Why did John Kerry lose the election? According to him, it was the spending cap that is applied to those who accept federal matching funds. If he'd used only outside money, he could have spent more and won.
That's not what he said in January 2005 on Meet the Press, however -- and for good reason; he very famously underspent what he'd been allowed:
MR. RUSSERT: One area that many Democrats were concerned was leftover money. This is the way one of the papers, The New York Times, reported it: "Senator John Kerry had more than $14 million in one of his election accounts in late November, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission, causing some Democrats to complain that he should have spent all of it to defeat President Bush or to help other Democratic candidates."
Why did you hold that money? Why didn't you spend it on yourself and other Democrats?
SEN. KERRY: Well, we spent unprecedented sums on other Democrats around the country. No candidate has ever given as much money as I did to the Democratic Committee. We gave $40 million. I gave $3 million, $4 million, to the DSCC, to the Democratic Senate committee. I gave $3 million to the House committee. We gave money to parties, to the degree that every state director wanted. And the reason we had some of the money left over is that, as you know, I wanted to hold my--I wanted to accept the nomination later. There was an uproar in the party. People didn't want you to accept it because there was a 13-week general election for our campaign and an eight-week general election for the Republicans. We couldn't spend the money legally in the month of August. We had the money held in reserve in the event that some state director said, "We desperately need the money," and we gave more money than the directors seemed to be able to--we were--money was not an issue in the outcome of what happened in this race.
Of course, John Kerry is the current record-holder for most number of words a politician has had come back to haunt him. It must be difficult for him to hear over the sounds of all the chains rattling.
Posted by floridacracker at April 10, 2006 01:26 PMsKerry has a 'memory' problem... He seems to believe the public has short and long term memory loss and can't remember what he said either last week, last year or 30+ years ago.
It's going to be fun watching him get pounded yet again by his own words and actions when he whips out another run for president.
Posted by: Gmac at April 10, 2006 04:25 PMHonestly, it's his mouth that does him in. He just jabbers away saying one thing, then turns around and jabbers something else.
Posted by: Donnah at April 10, 2006 07:05 PMIf Kerry sat on that much money at the end of the campaign, I don't think you'll see the big donors taking a chance on investing in him like that again. Losing as he did doesn't engender much confidence in a second effort. I think if he enters the primaries you'll see that he will not be able to raise as much money as he did last time. Something also tells me that Zsa Zsa or Thereza or whatever her name is, won't be so willing to open up her purse as she did the first time around.
After he fails in his second quest, look for Kerry to start moving toward a new role as party "elder statesman". Fat Ted has only so much time before he finally blows a gasket and that will create an ENORMOUS vacuum that Kerry would be happy to fill in the Senate. I can also see him bow and scrape to get pulled into a cabinet position in the next Democrat administration, whenever that happens.
Posted by: tfhr at April 11, 2006 04:35 AM