In the closing days of John Kerry's bitterly fought reelection campaign in 1996, challenger Bill Weld -- the popular Republican governor of Massachusetts -- ran into Joe Moakley, the congenitally chummy South Boston congressman.
"I've been beating your brains in with the unions, and they're finally falling into line," Weld remembers Moakley saying. (Moakley died in 2001.) Kerry was a tough sell for Moakley, who campaigned dutifully if not passionately for the incumbent. Kerry had a knack for leaving people cold and a reputation as someone easier to admire than embrace.
"Jeez, you just have to vote for Kerry," Moakley would tell union members. "I'm not asking you to have a beer with the guy."
One of the persistent raps against Kerry during his career has become a recurring cliche of the 2004 election: that the Democratic nominee-in-waiting has "likability" problems. That he is "aloof." That typical voters would rather have a beer with George W. Bush -- if Bush still drank beer -- and that this could hamper Kerry as it did Al Gore in 2000.
Like all caricatures, this is a shallow rendering of a complex man. Interviews with people who have known and worked with Kerry reveal a personal and political bearing that defies easy characterization. Senate colleagues from both parties say Kerry can be a "good friend" (even in a place where that term, like hair spray, is badly overused). They also acknowledge his reserve, occasional social clumsiness and the catalogue of stories that have animated the caricature over the years.
"The idea that John isn't fun to hang out with is nonsense," says former Nebraska Democratic senator Bob Kerrey. "He has a range of interests and a capacity for introspection that most who have taken the time to know him love. Is he a backslapping, glad-handing butt-kisser? No, but he is terrific company."
Kerry admirers speak about "the Kerry nobody sees." On March 2, Super Tuesday, Kerry called Sen. Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, who was scheduled to have surgery for prostate cancer the next day -- a procedure Kerry underwent last year. They spoke for nearly 20 minutes, and Kerry offered advice and comfort based on his own experience.
"I wouldn't hold myself out as a close buddy of John Kerry's," says Johnson. "But he's busy running for president and had absolutely nothing to gain by calling me. I thought it was an amazingly thoughtful thing to do."
The Popularity Factor
People are quick to describe Kerry in terms of the likable icons he is not.
"John doesn't exactly have that Clinton talent for making you feel like the only person in the room," says Dan Payne, a Democratic media consultant in Boston who has worked for Kerry and knows him well.
Kerry is also no Ted Kennedy, an Olympic-level backslapper and fellow Bay State senator with whom Kerry is chronically compared. "John always failed next to Teddy," says Alan Simpson, the former Republican senator from Wyoming who served with Kerry for 12 years. "It's been a tough order for John from the start, something he's always had to deal with."
In Washington, Kerry was always conscious of "pulling in his horns" because he didn't want to be seen as infringing on Kennedy's turf, Simpson says. In Boston, Simpson, who did a 31/2-year stint at Harvard after he left the Senate, describes seeing Kerry and Kennedy together in public settings. Within seconds, Kennedy would be surrounded by well-wishers. Not Kerry.
It's impossible to talk about Kerry's political identity without discussing Kennedy, says Lowell Weicker, the former governor and senator from Connecticut who began his career as a Republican and then became an independent.
Kerry, Weicker says, is "no more aloof than anyone else in the Senate." He says Kerry is "well liked" but not popular.
