Kerry shrugs off fortunes of rival
DAVENPORT, Iowa -- As he was flying into Davenport yesterday morning, presidential candidate John F. Kerry was looking forward to one of his best days of campaigning in Iowa: He was picking up a big endorsement from the state's longtime attorney general, had just received the backing of the Quad City Times editorial board, and sensed that rival Howard Dean was stumbling, according to campaign aides.
But when his plane landed at lunchtime, he learned that the state's influential senior senator, Tom Harkin, who commands a peerless get-out-the-vote organization in Iowa, had just announced his endorsement of Dean, 10 days before Iowa's nominating caucuses.
Both Kerry and his advisers have expressed irritation at times that outside events often save Dean when the going gets tough. Harkin proved the rule, a campaign aide said yesterday, noting that the Harkin endorsement came just after NBC News's report Thursday about Dean disparaging the Iowa caucuses on television several years ago.
After huddling with aides on board the plane for 10 minutes after it had landed, Kerry bounded onto the tarmac and shrugged off the Harkin news.
"I just heard about it, and I'm just going to call into Washington and talk to some folks," Kerry said. Then he turned back to his own good fortune, referring to the attorney general: "We're going to do our endorsement with Tom Miller. I'm excited about it. We have more endorsements coming in Monday, and we're going to have a hell of a fight going into the last week."
On a visit to Mary Sue's Cafe in downtown Davenport, Kerry greeted Miller and formally announced the endorsement before a dozen patrons and a bank of television cameras. Kerry hailed Miller as "the people's lawyer of Iowa" and "a fellow law enforcement colleague," in a reference to Kerry's own years as a Massachusetts prosecutor in the 1970s. Last night in Des Moines, Kerry also referred to Miller twice as the top "vote-getter" in the state, though he added he was not trying to take anything away from Harkin.
Miller -- who last spring had endorsed longtime friend Joseph I. Lieberman, only to see him stop campaigning in Iowa in the fall so he could concentrate on the New Hampshire primary -- said he was backing Kerry for two reasons: first, because he would make "a president we'd all be proud of -- Democrats, Independents, and, yes, Republicans as well," and second, because Kerry's national security experience and Vietnam War service make him the strongest candidate to face Bush.
"This is a guy that, when he stands up in that debate . . . we won't be the wimp in the party this time -- we'll be the strong, strong candidate on that debate floor," Miller said.
Asked later if he thought Dean was unelectable due to his lack of national security experience -- a possibility Kerry often subtly raises with voters -- Miller said: "I hope not. I hope not. But I think Kerry is stronger, much stronger, in a general election."
After a half-hour discussion of workplace issues with Kerry and seven local residents, Miller acknowledged in a brief interview that Harkin's endorsement hands a matchless organization to Dean. "But it's sort of late -- [Harkin] was a huge factor in Al Gore's success four years ago because he got in it early," Miller said. "Obviously some of his organization will move with [Dean], but it's late for them to do a lot more."
Patrick Healy can be reached by e-mail at phealy@globe.com.
