Kerry's concession speech

I just watched John Kerry's concession speech on TV -- one of the very few events of this election that I saw on television. If you didn't see it, I recommend doing so. Tears welled up and dripped down my cheeks as I watched him. He didn't read from a teleprompter, so it seems, and yet he was tremendously eloquent and inspiring. He was above all gracious in defeat, calling on Americans to unite in the name of our democracy, reminding us that our efforts to change America's future have meaning, and thanking those who worked so hard for him. I mourned an opportunity lost. Behind Kerry's eloquence I heard what was for me the most compelling aspect of his person and candidacy: his compassion. If there was one feeling that he conveyed with conviction in each of the debates, it was this ability to empathize with the struggles and suffering of others. I have no idea what a Kerry presidency would have been like, but it is this quality in Kerry the man that gave me the most hope for us as a nation. As a Vietnam war protester and member of that part of his generation whose revolutionary activism never translated successfully into mainstream power (today is yet another confirmation of this idealism cast aside), what remains consistent and appealing about Kerry -- what seems never to have been lost as he transformed himself from an oppositional activist into a national politician -- is his compassion. Will Bush, the triumphant icon of "passionate conservatism," ever be able to live up to something like this empathic ideal? I can only hope so.

Lincoln