A reliable source tells me that within minutes of John Kerry's announcement that he won't run for president again in 2008, the Barack Obama campaign was already trying to recruit at least one member of Kerry's "Boston Mafia" to work for them. No surprise there, and I imagine Kerry's entire team is going to be in high demand pretty shortly.
I never understand stuff like this, which is probably why my political blogging consists solely of sporadic attempts to iterate in nice words why I think George Bush sucks. John Kerry's campaign was a disaster in so many ways, and yet, most of his campaign people, if not all of them, will eventually find employment with the people running for the 2008 nomination.
I'm reminded of this exchange from the West Wing episode "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen", when Toby is drinking in a bar before a speech by Candidate Jed Bartlet:
WOMAN: You've been a...what did you call it?
TOBY: Professional political operative.
WOMAN: You've been one your whole life.
TOBY: Well, there was a while back there when I was in elementary school....
WOMAN: You any good?
TOBY: [long pause] Yes, I'm very good.
WOMAN: What's your record?
TOBY: My record?
WOMAN: How many elections have you won?
TOBY: Altogether?
The woman nods.
TOBY: Including city council, two Congressional elections, a senate race, a Gubernatorial campaign, and a national campaign?
[beat]
TOBY: ...None.
WOMAN: None of them?
TOBY: You gotta be impressed with my consistency.
I don't get why knowing how to lose a national campaign is better than never having run one, but that's just me.
5 comments:
I think the point of that scene is that it is possible to be very good, yet not win. We were supposed to understand that it was Toby's ethics that caused him to choose to work for the right candidate, but we all know that right candidate rarely wins.
Me? I'm trying very hard to break into losing local campaigns. I figure with luck I can work my way up to losing national ones...
"my political blogging consists solely of sporadic attempts to iterate in nice words...George Bush sucks"
That's not political blogging, friend, that's factual reporting.
I agree that Kerry seemed to be running as though it was 1972, but in his defense he did manage to get the second highest popular vote total in history.
Damn shame that Bush got the most.
You had me at "why I'm not a political blogger..." :)
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