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| Kerry considering end run round McCain-Finegold |
| 2004-05-21 |
| John Kerry is considering delaying his acceptance of the Democratic presidential nomination at the party’s July convention so that he can keep spending the millions of dollars that he raised during the primaries, The Associated Press has learned. If Kerry were to delay acceptance of his nomination for a month, he would even the playing field with President Bush, who is planning to accept the nomination at the Republican National Convention five weeks later. The party convention would still be held at the end of July, but Kerry would officially accept the nomination at a later date under such a plan. Kerry and Bush are expected to use federal funding for their general election campaign and will be limited to spending the roughly $75 million in federal funds given to each candidate once they accept the nomination. At that point, neither candidate would be able to raise or spend private funds. "We are looking at this and many other options very seriously because we won’t fight with one hand behind our back," Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said Friday. More at the link. All sorts of conspiracy theories abound now (involving Hillery, as you might imagine), but even at face value, it looks like another Democrat attempt at changing the rules in the middle of the game. |
| Posted by:Laurence of the Rats |
| #15 So he could actually wait until November before he accepted to nomination? Maybe he could just put his name on the ballot a a proposed candidate and continue to raise money even after the election. |
| Posted by: john 2004-05-21 10:46:32 PM |
| #14 "I didn't accept it before I accepted it" John Kerry - Nov 2004, presidential concession speech |
| Posted by: spiffo 2004-05-21 8:44:32 PM |
| #13 I really hope he does this! Can you imagine the Republican ads informing the swing voters of Kerry's tactics and motivations? |
| Posted by: spiffo 2004-05-21 8:42:13 PM |
| #12 How dumb are these people, anyway? They voted for Algore. They think Algore won in 2000. They think Kerry's war record is an asset. They attribute made-up statements to people and attack the people based on those fictions. They call opinions they disagree with "evil". That's how stupid they are. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-05-21 8:10:20 PM |
| #11 Grunter - You don't understand the state of the Democrat Party since "Bubba" Clinton came on the scene. This kind of idea is NORMAL for them. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-21 7:22:24 PM |
| #10 I don't understand the process here ( or much else about American politics) Surely the party nominates the candidate. If you doesnt say then and there "I accept" is he nominated or not? And how to word the "I accept in 6 weeks but not right now" speech? I cant wait for that one. It will be the anti-climax of all time. How will he even be able to call himself the candidate, if he hasn't accepted the nomination? How dumb are these people, anyway? |
| Posted by: Grunter 2004-05-21 7:17:28 PM |
| #9 Fred Barnes on the Hewitt show just had an interesting thought. If the public funds the nominating convention at $14,000,000 each, and Kerry doesn't accept immediately, the DNC may be liable for the $14M. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-21 7:17:27 PM |
| #8 Personally, I think the riots and violence in Boston's and NY's streets will overwhelm the convention coverage....especially the NYTCBSNBCPBSABC coverage of the Republican convention...call me a cynic, but the opportunity to vent hate and stupidity by clueless trustfundbabies will be too hard to pass up. Think 20,000 Al Frankens and Janeane Garofalos.... oh, and giant paper-mache puppets: Bushitler, etc ...gotta have those |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-05-21 7:13:10 PM |
| #7 Lemee See : Democrat Convention - July 26-July 29 Olympics - Aug 13-Aug 29 Republican Convention - Aug 30-Sep 2 Labor Day Sep 6 OK: Kerry doesn't accept nomination July 29th Then when does he do it. No speech. No Acceptance. or Speech commenting on the heatwave in his city (Boston) He is so stupid that if he tries to pull it off he may be able to get the FEC to let him slide. A anti-Kerry decision will claim that Bush is {BAAAW} unfair. But people will look at the legal pretzelization and say, "Reminds me of Clinton." If he tries that, he will be ridiculed. However if he does accept the nomination after Aug 13th? Person 1 : "Kerry accepted the Democrat's nomination!" Person 2 : "Yeah? Who cares. We just got a gold medal in women's wrestling." |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-21 7:06:21 PM |
| #6 the earlier date for the dem convention, ergo the cutoff in use of private funds is Terry McAuliffe's Big Mistake© Nobody said the incumbent has the later date, but lil Terry decided to do his early....how was he to know the Olympics, scheduled every friggin' 4 yrs would occur again this year? How was he to know that his best pal Bill Clinton would release his memoir, sucking all the media oxygen from the room? It ain't his fault! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-05-21 6:41:05 PM |
| #5 They don't have to follow McCain-Feingold. They are special. Its the ADA. When you are idea challenged the ADA trumps McC-F. Its a handicap thing. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-05-21 5:35:56 PM |
| #4 Haven't checked, but I'll bet that McCain-Feingold CFR was actually one of the things Sen. Ketchup voted for... No matter, because the rest of his fellow Dimocrats couldn't wait to pass it. Now that they have to obey it, they have other plans. Typical. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-05-21 5:29:51 PM |
| #3 This is pretty crummy but perhaps it does point out a flaw in the law - that is that it favors the incumbent by giving him/her a longer time to use primary funds. Perhaps a hard date cutoff? This sort of thing cuts both ways. Still, as long as it's the law, if you're going to be the chief executive of the law, you might demonstrate an intent to, you know, carry it out by actually acknowledging its existence. Like TR and the Sunday alcohol ban in NY. |
| Posted by: Sawt al-Shebaab 2004-05-21 5:27:00 PM |
| #2 LOTR, I think it's worse than changing rules in the middle of the game. It's more like conveniently ignoring laws that don't benefit himself or his fellow DemocRATS. I don't think Kerry has the ability to to unilaterally delay accepting the nomination, maybe he does; shouldn't he have consulted the UN & France before doing this? Remember the Lautenberg bait & switch? This is just more of the same sad legacy left by Clinton - win at all costs. |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-05-21 4:20:48 PM |
| #1 Link via Drudge. |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2004-05-21 4:08:39 PM |