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Opinion: Calling John Kerry, calling John Kerry

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DENVER -- Democrats do not treat their presidential losers kindly (unless your name is Hillary Clinton, in which case all bets are off).

Jimmy Carter actually once was a winner (in the 1976 election). But then he lost to Ronald Reagan four years later. At this year’s party convention, the brief recognition of one of only two Democrats to occupy the White House in the last 40 years (the other being Bill Clinton, of course) took place long before prime-time Monday -- C-Span viewers might have caught it, but that’s about it.

Neither the 1984 nominee, Walter Mondale, nor the ’88 nominee, Michael Dukakis, have any sort of profile at the convention.

The 2000 nominee, Al Gore, is one of the speakers at the big wrapup event Thursday night at Invesco Field, but that’s more because he’s reinvented himself as an above-the-fray environmentalist.

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And then there’s John Kerry. Or, more precisely, where is John Kerry?

He was featured in a video during Monday night’s festivities -- the one paying tribute to Sen. Edward Kennedy. But there have been virtually no reminders that, just four years ago, Democrats gathered in Boston to lionize Kerry.

He does gets a podium slot Wednesday -- and will do his part to tout the national security credentials of the new kid on the block, Barack Obama.

-- Don Frederick

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