Kerry Won't Run For President

The Boston Globe is reporting that John Kerry is not running for president. The article sites his now-infamous "botched joke" and good poll numbers by Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama as some factors that led Kerry to believe that he would have had a tough time winning the nomination. Instead, the Senator will seek re-election in 2008.

To be honest, I am disappointed but not surprised. I didn't think that Kerry had much chance of winning the nomination again, and I probably wouldn't have voted for him in the primary myself. Still, part of me was rooting for Kerry just so we'd have the free-for-all for his Senate seat here in Massachusetts. The domino effect would have been exciting as Congressmen ran for the Senate, state Senators ran for Congress, state reps run for state Senate, and so on down to school committee members. Just on a personal level, so many campaigns would have made for some good blogging!

Anyway, here is what he had to say in an email that just went out to his mailing list:

I sought the presidency to lead us on a different course. There are powerful reasons to want to continue that fight now. But I've concluded this isn't the time for me to mount a presidential campaign. It is the time to put my energy to work as part of the new Democratic majority in the Senate, to do all I can to end this war and strengthen our security and our ability to fight the real war on terror.

The people of Massachusetts have given me an incredible privilege to serve in the Senate, to represent the birthplace of freedom, the cradle of liberty, and a state where in Faneuil Hall patriotic dissenters stood on principle. I want to continue representing Massachusetts, and that's why I am running for reelection so I can use my voice all day every day to end this war and galvanize grassroots action to force Washington and our Democratic Party to live up to its responsibility.

In addition, as is the trend nowadays, he's recorded a video with his message.