One More Thing...

The Kerry-Edwards ticket IS exciting, despite Kerry not being the best speechmaker in the world.  He seems to bring a more team-like approach to a campaign, evidenced by picking a strong VP candidate, by trotting out the all-stars to the convention.  The Dems seem to be strongly united behind Kerry.  It seems like the Dems are coming together in a way we never quite did under Clinton or Gore.

The Gore campaign sucked, a combination of smug assurance that a strong economy would lead to an easy victory and underestimating of an opponent Gore (and the rest of the Dems) probably thought would be a cake walk.  The Gore-Liberman ticket was BORING.  The Kerry-Edward ticket, however, seems like a fun ticket, a principaled ticket, a cool ticket.

How this differs from other recent campaigns is that it feels more team-oriented.  It stems from Kerry's (and Edward's) service in the Senate.  The Senate requires working within the parties politics and within the institution of the Senate.  Clinton and Bush both came as governors, bold individualistic leaders, who had their own "people" surrounding them.  Recently, our presidents have been former governors or VPs.  Senators have not fared well, Dukakis, Bob Dole...people seemed to think that being the leader of a state was a better prerequisite for being president.  I think this is true in some cases.  But now, I think the American people might feel more like a team-type leadership, a leadership of deference to others thoughts and opinions, a leadership of inclusion, rather than a Bold leadership.  Clinton, make no mistake, was Bold.  He was a bright, shining star, surrounded by people who loved him and were in awe of him.  This was both his strength and weakness...he appeared great, but those around him did not - see Al Gore.  And see how the country had not only Clinton-fatigue, but Democrat fatigue.  Clinton did not build a strong party apparatus.  He's too big for a party.  Kerry, on the other hand, is not.  He is a worker, within the party, within the system.  It's a different type of leadership and I'm willing to take a gamble and see if it works.  I hope America is too.