(Boston Herald/Matzav)Sen. John F. Kerry should be an able sparring partner for Barack Obama as the president tunes up for a series of debates with Mitt Romney in their cutthroat run at the White House, according to pundits, who said Kerry’s track record and intimate knowledge of the former Bay State governor’s successes and missteps can make him a convincing doppelganger - enhanced by a Romney-like yawn-inducing personality.
“I guess it takes a dullard to play a dullard,” quipped Boston University professor Thomas Whalen, who said Kerry, like Romney, won’t wow crowds as a debater but won’t stick his foot in his mouth either. “It’s kind of funny you have a Massachusetts guy playing a Massachusetts guy. All roads lead to Boston, I guess.”
In prepping for the fall debates that will steer his run at re-election, Obama tapped Kerry to play Romney in mock debate rehearsals, a choice the president’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, called an “obvious” one.
“There is no one that has more experience or understanding of the presidential debate process than John Kerry,” Axelrod said.
Kerry has a reputation as one of the Democratic Party’s best debaters. He went toe-to-toe repeatedly in his own 2004 presidential campaign and in 1994 helped the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy top Romney.
Kennedy’s resume also includes eight hourlong debates he engaged Bill Weld in during his 1996 re-election victory.
Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh called those debates “epic.”
“I think more than anything, he’s watched Mitt Romney for years,” Marsh said. “He knows his record, he watched him run for governor. He knows (Romney) as a politician, a governor and a businessman. It gives him a unique position. I don’t think you can find a lot of people who can check all those boxes.”
looks like a piece of wood
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