Shaking hands with John Kerry

Even though I'm living less than a 15-minute walk away from Tattered Cover, my favorite bookstore in Denver, I sometimes have to rouse myself out of my evening settled-in state at home. Besides offering thousands of books, excellent coffee and a warm atmosphere, TC also has author talks. Last Monday, the eve before the election, John Kerry was scheduled to speak. I almost skipped it, but at the last minute, threw on my coat and walked over. I'm glad I did.


Listeners line up at Tattered Cover after John Kerry's talk Nov. 5

The last time I looked carefully at who John Kerry was and is was in 2004, when he ran for president.   Bush Jr. was up for reelection, a year after he defied international protests and warnings, and invaded Iraq, that costly conflict which is still continuing today. Surely the country was ready for a change, my friends and I reasoned.  I was living in Japan then, a participant in the Japan chapter of Democrats Abroad--a group for American ex-pats around the world who want to stay part of the political process. A year earlier many of us had been in the Tokyo anti-war march opposing any invasion of Iraq. Kerry was not the favorite with this group; the more left-of-center Howard Dean was. Kerry, after all, had voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq two years earlier. Later, he later came to see the error of his vote on that, just as he came to change his views on Vietnam. He went from military hero to antiwar activist in the 60s--this man of honor who had the courage to reflect and change. Dean's campaign derailed, Kerry won the nomination, and Democrats Abroad continued with it's major task of helping overseas voters get their absentee ballots in.

As with so many past moments, my emotional memory of the 2004 election stands out above the circumstances and facts. As the votes were tallied, I was watching the returns online in my living room with two friends. As Kerry's loss appeared certain, my friend Louise phoned. "Oh, Louise!" "Oh, Kathy!" is my memory of that conversation before all the parsing of what went wrong. It was an election Kerry should have won.

Kerry's visit to Denver last week led me to revisit the factual details of the election. Chief among them was the GOP-led "swiftboating" attack. Kerry was a decorated war hero in Vietnam as a result of his service on a Swiftboat crew, running against an incumbent who had dodged military service. An ad appeared challenging his record--an ad that was later discredited, but not before major damage was done. (Read more about it here.) Other problems--voting irregularities in Ohio, the selection of the later-disgraced John Edwards as running mate--took their toll as well.

Kerry visited Denver as part of a book tour for his 600-page memoir, Every Day is Extra. A review of the book in the New York Times says one of Kerry's lingering regrets is that he didn't stop his campaign cold to address those unfair and damaging attacks. Yet his talk before a packed house at Tattered Cover did not dwell on regrets, but rather on the seriousness of problems facing us and what can be done about them. Talking on the eve of the election, he opened by asking us all if we had voted. Of course we had. And then he talked about climate change and the importance of the Paris Climate Accord which he helped negotiate as Secretary of State under President Obama. He talked about the importance of leadership and the problems created in its absence. He talked about his friendship with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy and John McCain and the importance of having bipartisan relationships in Congress.

Listening to Kerry last week, I remembered how we once took a presidential candidate's ability to explain and inspire for granted. How sorely I miss it today--though I know it exists in the campaigns of so many of the Democratic victors in the midterm elections. I wanted to thank Kerry for his lifetime of work and his continuing service to democratic process, but book-buyers were lining up to have him sign their copies, so I left the room, pleased that I had attended. Being a confirmed library user, I did not buy the book; actually, at 600 pages, I decided I'd read this one in review. I wandered upstairs to browse new titles before walking home.

Some time later, standing near a shelf of new releases, I became aware of a familiar voice next to me. Kerry was talking with store staff, standing less than 2 feet away. He was asking if there was a restaurant nearby, and I felt slightly annoyed on his behalf. (Don't book talk arrangers think of attending to their guests' creature comforts anymore? Did they ever?) I trust someone took him out to dinner. For my part, I waited to catch his eye. I put out my hand and said "Thank you"--for everything". A firm handshake and smile ensued from this man, a man of courage and honor.