Washington Gov. Gary Locke today endorsed Sen. John Kerry for the Democratic nomination. But it's not exactly brimming with enthusiasm. Hear how Gov. Locke damned Kerry with faint praise in a Jan. 20 radio interview when asked if he would be endorsing any of the Democratic contenders (about 4:15 into the broadcast):
Locke: I'm big fans of Senator Kerry and Howard Dean. I've worked with Howard Dean when he was the governor and very, very impressed with his record and what he's been able to talk about. But I've also been very impressed with Sen. Kerry and told some of the members of the press that I think he's a person that people should be watching for and a few weeks ago I was saying don't count out Sen. Kerry.As Mark Steyn puts it, Democrats are rallying behind Kerry only because he has less obvious unelectability than any of the others. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at February 02, 2004 01:12 PMInterviewer: Give me two positives. One from each of them that you're impressed by in terms of Kerry's record or his proposals and Dean.
Locke: Gov. Dean was a good manager of his state of Vermont. He's long championed better medical services for people all across the country in terms of truly good medical coverage where people would still choose their own doctors but greater funding and really good coverage of prescription drugs for every senior in America and really offering better quality health care. As governor he really did lead his state in expanding access and affordability of health care to children and to low and middle class families in his state.
Sen. Kerry , I think, has really got that international experience. I think he has credibility in terms of foreign policy. He's a Vietnam war vet. At the same time he's made a very ....I think he's very correct in saying that President Bush at every single turn has basically screwed up and mishandled international relations and the war in Iraq. I mean, Sen. Kerry supported, authorizing the President, the United States to go into Iraq but again it should have been done with more cooperation and help from other countries it should not have been basically a U.S. endeavor.