Kerry Spot    [ jim geraghty reporting ]
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Why is that the senior Democratic senator from Massachusetts articulated a lengthy and detailed vision for the future of the Democratic party, but the junior Democratic senator from Massachusetts has not?

Obviously, Howard Dean has taken a prominent role in mapping out a future course for the Democratic party.

It's all well and good that Kerry is meeting with Tony Blair and visiting Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories. And maybe this lengthy overseas trip will result in a bold foreign policy vision for the Democrats (chuckle, snort).

But Kerry hasn't made many public appearances and done few interviews since Nov 2. Obviously, he's entitled to some time to heal and rest after a long campaign, but if Kerry wants to have a say in charting the course of his party, he can't wait forever.

UPDATE: TKS reader John observes:

In fairness to Kerry he just laid out a plan for the Democratic Party in a race for the Presidency. It revolved around "the global test", abortion on demand, a deemphasis on gun control, greater health care spending, and more control by judges over Americans lives, and was all stated on his website. It also involved not being George W. Bush. It received 58 million votes or so. Ted Kennedy has never staked out a vision that ever got that amount of votes. Kerry can be relatively quiet until the attacks on him get hot. Then he has to come out swinging at those second guessers who did nothing when he was "on the barricades."

So yeah, Kerry's been quiet about the Party's future but Kerry's vision (with all the caveats he throws in on every statement) is about what it was 5 months ago but he wants to try it against a non-incumbent.

[Posted 01/14 03:10 PM]