Kerry opts out

By Michael J.W. Stickings

John Kerry has announced that he will not run for president in '08. The Boston Globe has the story here.

There isn't much I can add to what's already been written -- see Memeorandum here for reaction from around the blogosphere. All I wish to say is that I admire and respect Senator Kerry a great deal. He's a good and honourable man. I came to support him enthusiastically in '04, and I believe he would have made (and would still make) an outstanding president. He may not have run a great campaign, and he may not have been the most effective candidate, but he did extremely well against an incumbent (war) president.

But it is probably for the best -- for him and for us -- that he's decided to run for re-election to the Senate rather than to test the uncertain presidential waters for a second consecutive time. Basically, he stood no chance of winning the nomination, not with Edwards, Obama, and Clinton running, not with the memories of '04 still fresh, not with Democrats looking for a new leader to take back the White House.

Kerry's time on the presidential stage has likely come and gone. But, in the Senate, he still has the opportunity to do so much more.