He could have fought it.
Yes, it's likely that he would have lost it. But he could have dragged it on and on.
He didn't.
He had plenty of lawyers with plenty of briefs. Instead, he chose to just "be" brief.
John Kerry is stepping aside. His life-long quest to be president of the United States is now over. It had to hurt. But apparently Kerry felt it would hurt the country more if he didn't.
So he did. He called it quits, after race exit polls only 24 hours earlier had told him he had won handily. That had to make it doubly tough, because it's very tough when you don't get something you really want, maybe thought you really had.
I remember talking to a friend many years ago who thought he had the inside track on the chief executive job at his company. He had practically measured for drapes in his new office. But he never got those drapes, or that office, or that job. But he graciously congratulated the guy who did.
My friend never got another shot at CEO, but he got a shot at something a little more enduring: Redemption.
Whatever your political differences, say this: John Kerry didn't win the nation's top job, but he did win something pretty meaningful: respect.
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