Kos makes some interesting points on Kerry that I think, in the end, are a bit off:
People who worked for Dean, Edwards and Clark all passionately loved their man. The campaigns stuck together. Why?
Because the campaigns were based in the candidates' home states. Hence, staffers had to move to work on those campaigns. They had to make a sacrifice to uproot and travel to a strange city on behalf of their guy. That commitment was real. And since those staffers knew no one else in these cities, they worked together, played together, and stuck together through thick and thin. It was shared sacrifice, and it translated to genuine affection and commitment to their candidate and their cause.
Kerry's campaign was based in DC. The staffers didn't have to make a commitment to their candidate beyond taking a different bus or metro stop. They didn't hang out after work, since they already had their established social circles in town. There was no sense of shared sacrifice and commitment to their guy. Kerry, the consumate insider, ran his campaign from frickin' Washington D.C. And now he tells us he's an "outsider"?
First, we're all agreed that Kerry's outsider fantasies are laughable, so let's set that aside. I think Kos is taking his own detachment towards Kerry and projecting it onto the folks who worked for him. During the campaign, I had a number of friends inside Kerry's beltway walls, and I stayed in fairly close touch with them all. This wasn't, no matter how it seems in retrospect, a campaign of convenience. The people working for Kerry put in 14-18 hour days without complaint. Many of them did everything but live in the office, it took over their life. Many of them moved to DC to work for him. And whether they remain inspired in retrospect -- I know I certainly don't -- he mattered to them then, and faith in his intelligence, righteousness, and worthiness kept many going during that long, long campaign. I don't deny that, for many, it may have started as an anybody-but-Bush sentiment, but it certainly transformed into a real affection for Kerry by the time the votes were cast.
