Kerry & Clinton

The body of a letter I just wrote to Sullivan, re: Kerry's backing of Obama:

Despite being a life-long Democrat, I also shudder at Kerry's endorsement. However, it is the first step in balancing off the damaging bias of Bill Clinton. If Bill had decided to be above-the-fray then I would consider him the leader of the party, but he has decided to forgo that honor. So there are 3 people who can credibly be called the leaders of the party in descending (basically chronological) order: 1. Nancy Pelosi, 2. John Kerry, 3. Al Gore.

Pelosi is the current party head, the second in line to the Presidency (and for some reason the milestone of her female-ness hasn't been mentioned too much by the rah-rah Hillary crowd... could be because Pelosi wasn't married to a former speaker of the house?). The link to MSNBC you gave suggests that Pelosi won't endorse, but we'll see.

After her is Kerry, who, whether I like it or not, was my party's nominee four years ago. That means something. And even though the Republicans managed to create a cult of hatred around him, he's an innocuous politician with a lot of experience (who would have been a decent running mate for Obama had he not run in '04).

After that comes Gore, who you also indicate may be above it all.

But in any case, all three lead my party. Bill has decided to abdicate his leadership in favor of his wife - which I can understand as a husband - but he won't regain the title unless he does penance (e.g. campaigning STRONGLY for Obama or Edwards should they be the nominee). Bill won't do that, but hey, I need to be fair to the rules (I just made up).

Pic from here. Backpost finished 2009-12-13.