John Kerry

except as interseting tidbits about JK post-VICTORY (YAY!!! still giddy...) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/us/politics/obama-campaign-clawed-back-after-a-dismal-debate.html?hp&_r=0&pagewanted=all

Overall interesting article. The part about Kerry (no, not about FP or the SoS position

Shortly after the debate began, Mr. Obama’s aides realized they had made their own mistakes in advising Mr. Obama to avoid combative exchanges that might sacrifice the good will many Americans felt toward him. In Mr. Obama’s mock debates with Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, Mr. Kerry drew Mr. Obama into a series of intense exchanges, and Mr. Axelrod decided that they were damaging to the president.

Given that I think I am on he verge of falling in love with Axelrod and his moustache, I will not hold this against him (I actually think that the nation and the world ows him a huge debt of gratitude), but it's interesting.

Another short quote from the article:

Even as the networks declared Mr. Obama the winner, Mr. Romney, who had earlier told reporters he had written only a victory speech, paused before the walk downstairs from his hotel room in Boston. It was 11:30 p.m., and Romney field teams in Ohio, Virginia and Florida called in, saying the race was too close for the candidate to give up. At least four planes were ready to go, and aides had bags packed for recount battles in narrowly divided states. Bob White, a close Romney friend and adviser, was prepared to tell the waiting crowd that Mr. Romney would not yet concede.

But then, Mr. Romney quietly decided it was over. “It’s not going to happen,” he said.

The part I boldfaced, is probably he only thing I saw in all these years that triggered some positive feelings towards Romaney in me. Not so much because he did not cause a mess, but because he found in him to do the right thing.