Though this diary entry will contain no news (or at least that was my impression until recent exchanges on the Daily Kos) I feel like many people here don't realize the rhetorically advantageous position of John Kerry.
First of all John Kerry, is firmly within the middle of the Democratic Party. Unfortuately National Journal allowed itself to be a tool for the right when they listed Kerry as the most liberal Senator because the only votes Kerry returned to Washington to cast were the important (liberal) votes. While this may have been factually accurate it is a distortion to the point of meaninglessness to base such a claim on only 19 out of 62 votes.
Other rankings such as Progressive Punch counter the National Journal's ranking and 'punish' Kerry for missing close votes important to liberal causes. Thus Progressive Punch only ranks Kerry as 24th most liberal Senator for the 108th Congress.
However, for the distressed progressives (and potential Nader voters) on dKos it needs to be reasserted- John Kerry had the most
liberal record of any of the Presidential candidates.
Americans for Democratic Action ranks their lifetime scores:
Kerry 92
Kucinich 90
Moseley Braun 88
Gephardt 83
Edwards 81
Lieberman 76
Graham 69
Sharpton and Clark have no legislative records at all. Dean's is not comparable and is considered to be fairly moderate.
I have been shocked to see that even many on dKos seem to miss the distinction of Kerry's record in comparison to Senate Democrats (moderate) and to the 9 others who chose to run for President (liberal). The fact is that Dick Durbin and Russ Feingold did not run for President and it seems a bit unfair to punish John Kerry for this fact.
We should all be extremely happy that the candidate with the most liberal record was able to win with very moderate rhetoric- this is a similar position that George Bush was in in 2000. Once more let's thank Dean, Kucinich, Moseley Braun, and Sharpton then resume our campaign to defeat George Bush.
That is the motivation of this public-service announcement.