Reality Bites; Kerry Is Out

Massachusetts' junior senator finally realizes what the rest of us have known for about three years now: He will never be president.

While most of Washington's chattering class had long ago dismissed Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as a viable candidate for the presidential nomination in 2008, today's news that he is officially removing himself from consideration sent waves through the political world.

Kerry made the formal announcement in a speech on the Senate floor in which he castigated the Bush Administration for its handling of the war in Iraq and pledged to work to correct the policy in the months ahead.. People close to Kerry insisted his decision was based on his belief that the Senate offered him the best place to have maximum impact on the way forward in Iraq. Allies insisted that his somewhat sluggish showing in state and national polls had little to do with no-go decision, pointing out that he would have started a second national campaign with $12.5 million in the bank -- a sum that would have allowed him to spend freely to rehab his image.

Kerry is expected to run for a fifth Senate term in 2008, disappointing a number of ambitious Democrats in the Massachusetts congressional delegation.

He may have fallen less than 120,000 votes of winning the swing state of Ohio in 2004, as well as losing a number of swing states (Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada would have made up for the Ohio defeat), but even gaining the '08 Democratic nomination was unlikely. Hillary Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Biden and Dodd would have smoked him early and often. Let's face it, if you're a Democrat and can't beat George W. Bush once, they aren't going to give you another chance.

Can you imagine a Rudy Guiliani-John Kerry debate? And Kerry can hardly match John McCain's military record. Let him waste the ketchup money somewhere else.