The larger point of the speech, though -- and what made Miller such a fan of Kerry -- was Kerry's talk of duty, both as a soldier and as a Democrat. "There is a difference worth fighting for between the parties," Kerry told the Atlanta audience. "It is a difference that has a profound impact on the lives of our fellow Americans -- and it's time we got back to being Democrats who stand up as citizen soldiers -- in good times and in bad -- and fight for a national politics that lifts up our nation.
"We Democrats believe this nation is more than gleaming buildings and the gated communities with their swimming pools and finely manicured lawns," Kerry said. "We do not see America as a finished product; a city established upon the hill. We see an America still in the process of becoming; a dream not yet fulfilled; a promise not yet kept."
Despite this lofty rhetoric, Kerry is now known in the Senate less as a high-profile legislator and more as someone who offers well-considered amendments here and there. Toiling in the shadow of Mount Teddy Kennedy hasn't been easy, as one has to cede a large chunk of American domestic policy to the Senate chairman of the Health Education Labor & Pensions Committee.
"His strengths have been more investigative, rhetorical and intellectual than legislative," allows a Kerry advisor, "which worries me not at all, because if that mattered we'd be in Year 5 of the Dole administration."
Kerry's highest-profile victories have been fairly solo, executive actions: helming the controversial Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, using Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee powers to investigate Gen. Manuel Noriega, uncovering the Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) scandal, unearthing Lt. Col. Oliver North's private aid network to the Contras which eventually led to the Iran-Contra affair. Kerry sees this as part of his record of holding the system accountable, but these boat-rocking investigations -- especially the BCCI scandal, in which he went after D.C. icon Clark Clifford -- did nothing to endear him to the Washington establishment. Clifford, a former secretary of defense and key Democratic advisor to four presidents -- eventually faced charges of fraud, conspiracy and taking bribes in the BCCI affair, the biggest banking scandal in history. Indictments against him were ultimately put on hold because of his failing health.
"He was the first one to say about Clark Clifford that the emperor had no clothes," says a former senior-level Kerry staffer. "And that was a lonely place to be. One time a highly respected senator got on the elevator and said to Kerry, 'What are you doing to my friend Clark Clifford?' John didn't say anything. After the other senator got off, John turned to me and said, 'I get that all the time on the Senate floor.' He did the right thing. I remember, we had a discussion once about what happens being in the Senate, how you sort of get neutered. The institution doesn't reward the people who push and stick out their necks. This was a good example."
"Kerry's got courage," McCain says. "He's got courage. He'll do what he thinks is right."
The feeling is mutual. Impressed as Kerry was by McCain's campaign and seemingly less than dazzled by Gore's, Kerry says he's trying to marry what he saw as McCain's "no bullshit" appeal with a testimonial to the accomplishments of the Clinton administration -- something Gore was never really able to sell.
"Why I like John McCain so much and why I admired his foray last time is because he, I thought, talked common sense, and that's what I think people want, is for us to not bullshit them," Kerry says in an interview. "The American people are smarter than a lot of politicians want to give them credit for. And more courageous, more prepared to deal with some tough choices if somebody would present them to them. I don't have all the answers, but I'm willing to embrace the discussion."
It's not as if John McCain isn't a politician, of course, with his own unique brand of bullshit packaged in earthy, ironic, wink-and-a-smile "straight-talk" wrapping. American politicians can't tell the truth; the American people won't let them. So what needs to be offered is a limited version of no-bullshit, as when Kerry, in his van, peruses the Democratic Policy Committee talking points slamming the Bush Social Security Commission for claiming that Social Security will run out of money around 2012. The Democratic talking points paint a rosier picture than Kerry believes is accurate -- the government will continue to make payments by amassing debt, but the Republicans are right, the money will run out. Kerry calls the talking points "disingenuous," but he has yet to formulate an official policy on Social Security Reform, and already he's ruled out the relatively minor reform measure of raising the retirement age.
It's Monday evening and Kerry, his daughter and his staff are making their way back to Boston on the Mass Pike. Kerry is placing calls to a radio station, to supporters and staffers with vague allusions to "political" decisions that have to be run by his two longtime strategists, Jim Jordan, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and David McKean, his administrative assistant. The Red Sox-Rangers game is on the radio. Reception is spotty.
"Can we get it better? Isn't it on another station?" Kerry asks demandingly of the driver. Another staffer says that we shouldn't bother; Red Sox catcher Scott Hatteberg hit a line drive right smack dab into a triple play in the fourth inning and the Sox are down 7-6.
The radio is dimmed. Kerry returns to phone calls. In the seventh inning, though, Hatteberg -- the game's goat, the one Sox fans are booing -- steps up and wails the ball. Grand slam. Sox win 10-7. Things can turn around quickly in the world of baseball; one inning's goat is another inning's superstar.
"I don't want to get highfalutin about it," Kerry says in an interview when I ask him about how 2002 seems quite like a practice run for 2004, how the preparations for Kerry for President are being made not just among staffers and fundraiser but in his head and speeches. "I want to be careful about it. I'm not 'picking themes,' I'm just trying to talk about things that make sense. And obviously I'll see how and what matters to people. Or how they respond to some of those things as I think about what I may or may not end up doing."
About the writer
Jake Tapper is Salon's Washington correspondent and the author of "Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency."
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