Kerrey is a strange combination of feisty candor and mournful self-effacement. During the campaign there have been flashes of strength along with lapses into vagueness. Over breakfast with NEWSWEEK’s Howard Fineman last week, he spoke about his stalled campaign with a trademark mixture of bluntness and detachment.
Probably, probably.
Well … when it comes to advertising I typically am involved in writing, but we sit and talk about what kind of spots you are going to put on, and the suggestion is made, and it sounds like a good idea, and I’ve been making statements on trade anyway.
It’s been a feature, but not a central feature.
I would describe it, looking at it right now, as a mistake.
I’m not really getting away from the biography. I’ve been trying to use the biography to explain that there is a connection between my life and yours … The reason I say the hockey spot is a mistake is I believe in examining the truth. And the truth is, the hockey spot drove my numbers down and not up. So I can say all sorts of metaphysical things about it, one way or another. But cut to the reality: the numbers went down.
Oh, a couple of reasons. One is that people don’t know you nationally. Secondly, there is an expectation far beyond what I could deliver. Thirdly, in Nebraska we don’t do horserace stuff. Never in my life have I experienced somebody moving ahead because they were “electable.”
I appreciated that it was vast and different. But it’s my first trip through the tunnel of unlove.
One of my favorite songs is Judy Garland singing “Nobody Loves You When You’re Down and Out.” Remember that song.? Well in polities it’s absolutely true. What rules in a presidential race-much more than a statewide race-is your capacity to raise money. So if the well dries in the absence of love, yes, it’s entirely possible.
Sure. I don’t expect, by the way, that that will happen. But will it have been worth it? Sure.
