Kerry: ‘Botched Joke’ No Hindrance In Possible 2008 White House Run

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON —Senator Kerry, a Democrat of Massachusetts, said yesterday that his “botched joke” about President Bush’s Iraq policy would not undermine a possible White House campaign in 2008.

“Not in the least,” Mr. Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004 said when asked if the furor over his comment had caused him to reconsider a 2008 race. “The parlor game of who’s up, who’s down, today or tomorrow, if I listened to that stuff, I would never have won the nomination.”

One of the GOP politicians mentioned in a crowded field for the White House, a former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, said he would not make a decision until September — a relatively late date in the campaign cycle — to focus in the private sector on trade policies.

“We have lots of time for personal ambition,” the Georgia Republican said. “And I think an awful lot of this early energy is wasted, and we ought to be focusing on, you know, how are you going to compete with China and India, how are you going to solve the problem in Iraq?”

Mr. Gingrich said Senator McCain, a Republican of Arizona, and Mayor Giuliani, both of whom have set up presidential exploratory committees, were the likely front-runners. But Mr. Gingrich said voters are yearning for a clearer conservative voice.

“I think Mitt Romney has an opportunity to fill that,” Mr. Gingrich said, referring to the outgoing Massachusetts governor, a Republican.

Mr. McCain said Giuliani was an “American hero” for his leadership in New York following the attacks of September 11, 2001. But Mr. McCain called himself the best presidential candidate based on a “record of being a conservative Republican, of knowledge on national security and defense issues.”

Mr. Kerry said he would decide early next year whether to run for president.


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