powell on the Sunday before the vote and Colin Powell assured me they were going to do all of the planning necessary, they were not going to rush to war. He assured me that they were going to do all the inspections and exhaust the remedies of the United Nations and finish the diplomacy.”
Kerry based his vote “largely on the conversations with Colin Powell,” believing that the administration would not rush into war. Kerry didn’t place all of the blame on Powell, however, saying that he too was given faulty information.
“In fact,” he said, “if you were to talk Colin Powell today or [then Deputy Secretary of State] Richard Armitage…they’ll tell you - they misled Colin Powell. And through him the rest of us were given evidence that never would have passed scrutiny.”
So Kerry and others were given evidence that would have never passes scrutiny…? Kerry continued his pointing the finger game.
“I spent a lot of time trying to understand precisely what the extent of that evidence was,” he said. “What has not been written about a lot is the due diligence that I did leading up to that vote. I went to the United Nations Security Council and I met with every single one of our Security Council ambassadors in a meeting. I am the only senator, I think, that took the time to do that. I spent two hours with them learning from them what their perceptions were from their countries about Saddam Hussein’s weaponry. They agreed that [Iraq] undoubtedly had weapons and that there needed to be some kind of inspection process put in place. And they believed that they needed more time to put that in place. Ultimately we were going have to hold them accountable.”
Kerry also said that he went to the Pentagon before the vote and looked at the intelligence photographs of buildings that were believed to house Hussein’s weapons programs.
It sounds like Senator Kerry did more than any other senator to scrutinize the evidence, and still voted to approve the use of force. So which is it senator? Did Colin Powell give you evidence that would not have passed your scrutiny, or did you not fully understand the evidence you reviewed yourself before voting to approve the use of force?
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t vote for something before voting against it, and you can’t blame Colin Powell for misleading you with evidence when you proudly admit that you “spent a lot of time trying to understand” the evidence yourself and did your “due diligence” before the vote. If that is your claim, you can only blame yourself for your vote.
Tags: Colin Powell, John Kerry
August 21st, 2008
Oh please let this be true!
Barack Obama has yet to name a vice presidential nominee and some are wondering if he might turn to Massachusetts to round out the ticket.
John Kerry for vice president?
Don’t dismiss the notion just yet.
Some political insiders are telling WBZ it could happen.
So why would Obama reach out to Kerry as his choice?
Kerry brings more money and name recognition to the table than any other name on the Obama list so far. Americans do tend to love a comeback kid and this would be the most amazing political comeback since Richard Nixon came back from the dead forty years ago.
“I’m not looking for any new job, I’m running for re-election,” Kerry told WBZ last week.
Asked about the V.P. buzz, his press secretary told WBZ in a statement Thursday night:
“If I was bi-lingual, I’d say no in multiple languages. The only job John Kerry is running for, contemplating, or considering is the one he already has.”
Would this just be great. Barack Obama, the most inexperienced major party presidential candidate in history, picking one time loser, long-time serving Senator with a most undistinguished career.
Perhaps I was right back in January that Kerry’s endorsement of Obama was primarily self-serving .
Tags: Barack Obama, John Kerry
August 15th, 2008
Jeff Beatty’s op-ed appeared in Human Events today.
The thought of Sen. John Kerry and a president named Barack Obama loose on the streets of Washington, D.C. sounds like an idea for a horror movie. But it would just be a sequel to a disaster movie that the people in Massachusetts have already seen — one which stars Kerry and Gov. Deval Patrick.
Here in the Commonwealth, where I am the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, we are fighting to keep this “remake movie” from reaching national screens by prevailing in my election to the U.S. Senate over John Kerry and by giving the Bay State’s 12 electoral votes to John McCain. We have paid the price to see this disaster film once in Massachusetts and will not pay to see it spread across America.
Read the whole thing. Then visit Beatty’s website and toss him a donation.
Tags: Barack Obama, Deval Patrick, Jeff Beatty, John Kerry, John McCain
August 13th, 2008
Sound like overconfidence? Some might be quick to dismiss it as such, but recent polls suggest it may not be so farfetched...
Responding to a recent poll showing presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s lead over presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in Massachusetts narrowing, Jeff Beatty, the Republican challenging U.S. Sen. John Kerry, predicted victory in both his race and for McCain in Massachusetts.
A 7News/Suffolk University poll released Monday showed Obama (Ill.) with a nine-point lead over McCain (Ariz.) - 47 percent to 38 percent. The last 7News/Suffolk University poll, released a month and a half ago, showed Obama leading McCain by 23 points, 53 percent to 30 percent.
“People see him for what he is,” Beatty toldPolitickerMA.com referring to Obama. “Obama is shallow. He’s an empty suit. He doesn’t have the relevant experience to work the country out of its problems and John McCain does. I’ve been advocating an action policy to solve these problems and that’s resonating with voters. That’s why I’ll say McCain is going to carry Massachusetts and I’m going to beat John Kerry.”
In Massachusetts, a 9-point lead for Barack Obama is actually an extremely poor showing for someone who has been anointed with rock-star status by the media and the Democratic Party. Of course, one person who can share some of the blame for that is Deval Patrick, whose campaign of hope turned into an administration of incompetence.
Tags: Barack Obama, Deval Patrick, Jeff Beatty, John Kerry, John McCain
August 5th, 2008
Earlier today I had the opportunity for an interview/conference call with Republican Senate candidate Jeff Beatty. Below is a synopsis of my brief 15 minutes with Mr. Beatty.
I first asked him why he has his eyes set on Capitol Hill as opposed to Beacon Hill. Beatty explained that he’s not a professional politician, and it is his experience that dictates why he is running for the Senate.
I spoke with Mr. Beatty about his voter reach out strategies, particularly those involving the new media,like his Facebook Group, MySpace and Twitter–but he stressed that his campaign is going back to build an old-style grassroots campaign. Since the campaign started a year ago in April the campaign has brought in over $1,300,000 in donations.
I asked Jeff what kind of feeling he was getting from Democrats he’s talked to, and he likes where the campaign is with them and is getting a great vibe from the Democrats and the unenrolled.
Since the number of elected Republicans in Massachusetts is dwindling, I asked what makes him feel that this is the best chance to unseat John Kerry. Mr. Beatty believes that Senator Kerry is the least popular senator in Washington; he’s aloof, arrogant and disconnected; feels that he has an entitlement, not a job. Mr. Beatty feels that Barack Obama’s being the Democratic nominee for president and Deval Patrick being in the corner office as helping his chances, and noted that 4 of the last 5 gubernatorial elections went for Republicans. He believes John McCain will carry Massachusetts.
My next question was about support for the Beatty Campaign from the Massachusetts Republican Party. While the Massachusetts GOP headquarters is located on Merrimac Street in Boston, Mr. Beatty sees the Massachusetts GOP as being all over the state. While the Massachusetts GOP is a low point, he see it as on the up, and while the state party isn’t capable helping him a lot, Beatty’s campaign for Senate is helping the party. The Republican Party is usually defined by who is on the top of the ticket, and the Beatty campaign is doing its best.
With only a little time left, I veered away from politics to ask Jeff something that has been on the minds of many in Massachusetts the past few days…the Manny Ramirez trade. “I hate to see Manny go, but Manny has to realize what the word ‘team’ means.” It’s all about team, not about individuals. It’s about who you represent.
That concluded the interview with Jeff Beatty.
Tags: Barack Obama, Deval Patrick, Jeff Beatty, John Kerry, John McCain, Massachusetts Republican Party
August 3rd, 2008
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