# Kerry is an asshole **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 10, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerry-is-an-asshole/432986 "2008-01-10T15:18:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerry-is-an-asshole/432986/61 "2008-01-11T23:41:14Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] I’m interested in having **TFD** share the actual reasoning behind his belief that Kerry shouldn’t have done so. [/quote] If a former employee of mine was contesting with an associate of mine for a position in a business that calls upon me to for an opinion of their relative merits, I would decline unless I had a solid good reason to. People close to me who"ve done a lot for me deserve not to get stabbed in the back. My opinion given my close experience with them carries more weight than usual Given what I have learned in this thread about the acrimonious relationship between Edwards and Kerry, I have to admit that I was wrong on this one. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2008, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerry-is-an-asshole/432986/62 "2008-01-12T00:01:49Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] Maybe he is trying to help Edwards? Would you really want Kerry’s endorsement? Christ on a stick, he managed to lose to Shrub/Cheney. [/QUOTE] I’ve read that they actually waited until after New Hampshire because they were worried that Kerry’s endorsement would hurt him. They did worry there would be a negative effect. It doesn’t for me. I like Kerry, and I like Obama. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2008, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerry-is-an-asshole/432986/63 "2008-01-12T00:02:51Z")
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman] If a former employee of mine was contesting with an associate of mine for a position in a business that calls upon me to for an opinion of their relative merits, I would decline unless I had a solid good reason to. People close to me who"ve done a lot for me deserve not to get stabbed in the back. My opinion given my close experience with them carries more weight than usual Given what I have learned in this thread about the acrimonious relationship between Edwards and Kerry, I have to admit that I was wrong on this one. [/QUOTE] Plus all that, you don’t work in politics I suppose. Different game, different rules. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2008, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerry-is-an-asshole/432986/64 "2008-01-12T01:05:00Z")
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman] If a former employee of mine was contesting with an associate of mine for a position in a business that calls upon me to for an opinion of their relative merits, I would decline unless I had a solid good reason to. People close to me who"ve done a lot for me deserve not to get stabbed in the back. My opinion given my close experience with them carries more weight than usual Given what I have learned in this thread about the acrimonious relationship between Edwards and Kerry, I have to admit that I was wrong on this one. [/QUOTE] Well, if you’re going to be all reasonable and everything\*, I’m just going to have to downgrade my assessment of the OP from “stupid” to “misguided.” \*also because of what **cricetus** just said. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerry-is-an-asshole/432986/65 "2008-01-12T01:12:45Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] Well, if you’re going to be all reasonable and everything\*, I’m just going to have to downgrade my assessment of the OP from “stupid” to “misguided.” \*also because of what **cricetus** just said. [/QUOTE] I’m going to stick with “stupid,” but only because, unlike Kerry, I _am_ an asshole. [sub]Okay, just kidding. Good on ya, **TFD** [/sub] ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2008, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerry-is-an-asshole/432986/66 "2008-01-12T13:26:49Z")
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman] If a former employee of mine was contesting with an associate of mine for a position in a business that calls upon me to for an opinion of their relative merits, I would decline unless I had a solid good reason to. People close to me who"ve done a lot for me deserve not to get stabbed in the back. My opinion given my close experience with them carries more weight than usual Given what I have learned in this thread about the acrimonious relationship between Edwards and Kerry, I have to admit that I was wrong on this one. [/QUOTE] Okay, I understand this. Hell, that’s what I would to, too. But it’s not the thing to do in politics. That’s why I’m never getting into the political arena. Decency and doing the right thing have no place there. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerry-is-an-asshole/432986/67 "2008-01-13T04:49:33Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] Would you really want Kerry’s endorsement? Christ on a stick, he managed to lose to Shrub/Cheney. [/quote] You indicated that this was meant jokingly, but IMO, it’s valid. What difference does it make what John Freaking Kerry thinks? He’s just as much of an also-ran as Howard Dean, Joseph Lieberman, and whoever the hell else sought the nomination in '04. Kerry is a senator. He’s never worked in the White House in any capacity. He thought **he** had what it took to get elected President, and he was wrong about that. I’m an Obama gal, but I regard Kerry’s endorsement of him as a coincidence with my opinion, not a validation of it. If he had endorsed Edwards, that wouldn’t carry any more weight with me than the Obama endorsement does. And beyond that, I don’t even think Gore endorsing Dean instead of Lieberman was that much of a dis. Choosing a running mate means choosing someone who won’t outshine you. Lieberman was brave to seek the nomination one election after he’d been on the losing ticket, but Gore had not been evaluating him as a potential POTUS. So he apparently sized up the candidates and found Dean to have more potential. It’s unlikely that they had an agreement beforehand. Gore did not owe Lieberman anything, and Kerry does not owe Edwards anything. I did check up on this before posting, incidentally. I only had the patience to go back as far as 1960, but there’s not much precedent for the unsuccessful VP candidate to seek election himself. (Who the fuck was William E. Miller, except that he was Barry Goldwater’s running mate?) The only other one in recent history was Edmund Muskie, and as I recall, he was laughed out of the primaries in much the same way that Howard Dean was. Did Hubert Humphrey endorse him, and if not, did people spaz out about that? But now it’s the 21st century, and Kerry is supposed to give Edwards a big pat on the back because…why? Are they supposed to be **more** loyal to each other **because** they lost? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerry-is-an-asshole/432986/68 "2008-11-07T19:41:17Z")
> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#): > > If a former employee of mine was contesting with an associate of mine for a position in a business that calls upon me to for an opinion of their relative merits, I would decline unless I had a solid good reason to. Looks like Kerry [may have had a compelling reason to](http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/11/07/secretary-of-state-kerry.aspx) (though some may disagree on the assorted tactics and motives involved). ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerry-is-an-asshole/432986/69 "2008-11-07T19:50:25Z")
Zombie John Kerry!! Run! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kerry-is-an-asshole/432986.md?page=3)