DENVER - Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) reopened the door to a possible 2008 presidential campaign during a book signing in Denver and then again, in an interview with 9NEWS.
The 2004 Democratic nominee told a crowd of more than 250 at the Tattered Cover bookstore in lower downtown Denver that he had no desire to endorse any candidate for the office right now, choosing to wait to see how they addressed the issue of global warming.
Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, are finishing up a nationwide tour to promote their book, "This Moment on Earth," which highlights successful efforts at the local level to better the environment.
Afterwards, while answering a question from a viewer on the program YOUR SHOW about why he chose not to run, Kerry said he had decided it wasn't the right time.
"Could that change?" Kerry said. "It might. It may change over years. It may change over months. I can't tell you, but I've said very clearly I don't consider myself out of it forever."
Colorado's leading Republican chuckled at the news Kerry may embark on another presidential run and insisted, just like in 2004, he would not win Colorado.
"I would welcome John Kerry to the presidential race," said Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams. "He would fit right in with the current crop of candidates on the other side. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, John Kerry, they all represent a really left-wing viewpoint of the Democratic Party."
When asked whether he expected that decision to change in time for the 2008 race, Kerry said, "If suddenly the field changed or the dynamics of the nation shifted, who knows? You might look at it differently, but I don't see that. I don't foresee that. That's not where I am today and that's not what I'm doing."
Kerry lost the 2004 race after winning the second most number of votes for a presidential candidate in history. President George W. Bush has the distinction of winning the most votes ever in a presidential race.
A Kerry presidential race in 2008? That race certainly doesn't excite me here--I'll take Hillary, Obama, or Edwards any day over Kerry. Kerry had his chance in 2004. He was military war hero, and yet Kerry badly mishandled the "swiftboating" of his character, making him less of an experienced military leader than that of our chickenhawk president George W. Bush. Even when Kerry was running in 2004, I never really saw him as an exciting or dynamic individual who would make a great president. But then again, considering the choice of John Kerry and George W. Bush in 2004, I would choose Kerry over the disaster of our current President Bush any day. But this is not 2004--it is 2008. George W. Bush is not running for president, and the current crop of Republican presidential wannabes are looking like walking zombies from a bad George Romero film. The GOP candidates are all supporting the Iraq war, even when the polls are showing the American public against the war. And the Democratic presidential candidates are very dynamic and exciting in their personalities, and their own political resumes. We've got three big Democratic presidential candidates in the running with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Kerry's former running mate, John Edwards. There is no way that Kerry can compete against these three, even if he tries to rebuild his own organization now. John Kerry had his chance in 2004.
It is time for Kerry to move on.
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