When I went to a meet-up for John Kerry several weeks ago, it wasn’t quite what I expected.

Kicked out of Barnes and Noble because no one had gotten clearance with the manager, the handful of Kerry supporters relocated to a Don Pablo’s across the street – obvious newcomers to a bandwagon that had only started rolling after the senator’s victory in the Iowa caucuses.

And after going months earlier to the well-oiled meet-ups for Howard Dean – where a video message would awe the crowd with Dean’s vision of the future, hundreds of letters were written to undecided voters and activists could rattle off the doctor’s stance on every issue – this gathering seemed haphazard at best.

One man had compiled a very primitive stat sheet comparing candidates, but as he passed copies around the table, questions about it went unanswered. Responses of the “facilitators” to other inquiries of the 30-odd white suburbanites were vague and accompanied by dull classifiers. Kerry seemed to have a good voting record. He would probably be the best man to oust George W. Bush.

Nonetheless, most who sat sipping drinks and chatting quietly over appetizers were emphatic about their support for the Massachusetts senator. Like the thousands surprised by his strong Iowa showing, the group seemed to be taken by the overwhelming sensation sweeping the democratic nation that Kerry may be able to beat the man in the White House who until recently had looked unbeatable.

This sensation is not the emotional inspiration which accompanied Dean’s early ascension, but a more stoic realization that a man has emerged who seems to know what he’s doing and who people across the country could see themselves – and others – getting behind.

The polls popping up on CNN and other news stations hounding the primaries show this “I-could-get-behind-him-because- others-might” factor being more important than even the economy and the situation in Iraq. The Detroit Free Press endorsed Kerry because of this quality: “Democrats have one overriding concern as they choose their candidate for president this year: Can he win? Crass as it seems, party members will have to consider electability as much as issues.”

Ah, electability … the most vague attribute a presidential candidate could ever hope for. There are reasons why a voter sees a man as having a chance at the White House – experience, leadership skills, etc. But in many ways, electability is an abstract self-fulfilling prophecy: Voters vote for a primary candidate because they think people will vote for him.

Unfortunately, unlike other more concrete attributes – John Edward’s good looks, Wesley Clark’s war service record – electability fades and ceases to drive a campaign at the exact moment it establishes one. It is only relevant in a primary election.

So what happens to Sen. Kerry’s presidential bid if he gets the nomination?

Let’s not go as far ahead as the current Time magazine, but let’s say for a second that he wins the party nomination, as his smooth sailing in the first 12 contests indicates he might do. What happens as Kerry stops insisting that he is electable and must instead start showing why?

There the pitfalls of selecting a man whose stances don’t matter as much as a collective feeling he can win would emerge. And this particular transition might surprise some voters, especially as Kerry starts nuancing his position on gay marriage and is forced to admit his Senatorial support for both the Iraqi invasion and the Patriot Act.

True, in the minds of nearly all Democrats who see this election as the most important of their lifetime (Dick Gephardt is one), Kerry’s voting record could never come close to the villainy of Bush and his wicked cohorts.

But if this election proves to be as close as many say it might, a voting record that isn’t everything many Democrats had hoped for may start complicating Kerry’s current dominance and make the road to Washington rockier than it looks right now.

John Ross is a senior in English. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].