Kerry Declines White House Rerun
Jan. 24, 2007 — -- Sen. John F. Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president in 2004, has bowed out of the 2008 contest.
In a speech on the Senate floor, the Senator appeared to tear up when announcing, "Two years ago, I sought the presidency to lead us on a different course…we came close, Mr. President, certainly close enough to be tempted to try again."
"But," Kerry continued moments later, "I've concluded that this isn't the time for me to mount a presidential campaign."
Shortly after Kerry's statement, Senator Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., who pledged to support his state's junior senator if he decided to run again, immediately to the Senate floor to say, "I know how difficult a decision this is for Senator Kerry and I say to the people of the country how proud we are of John Kerry."
Following Kennedy, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., gushed, "I love you John Kerry and I'm sorry things didn't work out for our country."
Kerry leaves a crowded field that already includes several senators, including Democrats Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.
The three-term senator will instead run for re-election in 2008, seeking a fourth term in Congress.
One former Kerry adviser tells ABC News Deputy Political Director David Chalian that Kerry is, in part, a "victim of Barack Obama," and a victim of a Democratic Party tradition of having very little love for those who have lost a previous presidential race.
After losing the critical battleground state of Ohio by 118,601 votes, and thus the election, in 2004, Kerry spent much of the last two years positioning himself as a potential alternative to front-runner Clinton.
On Oct. 30, 2006, however, Kerry undid much of the work he had done with party activists, donors and the media by delivering what he later called a "botched joke" at a campaign event in California.
In front of a group of college students, Kerry said: "You know education. If you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart. You can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."
Reaction was swift and sure, but Kerry's apology was not. Leaving the 2006 midterm campaign trail, an initially defiant Kerry turned contrite, saying, "I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member or American who was offended."
He later added, "As a combat veteran, I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: My poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and [was] never intended to refer to, any troop."
After the joke, a former Kerry adviser says that Kerry strategists came up with a "60 days in the Senate" plan as an attempt to use his position in the Senate as a way to rehabilitate his image.
Kerry planned to use the first two months of the year to continue to mark his turf on Iraq in the Senate and to talk to donors.
The "choice for donors got a lot more real when they started getting daily phone calls from Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama," said this Democratic operative.
The senator was also having a hard time getting his voice heard on Iraq with Carl Levin and presidential hopeful Joe Biden holding hearings on the topic, and Clinton and Obama also on Iraq-related committees.
In the end, however, Kerry's withdrawal from the 2008 race may be about more than a botched joke. The road would have been long, but not impossible.
In the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll released Sunday, Kerry had 8 percent support among leaned Democrats, significantly trailing Clinton with 41 percent support.
He also lagged behind political wunderkind Obama; his own vice presidential candidate and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina; and former vice president Al Gore, by 17, 11 and 10 points respectively.
In another ABC News/Washington Post poll released last month, Kerry supporters' second choice disproportionately favored Clinton.
According to those close to Kerry, the senator intends to focus his time and energy in the Senate on ending the war in Iraq.
Kerry, who won three Purple Hearts during two tours of duty in Vietnam, has been an increasingly vocal critic of the war since his election defeat in 2004, only the second Election Day loss of a long and ongoing political career.