Kerry says he wants to focus on Iraq war

WASHINGTON -- Senator John F. Kerry said yesterday that he had "deep second-thoughts" before deciding to forgo a second run for president because his 2004 campaign -- in which he captured his party's nomination after starting far back in the polls -- showed that the unexpected can happen in politics and that a surprise twist or turn can make a candidate viable again.

But Kerry also said he's comfortable with his decision to bow out of the 2008 campaign and is ready to run for reelection in Massachusetts next year while lending a hand to the eventual Democratic presidential nominee. He also intends to focus his energy on getting US troops out of Iraq.

In an interview with the Globe, Kerry said his decision to stay out of the presidential race, which he announced in an emotional, 30-minute speech on Wednesday, was made after calculating the steep odds he would face to win his party's nomination again and weighing the effect he could have on ending the Iraq war as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"I wanted to focus on this issue with a clarity and as much of my energy as I can," Kerry said. "I also felt that when I weighed some of the odds of where you can have the most impact right now, it overwhelmingly came down on the side of getting out."

Though Kerry voted to authorize Bush to invade Iraq in 2002 , working against an unpopular war returns him to something of a comfort zone. In 1971, shortly after returning from combat duty as a Navy officer in Vietnam, Kerry's testimony before a Senate committee vaulted him to political celebrity.

Now, Kerry said he will help fellow Democrats and some Republicans press the president to set a deadline to pull troops from Iraq, a necessary step, the senator argues, to spur the political negotiations that will help the country find peace.

"This is the first day of the rest of my political career," Kerry said. "It's going to be different than it has been because it's not as a candidate for president; it's as a senator who was a candidate for president."

More than three decades ago, Kerry's work against the Vietnam War set him on course to the Senate -- and, he often hoped, on to the presidency. After his narrow defeat to President Bush in 2004, Kerry kept on campaigning, eschewing the quiet soul-searching that other failed candidates often endure.

Within months of his loss to Bush, Kerry was traveling the country again, a one-man campaign for his plan to provide universal healthcare for children. He visited New Hampshire and Iowa, two states that play key roles in the presidential campaign. He sent regular e-mails to a list of three million supporters. He kept in place a top-flight campaign team that was prepared for another run.

But there were warning signs for Kerry: Some of his top fund-raisers and staff members from 2004 were hesitant to commit to helping Kerry run again, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois were drawing a lot of attention as early contenders, and Kerry was an afterthought in public opinion polls, his numbers lingering in the single digits.

Top Democrats publicly and privately urged him not to run. Even Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a staunch ally and a fellow Massachusetts Democrat, sent him a not-so-subtle message last month: He would endorse another candidate if Kerry didn't announce his intentions early.

Looming over Kerry's late-stage decision-making was his "botched joke" that poor students would get "stuck in Iraq." When the remark made headlines, Kerry vigorously defended himself on national television, and his aides were pleased that he showed the type of fight critics say he never demonstrated against Bush in 2004.

But the controversy grew, and Kerry soon found himself in a firestorm. Democratic congressional candidates, worried that the matter would turn off voters, asked Kerry to stay away from their campaigns. Next came condemnations -- from fellow Democrats as well as Republicans, including Clinton -- that Kerry had criticized US troops during wartime.

Kerry spent the next 11 weeks assessing the damage and mulling his next move. The episode and its fallout set in motion a chain of events that culminated in Wednesday's announcement that he will stay in the Senate.

David Thorne, Kerry's longtime friend and former brother-in-law, said Kerry recognized the "huge hurdle" he would face after having run and lost in 2004. Thorne said Kerry returned from a December trip to Iraq firmly convinced that, as a Vietnam combat veteran and sitting US senator, he has a special obligation to help stop the war in Iraq.

"He's a competitive guy, and he's wanted to be president for a long time. But this seemed like the wisest decision," Thorne said.

Speaking with the Globe, Kerry said he still intends to use his influence in presidential politics. He said he wouldn't rule out a run five years from now or beyond. He noted that he considers himself "a very young man" at age 63; by 2012, he'll still be younger than Senator John McCain of Arizona, a GOP presidential contender who is 71.

But he said his own ambitions will be sidelined as he presses for an end to the war.

"I understood that I had hurdles to get over, but I've had hurdles before in my career, and that's not what dissuaded me," Kerry said. "What's important is where we're going from here with respect to the big issues that are facing the country."